Category Archives: Environmental Issues

‘Coexistence Is Possible: Humans, Wild Animals and Nature’ presentation Jan. 12

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Elke Duerr, a frequent visitor to the North Fork, is, among many other things, a filmmaker. She is showing a short video on coexistence of wolves and people at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, January 12, in the United Way conference room of the Gateway Community Center. Her press release has the details . . .

Coexistence Is Possible:  Humans, Wild Animals and Nature
A look at our relationship to wild animals and the natural world from the perspective of Unity Consciousness

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
— Mahatma Gandhi

If you talk to the animals, they will talk with you, and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them, you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear.
What one fears, one destroys.
— Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Elke Duerr is a bi-national filmmaker, conservationist, interspecies communicator and founder and director of the nonprofit Web of Life Foundation W.O.L.F.  Drawing on her experience with endangered Mexican Gray Wolves and wild American Bison, Elke will present a short video about successful coexistence between wolves and humans at our January meeting.

Elke writes that our human relationship with wild animals and wilderness has historically been one of fear and preference for domesticated animals and tamed nature. She believes that to preserve all life forms on this planet, this story has to be rewritten to one of coexistence with each other with mutual respect. All life forms have roles to play in the ecosystem.  We cannot just take out the ones we do not like, favor one over the other if we want to stay in balance.

Elke will explore with us different ways of coexisting peacefully with wild animal species, and a new story of why we all belong in the web of life. She will tell stories about how to conduct ourselves in a healthy way when we live with large wild animals as our neighbors, understanding who wild animals really are, and how old stories and myths have shaped our current relationships based on fear of them and what each one of us can contribute to change those stories.

Elke is currently editing a video project about our last endangered wild bison entitled “Bison Nation” and getting ready to publish a children’s book with teachers’ guide and curriculum concerning our successful coexistence with wolves.  She loves to present her work with endangered wolves and bison and their role in the ecosystem in public and private schools and is now scheduling presentations in the larger community.  To learn more about Elke’s work, visit weboflifefoundation.net.

Please join us at 7 pm on Monday, January 12, in the United Way conference room of the Gateway Community Center, Highway 2 West, Kalispell.

2015 Wilderness Speaker Series begins Feb. 5

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and Montana Wilderness Association are doing their wilderness speaker series again this year. Here are the essentials, as posted to the Missoulian . . .

…The series will explore topics involving the importance of wilderness for wildlife populations, recreation and the management of these lands.

The free series will be presented at the Flathead Valley Community College’s Art & Technology Building, Room 139. Lectures will be held monthly from February through April from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Here are the dates and topics:

• Feb. 5: “Wilderness Management 101” with Deb Mucklow, district ranger and Bob Marshall Complex manager.

• March 5: “The Wild is Consequential: Grizzlies, People and Sharing the Land.” Steve Primm will share stories and experiences working on grizzly and wolf recovery around Yellowstone National Park. He is founder and director of the nonprofit People and Carnivores.

• April 2: “A Walk on the Wild Side: A 200-mile Hike in the Spirit of Bob Marshall” with Chris Peterson, a reporter for the Hungry Horse News and publisher of Glacier Magazine. Last year, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Peterson partially retraced Marshall’s 288-mile hike through what is now the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

See bmwf.org or wildmontana.org for more information.

No surprises in 2014 bull trout redd counts for Northwest Montana

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

The Region 1 bull trout redd counts are in . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) Fisheries Field crews have completed the annual inventory of bull trout spawning sites in the Clark Fork, Flathead, and Kootenai drainages, which comprise northwest Montana’s FWP Region One. Experienced observers walk known spawning areas and count the number of spawning nests called redds. Female bull trout excavate a depression in the streambed where she deposits her eggs which are immediately fertilized by a male. These nests, called redds, are typically four to six feet long by three feet wide, or even larger and are easily identified when walking down the stream channel. Redd counts are indicative of the abundance levels of spawning adult bull trout each year. Redd counts are used to assess status and trends in bull trout populations in northwest Montana.

According to Region One Fisheries Program Manager Mark Deleray, there are no surprises in the 2014 bull trout redd counts for the Clark Fork, Flathead, and Kootenai drainages in Northwestern Montana.

“In FWP Region One waters, bull trout redd numbers appear stable in all basins, being very similar to 10-year averages,” says Deleray. “In each basin, this year’s count may be slightly higher or lower than last year’s, but not significantly different than recent years.” Deleray adds that his staff and cooperators put in a significant amount of field time to collect these data every year. Avista and the Bonneville Power Administration provide funding assistance…

Read more . . .

U.S. legislation protects Flathead River Valley

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act is beginning to attract notice in the Canadian press, including this piece in the Kootenay News Advertiser . . .

Recently, the U.S. Senate passed the North Fork Watershed Protection Act as part of a nationwide U.S. public lands legislative package. Canadians have awaited this particular legislation since 2010, when then-governor Brian Schweitzer and then-B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell signed the B.C.-Montana Memorandum of Understanding promising to ban mining and oil and gas development in the entire transnational Flathead watershed.

