Reminder: As we mentioned here earlier, there is a rally at noon this Saturday, September 27, in Helena to protect access to public lands. The immediate trigger for this event is a movement within Montana to give up federal lands to state control. Such a move would mean a sharp increase in the state bureaucracy, a hefty bump in the tax burden and, more than likely, lead to much of the land being sold off to private interests to help finance the whole mess. Everyone from traditional hunting and fishing groups, to motorized recreation outfits to old-line enviros is pretty wound up about this.
Here are two useful and informative links. Both are recommended reading . . .
Ben Lamb of the Hellgate Hunters and Anglers posted an excellent call to action titled This Land is Your Land.
Earlier this month, the Billings Gazette wrote an excellent, well-reasoned editorial: Putting the rhetoric to the test. This piece includes links to supporting material.
Debo Powers sent in this report on the recent Crown of the Continent Roundtable. Thanks, Debo! . . .
On September 5-7, three NFPA board members (John Frederick, Annemarie Harrod, and Debo Powers) attended the 5th annual Crown of the Continent (CoC) Conference, which was held in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada this year. The conference began with a snow storm that covered Waterton with more than a foot of snow. When the sun appeared on Thursday morning, the surrounding mountains showed the beauty and majesty of the Crown at its best. The CoC Conference brings together a diverse group of people who live and work in the Crown on both sides of the Border to connect with each other and discuss issues facing the Crown.
One highlight was the pre-conference Tribal/First Nations Roundtable to discuss perspectives and initiatives on Tribal lands. All of the presenters and speakers were indigenous people, but observers were welcome to listen and learn.
The organizing theme of this conference was “A Balancing Act.” The conference explored how our businesses, cultures, and communities are taking forward-looking actions to balance values in the face of changing economic, demographic, political, and climatic conditions. During the conference, there were numerous presentations and discussions on a variety of topics. Another highlight of the conference was small group discussions on weeds and invasives management, watershed monitoring and management, geotourism, and forest management practices. Doug Chadwick added his insights and humor during the Thursday dinner presentation where he showed pictures from the new publication “Crown of the Continent: The Wildest Rockies.”
Another federal decision that will leave everyone grumbling . . .
Canada lynx gained federal protections in New Mexico on Thursday, but U.S. wildlife officials again declined to designate critical habitat for the elusive animal in the Southern Rockies, parts of New England and other areas considered non-essential to their survival.
The two-part finding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service means the forest-dwelling wild cat will be protected as threatened throughout the lower 48 states. Lynx that had spread to New Mexico’s San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains after being introduced in Colorado previously were not protected.
However, officials decided that potential lynx habitat in the Southern Rockies of New Mexico, Colorado and portions of Wyoming were not areas essential to conservation of the species. As a result, lynx in the region still will be protected from hunting and trapping, but there will be less stringent reviews of human activities that could affect the dense forests they need to survive…
Also left out of the 39,000 square miles of designated critical habitat were portions or all of six national forests in Idaho and Montana, and areas with lynx in northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire.
Steve Gniadek recently submitted the following letter to the Flathead Beacon . . .
The article on the proposed wolf management stamp (Beacon, Aug 20) was succinct and generally accurate. However, one important omission contributed to what I referred to in my comments at the hearing as a raging ignorance among some segments of the public. The article states correctly that “wolves were introduced back into Yellowstone National Park and the central Idaho wilderness in 1995 and 1996 . . .”. By omitting the fact that wolves naturally recolonized Northwest Montana, readers may conclude that wolves in this area are from those reintroductions. In reality, after an absence of 50 years, wolves from Canadian populations began expanding into Northwest Montana more than 30 years ago. They were not relocated here.
Right before the 2010 election I attended a forum on wolves at Flathead Valley Community College sponsored by Montanans for Multiple Use. A biologist from the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department was scheduled to appear on the panel, but was prohibited from participating due to legal wrangling over the wolf hunt. Thus, there was no one on the panel who could provide an objective view of wolf biology and management, and ignorance ran rampant. Panelists and audience members repeatedly complained that wolves were transplanted to Montana by the feds, ignoring the fact that wolves in our area came in on their own and were not transplanted. This was only one of numerous distortions bandied about at the forum.
Present at the forum were most if not all the local Republican candidates, who tried to outdo one another in their support for the misinformation dispensed by the crowd. In a democracy, we should expect our political representatives to help educate their constituents rather than reinforce ignorance and prejudice. We should expect the same from our media sources.
This short write-up on the acquisition of a conservation easement on F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber land belies a great deal of behind the scenes work over the past few years . . .
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded the state of Montana $2 million to aid in the acquisition of a conservation easement on Haskill Basin near Whitefish.
The 3,000-acre-plus property, located next to Whitefish Mountain Resort, is the source of 75 percent of Whitefish’s municipal water supply and vital habitat for grizzly bears and Canada lynx.
