Category Archives: Environmental Issues

North Fork – one more step forward

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

The Missoula Independent gave the North Fork Watershed Protection Act some attention this week . . .

Earlier this month, the U.S. House passed the North Fork Watershed Protection Act in what conservationists hailed as a critical step for wildlife and clean water in northwest Montana. That approval, secured by Rep. Steve Daines, marks the most significant advancement yet in a fight former Sen. Max Baucus waged over four decades in Congress.

The moment itself passed quickly, in a manner typically used to approve small, non-controversial bills. The measure’s speedy passage on the House floor was attributed to the widespread bipartisan support it has gained over time. Proponents now include county commissions, city officials, chambers of commerce, sporting groups and business leaders across western Montana. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America and ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy have backed the bill as well.

Read more . . .

Cabinet Mountains moose population study continues

Environmental Issues, News,

The decline in the Moose population is causing concern and triggering a series of studies in manyparts of the country, including an ongoing effort in the Cabinets . . .

State wildlife researchers darted and captured seven cow moose in the eastern stretch of the Cabinet Mountains south of Libby this week and fitted them with radio collars as part of an ongoing research project.

According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Research Technician Jesse Newby, biologists are looking at disease load and other measures of the animals’ health, reproductive rates, and calf survival for the collared moose. This brings the total to 16 moose that are radio-collared in the East Cabinets area.

Hunters in the East Cabinets consistently harvest 15-25 moose annually, and concerns about shrinking moose populations have led to a study on disease, parasites, predation, lack of logging, and poor habitat.

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New FWP rules allow landowners to kill wolves

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Landowners can now kill wolves without a license under certain circumstances . . .

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted new administrative rules for killing wolves that pose a threat to landowners’ safety on Thursday.

The rule change stemmed from a bill the Legislature passed in the 2013 session allowing landowners to kill wolves without first getting a license if they threaten human safety, livestock or dogs. But it also gave the agency a chance to clear up some confusing parts of the state administrative law book, according to FWP wildlife management section chief Quentin Kujala.

“It’s not the easiest thing to read,” Kujala said. “We took more than 1,300 public comments on this.”

The new rules also change the definition of a breeding pair of wolves – a crucial part of the federal oversight of sustainable wolf populations…

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Montana’s hibernating bears soon up and about

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It’s that time of year again when hungry bears start to emerge from hibernation . . .

Montana’s hibernating black bears and grizzly bears will soon be stirring.

Adult males usually emerge first from winter dens in mid-March. When bears emerge from their dens they are physically depleted and food is a priority.

Bears are often tempted to go where raccoons and domestic dogs are getting into garbage. If these animals are already causing problems near-by, consider it an early warning that food attractants are available and need to be removed.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ bear experts stress that conflict prevention steps can greatly reduce the chances of attracting black bears and grizzly bears.

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Debo Powers: Keep North Fork skies and water clear

Commentary, Environmental Issues,

Debo Powers has a letter to the editor supporting the North Fork Watershed Protection Act in this weeks’ Hungry Horse News . . .

My home is the North Fork of the Flathead. I have spent many nights staring up at the stars and northern lights, far from the lights of town.

I still enjoy seeing the faces of people who are visiting the North Fork for the first time. They always seem overjoyed to discover a place that is so wild, so natural and so beautiful in this day and age.

For years, the idea of a Canadian coal mine has loomed just upstream. It took decades of neighbor-to-neighbor diplomacy to convince the Canadians to back off this idea, for the sake of the Flathead River, Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake.

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North Fork Watershed Protection Act would not terminate existing leases

Environmental Issues, News,

Over at the Hungry Horse News, Chris Peterson put together a good report on the remaining mineral leases in the North Fork and Middle Fork drainages . . .

The North Fork Watershed Protection Act passed the House on a voice vote last week — one step closer to becoming law — but the act doesn’t address existing leases in the drainage, some of which are right on the edge of the Great Bear Wilderness.

The act only prohibits any new energy leases in the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead River.

All told, energy companies once held about 246,000 acres of leases in the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead. Since the bill was introduced by former Montana Sen. Max Baucus a few years ago, several companies, including Conoco-Phillips, relinquished their claims.

