Here’s a good write-up on Ron Wakimoto, an eminent fire researcher who has had a big impact on modern wildland fire management . . .
Some fire scientists burn down hillsides. Some burn up whole fire policies.
Ron Wakimoto has done both, developing research that helps save the lives of firefighters and helps return fire to the woods after a half-century of fighting to keep it out. Last week, he wound up more than three decades of teaching fire science at the University of Montana’s School of Forestry.
“Ron has been a leader in terms of teaching, and we wanted the students to be able to hear from an elder,” said Colin Hardy, director of the U.S. Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory, just before Wakimoto spoke to the annual Mike and Maybelle Hardy Lecture audience last Thursday. “He taught us we need to think about fire management, not just fire suppression. On the political and management side, it’s about air tankers and people on the ground and big iron – it’s a big show. But among fire managers today, Ron’s speaking to the choir.”
Montana now has a pot of money for sage grouse conservation . . .
Gov. Steve Bullock has signed into law a plan to pay for and enact Montana’s strategy to preserve a struggling bird species.
Bullock signed Senate Bill 261, the Sage Grouse Stewardship Act, during a small ceremony in his office Thursday.
The measure will provide millions of dollars for the state to conserve habitat for the chicken-sized birds. Part of the money will be used by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to hire at least five new employees to manage the program.
A very timely reminder from Debo Powers, NFPA Vice-President . . .
Dear Friends of NFPA!
Many of you know that the comment period for the Flathead Forest Plan is fast approaching! May 15 is the deadline. Letters from people who love the North Fork would be very helpful. Please take the time to write your comments today and send them to flatheadplanrevision@fs.fed.us or snail mail your comments to:
Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office
Attention: Forest Plan Revision
650 Wolfpack Way
Kalispell, MT 59901
In your comments, please be sure to mention that Nasukoin Mountain should be included in the proposed wilderness for the northern Whitefish Range.
The Forest Plan should be praised for accepting the recommendations from the Whitefish Range Partnership (that several of us from NFPA served on) concerning recommended wilderness for 80,000 acres in the northern Whitefish Range including Tuchuck, Hefty, Thoma, and Thompson-Seton. However, when the lines were drawn, Nasukoin was not included. Hopefully, this was just a mistake which will be corrected, but it is important that they hear from us about the importance of this peak which is the highest in the Whitefish Range and definitely has wilderness characteristics.
In addition, let us join our voices with members of the Montana Wilderness Association and Headwaters Montana in calling for protection of the wild country in the Swan and Mission Mountains in the Flathead Forest Plan:
Extend the Bob Marshall Wilderness north to include Bunker and Sullivan Creek – critical areas for grizzlies, elk, mountain goats and other species.
Expand the Jewel Basin and protect the wild Swan Front. Bring the boundary down to the valley floor.
Widen the Mission Mountains Wilderness! Protect the wildlife corridor of Sunset Ridge, the critical bull trout spawning beds of Elk and Hemlock creeks, and the rugged species-rich lower slopes.
Another issue to consider commenting on is to ask that “non-conforming uses” (like snowmobiling and mountain biking) not be allowed in recommended wilderness. When these activities become established in proposed wilderness, it is often difficult to exclude them later.
Debo Powers, NFPA Vice President, attended the spring Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bear management meeting yesterday. Here is her report:
I remember the old days when Chuck Jonkel held an annual Grizzly Bear Research meeting in Sondreson Hall to share grizzly bear research with North Fork landowners. We would sit on the uncomfortable wooden benches in the sweltering temperatures of a hot summer day and listen to the enthusiastic reports from young bear researchers. Those were the meetings that fanned the flames of my love for grizzly bears.
It has been many years since those meetings happened, but the memories associated with them prompted me to attend Wednesday’s meeting of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC), which was held in the conference room of the Hungry Horse Ranger Station. Rather than the animated stories of youthful researchers filled with an infectious passion for learning about grizzlies in order to save them from extinction, today’s meeting featured reports from people from various agencies and tribes who have successfully brought about grizzly bear recovery in the Crown of the Continent. It’s amazing to see how things can change in a few decades when humans work together to save a fellow species.
The packed meeting was facilitated with humor and style by Deb Mucklow, the Spotted Bear District Ranger. Numerous agencies and tribes participated in the meeting. Members of the public , representatives from various environmental groups, and reporters from Flathead Beacon, Hungry Horse News, and NF News were present in the audience.
The reports were fascinating and focused on the conservation strategies that have been used by different groups in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). Some of the topics covered were: the effectiveness of food storage orders to decrease grizzly habituation, educational resources to train humans to operate awarely in grizzly country, the use of snow rangers and fly-overs to monitor snowmobiling in grizzly habitat (especially when bears are emerging from dens), and reports from management officials, like Tim Manley, on bear conflicts this spring.