F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. owns the property.
Legislatures, both state and federal, have a long history of giving serious consideration to bad ideas. The latest in the list as far as Montana is concerned is the movement to demand that federal lands be turned over to state control. The states, in turn, would auction management of these lands off to private control.
Yep, that’s right. They’re talking about privatizing your public lands. Someone has been smoking that wacky terbaccy, I guess.
There are several things you can do about this.
Get hold of your local state senator and representative and explain that you really don’t like the idea of giving away to private ownership the lands where you work and recreate.
Read John Gatchell’s excellent “Public Lands in Private Hands?” article. Follow the links and instructions he provides to comment on the spurious land privatization “study” the legislature has posted for public comment. The deadline for comments is September 16.
The Montana Wilderness Association (who has really taken the point on this land privatization issue), along with a bunch of other organizations, is holding a rally in Helena on September 27, which just happens to be both National Public Lands Day and National Hunting and Fishing Day. Show up and help folks explain to our legislature that giving away our public lands to private concerns is a Really Bad Idea. For more information, see the National Public Lands Day Rally Facebook page.
The Flathead National Forest is offering a couple of open house sessions on their vegetation modeling process. This is one of the tools they use as part of their forest management and planning process . . .
The Flathead National Forest is hosting two open house sessions in August on the topic of Use of Vegetation Modeling in Forest Planning. The first open house will be on Tuesday, August 12, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 650 Wolfpack Way, Kalispell, Montana. The same material will be presented the following evening, Wednesday, August 13, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Swan Ecosystem Center in Condon.
Members of the forest plan revision team, including the silviculturist, wildlife biologist, and Regional analyst will provide information, present some preliminary outputs, and answer questions about the computer-based analytical modeling processes being used to evaluate vegetation conditions across the forest over time as it responds to various disturbances, such as fire or harvest.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is doing restoration work along the south fork of Coal Creek . . .
A fish habitat enhancement project is underway in the South Fork Coal Creek drainage, a tributary to the North Fork Flathead River that was degraded by historical land management practices, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
More than two dozen large woody structures are being incorporated into the stream channel to create spawning and rearing habitat for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has declared a temporary truce over its practice of using a hired hunter to kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Yep, that’s right: A state-sponsored wolf hunt in a big “W” wilderness area. You just can’t make this stuff up . . .
Idaho Fish and Game officials say they’re suspending a plan to use a hired hunter to kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness until at least November 2015.
Jeff Gould, wildlife bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, made the declaration in a document filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.
A coalition of wildlife advocacy groups sued the state and federal officials in federal court earlier this year, asking a judge to stop a state-hired hunter from using the U.S. Forest Service’s backcountry airstrips to reach and kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return wilderness. A federal judge rejected their request for a temporary restraining order, but state officials pulled the hunter out of the region after he killed nine wolves.
The North Fork Preservation Association annual meeting is on Saturday, July 26, featuring Canadian activist Harvey Locke speaking on “The Missing Piece of Waterton National Park.” He is a charismatic orator who thinks in large landscapes. Harvey begins his talk at 7:30 p.m. The potluck dinner starts at 5:00 p.m., followed by the business meeting. For more information call 406-888-5084.
John Frederick wrote the following article about this year’s presentation. It appears in the current NFPA newsletter . . .
The “Missing Piece” refers to the area north of us known as the Flathead of British Columbia (in Canada, the North Fork Flathead is called just the Flathead River). The region east of the river is a logical extension to the existing Waterton Lakes National Park on the other side of the Continental Divide in Alberta. The first “Missing Piece Rendezvous” was at Waterton town site last fall to a large crowd of happy people.
The second “Missing Piece Rendezvous” will be held on the porch of the North Fork Community Hall featuring Harvey Locke and Sid Marty at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 26. Both are engaging entertainers. Bring folding chairs or a blanket and bug dope, if needed.
NFPA 2014 Annual Meeting Announcement
Harvey Locke does not give up easily. This well-known Canadian activist has been trying to have the part of the Flathead of British Columbia that is above Glacier National Park added to Waterton National Park for over twenty years.
I met him 25 years ago on a Waterton-Glacier Superintendents’ Hike and remember him talking in French to a warden in Waterton Park, demonstrating to me his appealing personality (even though I didn’t know French). I marked him as someone unique although I knew nothing about him at the time.
Harvey Locke is recognized as a global leader in the conservation of wilderness and large landscapes. He is known in Canada as one of the leading conservation activists there. He thinks about large landscapes – the movement to establish wildlife corridors from Yellowstone to Yukon was his idea. Harvey has many conservation groups in place on both sides of the border to back up what he says and when he says something it has authority. His connections to powerful individuals are truly amazing. He makes things happen. Continue reading Today! The second ‘Missing Piece Rendezvous’ comes to the North Fork, July 26→