“Passing this legislation represents a truly significant accomplishment for the BC–Montana relationship, and for the health of our shared Waterton-Glacier Peace Park region. It was vitally important for the U.S. government to pass this legislation to balance similar legislation passed in BC in 2011 that banned mining and energy development in the transnational Flathead watershed,” says John Bergenske, Conservation Director of B.C. conservation group Wildsight…

Montana and B.C. had been at odds over appropriate industrial development in the Flathead watershed since 1975, when Rio Algum, Ltd. proposed a mountaintop removal coal mine just six miles north of the international border and the U.S. Glacier National Park. That initial dispute took 13 years to settle, and required the intervention of the International Joint Commission (IJC) that has authority over the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 between Canada and the U.S.

Read more . . .

The fisheries angle on Flathead protection

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

Trout Unlimited is also happy about passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act . . .

The Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has long been committed to protecting the Flathead River system, one of the last best strongholds for native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. The recent bipartisan support and passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act is a major step in the right direction. Hats off to Sens. Jon Tester and John Walsh and to Rep. Steve Daines for working together to protect the North Fork of the Flathead from future mineral and energy development.

Given recent developments with coal mining in the Elk River drainage in British Columbia, and the continued low bull trout population numbers, as evidenced by annual counts of spawning beds, or “redds” in North Fork tributaries, the passage of this act is both timely and necessary.

Read more . . .

North Fork Watershed Protection Act listed among notable events of 2014

Environmental Issues, News

The Flathead Beacon posted a summary today of the area’s most newsworthy stories of 2014, including passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act . . .

More than four decades after local conservation groups began efforts to protect the North Fork of the Flathead River from energy development, Montana’s congressional delegation inched a bill to furnish permanent protections on the pristine watershed over the finish line. The North Fork Watershed Protection Act was signed into law Dec. 19, and bans future mining and drilling on 383,267 acres of federal land in the North Fork. The bill and seven other Montana land bills were attached to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, and supporters said the rare bipartisan collaboration and tireless local support of the measure is symbolic of a strong conservation legacy in the Crown of the Continent.

Supporters hail passage of North Fork bill

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Chris Peterson of the Hungry Horse News did a nice write-up on last Friday’s meeting with Senators Tester and Walsh . . .

A lot has changed since 2006, when Glacier National Park superintendent Mick Holm traveled north to Canada to meet with British Petroleum officials who were considering coal bed methane gas development in the Flathead River drainage.

“They tried to convince us they were a green company,” Holm recalled last week. “We tried to convince them the right thing to do was to not do anything.”

That was one of many battles over the future of the North Fork of the Flathead over the past 40 years. The struggle finally came to an end on Dec. 18 as President Obama signed the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.

Read more . . .

Whitebark pine selectively bred to resist blister rust

Environmental Issues, News, ,

I’ve heard that the area around Hornet Lookout is one source of the seeds used in this project . . .

The U.S. Forest Service is growing disease-resistant whitebark pine trees to improve the chances of survival of the key high-elevation species, which blister rust is wiping out in the Northern Rockies.

“It’s just using the natural selection process and giving it a little bit of a boost,” said Tanya Murphy, a silviculturist with Great Falls-based Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Some whitebark pine trees have genetic traits that make them more resistant to disease.

Read more . . .

Group gathers in West Glacier to celebrate North Fork protection

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Last Friday, December 19, a group of folks met with Senators Tester and Walsh at the Belton Inn in West Glacier to celebrate the passage of a number of Montana lands bills, including the North Fork Watershed Protection Act. Yours truly was there, along with a fair number of other North Forkers, conservationists, business people, community leaders and federal officials. The media was out in force. I knew perhaps a third of the folks in the room.

The meeting was informal, with both politicos in blue jeans and very accessible. They even showed up ahead of time to have more time to chat with the attendees. Everyone made a point, before and after the speechifying, of thanking the senators for getting legislation through the system that was developed collaboratively here in Montana. It was all very adult and non-political. Refreshing.

There’s been a ton of attention from both the press and from a number of conservation outfits. Rather than generate a bunch of individual posts, I’m going to do a roll-up here, with links to a representative sample of the online coverage . . .

Supporters Hail Passage of North Fork Bill as Conservation Milestone (Flathead Beacon; nice photos)

North Fork preservation celebrated in West Glacier (KPAX)

Obama signs bill protecting North Fork, Rocky Mountain Front (Helena Independent Record)

Victory for the Crown of the Continent (Montanans for Healthy Rivers newsletter; also has nice Trail Creek article)

Group seeks grizzly re-introduction in Selway-Bitterroot

Environmental Issues, News,

The Center for Biological Diversity is pushing to have grizzlies re-introduced into the Selway-Bitteroot . . .

An advocacy group has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Selway-Bitterroot area of Idaho and Montana.

The Center for Biological Diversity said Thursday that it hopes to revive a stalled recovery plan for the animals that was finalized in 2000.

The group says having bears in the Selway-Bitterroot would help connect grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park with other populations of the animals in Montana and Idaho. It says the 16-million-acre area could support 300 to 600 bears.

Read more . . .