Category Archives: News

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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Larry Wilson: North Forkers recognized

Commentary, News, , , ,

This week, Larry Wilson points out that a number of North Forkers were recently recognized for decades of dedicated effort: Duke and Noami Hoiland were named Montana Tree Farmers of the year and John Frederick, NFPA President, received a Conservation Achievement Recognition Award from the Flathead Audubon Society . . .

I think virtually every North Forker will tell you that it’s the people who live and/or recreate here that make the place so special. This week, two prestigious awards to North Forkers confirms that perception.

On Saturday, the Montana Tree Farmers met at Sondreson Hall and the organization named the Hoiland family Montana’s Tree Farmers of the Year for 2014…

The second presentation was a Conservation Achievement Recognition Award given to John Frederick by the Flathead Audubon Society. The award was given to honor John for his 35-year effort to keep the North Fork wild…

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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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Flathead National Forest Stakeholder Collaboration Final Report available

News, ,

Those of you who have labored through all or part of the public “collaborative” phase of the Flathead National Forest Plan Revision, will be glad to know that the Flathead National Forest Stakeholder Collaboration Final Report is now available. You can obtain it by going to the Meridian Institute’s “FNFplanrevision” web page and clicking on the link near the top of the page. Given the amount of time spent on the collaborative process, the document is surprising brief — a mere 44 pages.

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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Glacier Park getting on top of bull trout recovery

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Glacier Park is showing good success in recovering a depleted bull trout population . . .

Glacier National Park, historically one of the last best strongholds for native bull trout, has seen its wild populations decimated by the explosion of invasive lake trout, reducing Montana’s aquatic darling to an imperiled icon and pushing the species toward the brink of extinction.

But biologists with Glacier Park and the U.S. Geological Survey have pioneered a new effort to suppress lake trout in remote backcountry lakes and reintroduce dwindling bull trout populations, with recent results showing strong evidence of success, and indicating that the efforts could be applied to other invaded habitats and broader ranges.

“New results are promising. The park is kind of spearheading these innovative and proactive ways to save bull trout,” Clint Muhlfeld, an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), said. “It’s been so rewarding to have our science apply to on-the-ground management and leading conservation efforts in Glacier.”

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Advocacy groups sue for wolverine protections

Environmental Issues, News,

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision not to list the wolverine for federal protection due to climate model uncertainty has drawn the expected lawsuit . . .

A coalition of advocacy groups on Monday challenged the government’s denial of federal protections for the snow-loving wolverine, arguing in a lawsuit that officials disregarded evidence a warming climate will eliminate denning areas for the so-called “mountain devil.”

An estimated 250 to 300 wolverines survive in the Lower 48 states. The elusive but ferocious members of the weasel family give birth to their young in deep mountain snowfields that scientists say could be at risk of disappearing as the climate changes.

After proposing protections for the species last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in August abruptly reversed course. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe said at the time there was too much uncertainty in computer climate change models to justify protections, an issue first raised by two members of a scientific peer-review panel.

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