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Crunch time begins for deer and elk

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Montana FWP talks about this critical time of the year for deer and elk populations . . .

Ladies and gentlemen, we are entering crunch time.

That time of the year when spring and winter play a tug of war, and depending on how it goes, deer and elk could be the losers.

Members of the deer family that go into winter in good shape have the energy reserves and body fat to survive those December and February subzero spells. But a long winter that continues through March and April will start to tip over the smallest and weakest.

And if we humans are not careful, we’ll cause some of the bigger animals to tip over.

Already some of our large game species could use a break. January was nice, with a handful of 50 degree days. But February plunged us back into winter, which after all is the season we’re in.

Now the real test for wildlife begins.

Read more . . .

Frank Vitale: Daines not a conservation hero

Commentary, Environmental Issues, ,

Long-time NFPA member Frank Vitale has a few things to say about Congeressman Steve Daines’ rather uneven support for conservation issues. This letter to the editor was published in this week’s Hungry Horse News and is also scheduled to appear in a number of other papers.

While I feel Congressman Steve Daines’ introduction of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2013 is a great step forward, let’s not frame him as a conservation hero. With his political ambitions it would be political suicide if he didn’t support protection of the North Fork.

But let’s look at his overall conservation track record. First of all, he has dragged his feet on supporting one of the largest and most important pieces of conservation legislation in decades: The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. Rather than getting behind this broad-based, made-in-Montana collaborative he stands to be the biggest spoiler. The Heritage Act is a plan that’s truly citizen based and represents many stakeholders. Support for its protection has been overwhelming. The Front also has some of the wildest country left in the lower 48. Under the Act most traditional uses will remain intact while protecting the most incredible landscapes and diverse ecosystems in Montana.

Then, Steve Daines introduces House Bill HR1526 that would probably make even most folks in the timber industry cringe. He basically throws the collaborative process out the window. His bill would impose mandatory timber targets for the Forest Service. This takes us back to the dark ages – when collaboration was nonexistent – back to the days of the timber wars of the 1970’s and ’80’s.

So is Steve Daines a conservation hero? I hardly think so. The North Fork Watershed Protection Act – while good – is also an easy bone to throw at the conservation community.

Frank Vitale

North Fork District Ranger Scott Emmerich to retire

Environmental Issues, News, ,

This week’s Hungry Horse News has nice things to say about Glacier Park’s soon-to-retire North Fork District Ranger Scott Emmerich . . .

North Fork resident Clark Helton was a hunter and a photographer, and he loved Glacier National Park. But he wasn’t in love with some of the Park’s management decisions — biologists were radio-collaring bears and wolves — even elk and deer, and Clark was no fan of man’s intrusion into the natural world.

So whenever Helton saw the Park’s North Fork district ranger, Scott Emmerich, he’d give him an earful — often for an hour or more. It got to the point that if Emmerich saw Clark’s pickup approaching, he’d hide lest he be caught up in chat he didn’t have time for.

Then one day Emmerich decided to meet Clark on his own terms. He went to Clark’s house at Red Meadow, and the two sat and had coffee, which was unusual because Emmerich didn’t drink coffee. Over the years, the two became friends and went on hunting trips together until Helton’s death.

Emmerich continued to manage the North Fork area of the Park with an emphasis on keeping the place rustic. There are no commercial operations in the North Fork, no flush toilets, no cell phone service and no paved roads.

That’s how Emmerich likes it.

Read more . . .

U.S. Forest Service chief favors wilderness conservation

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Forest Service chief weighs in on wilderness at the “Room to Roam” Wilderness Issues Lecture Series in Missoula . . .

The U.S. Forest Service was founded on the idea of conserving the nation’s wild country, and it will continue that mission even as the opportunities to do so shrink, according to agency Chief Tom Tidwell.

“Once you use wilderness for something else, for our generation or future generations it’s gone,” Tidwell said during a lecture at the University of Montana on Tuesday. “It can shrink, but not grow.”

But Tidwell said we need blank spaces on the map to, as conservationist Wallace Stegner put it, preserve the challenge against which we as a people were formed. Those places defined by the Wilderness Act of 1964 serve as both places of human refreshment and ecological reserve in a landscape that’s getting ever more crowded.

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