Rick Mace, who will be retiring soon, received a beautiful plaque with a huge grizzly paw for his three decades of leadership in grizzly bear conservation and management. Afterwards, he presented the results of his trend monitoring research on grizzly bear populations in the 23 management units of the NCDE. It was nice to notice that we live in one of most densely populated grizzly habitats in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Rick’s final written report will be available in a few months.
It was a day of information and sharing . . . a day well spent, despite the beautiful weather that beckoned us to be outdoors in grizzly country.
Another volley in the fight over oil drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .
A Louisiana company is asking a judge to resolve its lawsuit challenging the government’s suspension of an oil and gas lease near Montana’s Glacier National Park so the company can begin drilling this summer.
The 6,200-acre lease is on land sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada. It was suspended by the U.S. Interior Department in the 1990s along with dozens of other leases in the area.
Over the years, most of the leases were retired or surrendered, and now only 18 remain, covering more than 40,000 acres in the Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund has to be reauthorized by September. Almost everyone seems to think it’s a swell idea, but the devil is in the details . . .
An important conservation program could expire in September unless Congress passes legislation to save it.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund was the subject of a U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing last month. The hearing, which included Montana Sen. Steve Daines, comes as both the House and Senate consider passing legislation to permanently extend the fund.
The LWCF was created in 1965 and uses profits from offshore oil and gas developments to fund conservation and land acquisitions across the country. The primary goal of the fund is to protect land and ensure that it is accessible for recreation. It also offers funds to state and local governments to buy and protect land.
If you’ve an interest in the proposed conservation easements on Stoltze Lumber land in the Haskill Creek and Trumbull Creek drainages, there’s a open house next week to discuss them . . .
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will hold an open house in Columbia Falls to take preliminary public input on two proposed conservation easement projects on lands owned by the F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co.
The open house will take place at the Columbia Falls Fire Hall, 624 First Avenue West, on Tuesday, April 28, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Personnel from FWP, Stoltze and The Trust for Public Land will be on hand to discuss the proposed projects, answer questions and gather issues, concerns or ideas raised by the public, adjoining landowners, and any other interested people.
It’s time for another “Flathead Forest Friday” meeting. The next one is on Friday, May 1, at the Nite Owl Café in Columbia Falls. They’ll be talking about the Forest Plan Revision. The official press release has the details . . .
The Flathead National Forest has released for public comment the proposed action for the revision of the land and resource management plan (forest plan) as directed by the National Forest Management Act. The public is invited to learn about and discuss the forest plan revision process during the next Flathead Forest Friday on May 1, 2015 at the Nite Owl Café located at 522 9th St. West (US Hwy. 2) in Columbia Falls., Montana. The no-host breakfast chat starts at 7:00 AM.
The proposed action for the revised forest plan includes management direction to support a variety of proposed and possible actions that may occur on the plan area over the next ~15 years, or life of the plan. Concurrently, the forest is releasing an amendment to integrate the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy (“strategy”) into the forest plans for the Helena, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, and Lolo National Forests. The Flathead National Forest is incorporating the relevant portions of the strategy as part of its plan revision process.
Every other month, the Forest Service will coordinate these no-host breakfast meetings at a local restaurant with the goal of sharing good food, great company, and a little information about what’s happening on our National Forest. We hope the event will be a great way to discuss public land management opportunities and challenges that are important to us all.
If you plan to attend or have questions, please notify Public Affairs Officer Colter Pence at cfpence@fs.fed.us or (406) 758-5252. Your response allows us to plan accordingly with the restaurant.
The public is invited to participate in the upcoming spring Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) grizzly bear management meeting hosted by Flathead National Forest. The meeting is scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 6, 2015 at the Hungry Horse/Glacier View and Spotted Bear Ranger District Office located at 10 Hungry Horse Drive in Hungry Horse, Montana.
During the meeting there will be updates from NCDE members on the Draft NCDE Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, work plans for the coming year, educational tools, bear mortality rates for 2014 and bear management spring activity.
The Blackfeet kick it up another notch in their campaign to terminate oil leases in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .
The Blackfeet Nation is enlisting the help of a member of one of America’s most popular rock bands to help protect a culturally and environmentally significant plot of land on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park.
On April 22, members of the Blackfeet Nation held a press conference to kick off a campaign to rally public support to terminate 18 oil leases within the Badger-Two Medicine. The mountainous area, located between the Blackfeet Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, is an important part of the tribe’s creation story and is known as the “Backbone of the World.”
To help get the word out, the Blackfeet have enlisted the help of Jeff Ament, bass player for Pearl Jam. On Wednesday, Ament posted a message supporting the Badger-Two Medicine effort on the band’s official Facebook page.
