Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Suit filed over lynx habitat

Environmental Issues, News, ,

A number of conservation groups feel the feds are being too restrictive when it comes to lynx habitat designation . . .

Wildlife advocates sued the federal government Monday after it declined to designate some areas in the West as critical habitat for the imperiled Canada lynx.

WildEarth Guardians and three other groups assert that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly excluded the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado from 39,000 square miles of protected habitat for the elusive, forest-dwelling wild cat.

The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana, also say the agency left out important habitat in portions of Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

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Young ‘conflict bears’ not always chronic offenders

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Young nuisance bears aren’t especially likely to re-offend after relocation . . .

Yearling grizzly bears busted for getting into trouble and relocated are not any more likely to offend again than bears with a clean rap sheet.

“If a bear gets in trouble, it doesn’t mean it’s a chronic offender,” said Mark Haroldson, who conducted a study for the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman.

Although the research is still preliminary, Haroldson said the data came partly from information collected in the late 1970s and 1980s as bear managers sought to reverse the decline in grizzly bear populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by separating young bears from conflict mothers. The thought was that the mothers might be teaching the yearlings bad behavior.

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Eastern Shoshone oppose grizzly bear delisting, trophy hunting

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

The Eastern Shoshone Tribe took a strong stance in favor of continued protection for grizzly bears . . .

Leaders of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe said they oppose any U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list.

Shoshone Business Council members passed the measure unanimously. They also voted to ban grizzly bear trophy hunting on the Wind River Reservation…

“The Eastern Shoshone Tribe … will not permit the State of Wyoming to inflict its policies on Eastern Shoshone tribal lands,” the Eastern Shoshone Business Council wrote in a release Thursday. “The leadership on the Wind River Indian Reservation rejected proposals to permit the trophy hunting of wolves on our land when the wolf was delisted from the ESA, and we hold that same position in relation to the grizzly bear.”

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Missoulian pushes for post-election action on North Fork Watershed Protection Act

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , ,

In a post-election editorial, the Missoulian advocates action on the North Fork Watershed Protection Act . . .

…The act is aimed at placing permanent protections on the side of the Flathead watershed that falls within the United States. The Canadians have already granted such protections on their side of the border, honoring a longstanding agreement between our two countries. Unfortunately, and frustratingly, the U.S. has not held up its end of the bargain by prohibiting new oil, gas and mining activity in the North Fork.

The legislation has widespread, bipartisan support. But in today’s politically divided Congress, even the most worthy bills can be held up by partisan gridlock.

Hopefully, all three of Montana’s congressional delegates make it their first order of business to work together to get the North Fork Watershed Protection Act approved by Congress at last…

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Environmental groups will sue to protect fisher

Environmental Issues, News, ,

A lawsuit is in the works to force federal protection for the fisher . . .

A coalition of environmental groups warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it plans to sue over the agency’s decision not to protect the fisher under the Endangered Species Act.

“Fisher in Montana are being decimated by trapping and logging,” said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, one of the five groups suing the government. “While the Fish and Wildlife Service delays protection, the Northern Rockies fisher faces imminent threats to its survival.”

The groups initially asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to give the fisher protection in 2009. The agency ruled there wasn’t enough information on what kind of habitat the fur-bearing carnivore needed in the northern Rocky Mountains. The groups appealed again in September 2103, and the agency had one year to respond. That deadline was reached this September.

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Bat bio-blitz expands knowledge of region’s bats

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

This summer’s bat survey throughout the U.S. and Canadian Flathead Valley gave researchers valuable new information about the region’s bat population . . .

Given the ill perception of bats, the winged mammals might not figure prominently into the public’s catalog of critters worth protecting in Montana, but if western bat populations plummeted, as they have in other parts of North America, residents would take notice.

Millions of bats are dying across eastern North America because of a fungal disease called white nose syndrome, and the potential for dramatic ecological imbalances has researchers scrambling to learn more about the fungus.

Bat biologists in the Flathead Valley of Montana and British Columbia recently conducted a so-called “bio-blitz” of research, compiling data they will add to last year’s bat inventory in the Upper Flathead River drainage – the first formal inventory of its kind – and releasing a report called “July 2014 Bat Inventory of Flathead River Valley.”

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Oregon’s wandering wolf hard to collar

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

“OR7,” the wolf that created a stir when it wandered into Northern California a couple of years ago and then found a mate and settled down in Oregon, is back in the news again. It’s proving very difficult to get a new tracking collar on him . . .

Oregon’s wandering wolf, OR-7, has so far eluded attempts to put a new GPS tracking collar on him.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist John Stephenson tells The Oregonian (http://bit.ly/1E5QRZY) that he and another biologist backpacked into the wilds of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the southern Cascades and set out traps to catch OR-7. But neither OR-7, nor his mate, nor any of their pups stepped into one.

The biologists plan to try again after hunting season ends Nov. 7.

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Blackfoot Confederacy asks feds to halt leases in Badger-Two Medicine

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Blackfeet Confederacy has opened a new front in the battle to protect the Badger-Two Medicine region from oil and gas development . . .

In a sign of cultural and political solidarity, tribal chiefs and leaders representing the Blackfoot Confederacy convened Friday to sign a proclamation to end energy development in the sacred Badger-Two Medicine area.

The Confederacy added its voice to an unprecedented alliance of American Indian tribal nations calling on the federal government to resolve decades of wrongdoing by public land managers, and to once and for all protect the Badger-Two Medicine from private industrialization.

Tribes from Montana, Wyoming and the Canadian province of Alberta have issued joint proclamations, insisting that the U.S. Department of Interior cancel illegal oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.

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Polebridge Merc hosts “Transboundary” interpretive trail

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Will Hammerquist of the Polebridge Mercantile got together with several conservation groups to sponsor a “Transboundary” interpretive trail . . .

Several U.S. and Canadian environmental groups have carved out a new educational “Transboundary” trail up the North Fork on land owned by the Polebridge Mercantile.

The quarter-mile long stroll runs through scrub brush left from the 1988 Red Bench Fire and offers expansive views of the Livingston Range.

Several interpretive signs along the path provide information on history, geography and biology of the area, historic perspectives, threats to the ecosystem as well as triumphs, including efforts to ban coal and other mining projects in the watershed.

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Montana lawsuit seeks federal wolverine protection

Environmental Issues, News,

Another volley in the battle to obtain federal protection for wolverines . . .

Another lawsuit has been filed challenging the government’s denial of federal protections for the wolverine.

Thirteen advocacy groups and an ecologist were named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Montana.

It claims the government relied on “contorted” data when it declined protections for the species in August.

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