North Fork bears are on the move as they work on getting fattened up prior to hibernation. As a post in today’s NFNews points out, more movement means more bear sightings.
Category Archives: News
Coal Ridge patrol cabin-lookout gets more renovation work
It seems the Coal Ridge “patrol cabin” was actually the original lookout up there. Anyways, it got new siding last week to go with the roof that was installed a couple of years ago . . .
An historic lookout up the North Fork on Coal Ridge received some badly needed care last week as Forest Service crews installed new siding on the weather-beaten building.
The Coal Ridge Lookout, which has sat atop the Whitefish Range since 1928, doesn’t resemble a lookout — the current map actually calls it a cabin. It has small windows, and the Osborne Fire Finder used to pinpoint fire starts was mounted on a metal pole outside of the building.
But it was a definitely a fire lookout, Flathead National Forest lookout Leif Haugen said.
For more information on this project, go to http://www.nwmt-ffla.org/#!2014-projects/c1nlq and scroll down to the “Moran Patrol Cabin” section.
Glacier Park announces fish conservation projects in the North Fork
Glacier Park announced yesterday a number of fish conservation projects in the North Fork. These include a fish passage barrier to be constructed to protect Akokala Lake and lake trout suppression work at Quartz and Logging Lakes.
Here are the relevant press releases:
Fish Passage Barrier to be Constructed
Bull Trout Conservation Project Approved
Judge denies quick fix to Wyoming wolf management plan
As expected, the federal judge who invalidated Wyoming’s wolf management plan won’t allow it to go back in force with just a few minor tweaks . . .
A federal judge on Tuesday denied requests from the state of Wyoming, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and pro-hunting groups to change last week’s decision that reinstated federal protections for wolves in the state.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., leaves Wyoming and the Fish and Wildlife Service with the choice of either appealing or to developing a revised management plan. The planning process can take years and require more public comment, during which time Wyoming wolves would remain protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Flathead Forest conducting recreational usage survey
The Flathead National Forest is conducting a recreational usage survey over the next year . . .
You may see more Forest Service and contract employees working in developed and dispersed recreation sites and along Forest Service roads on the Flathead National Forest. They will be wearing bright orange vests and be near a sign that says “Traffic Survey Ahead”. These folks may be out in all kinds of adverse weather conditions. The surveyors are waiting to talk to you, so please pull over for an interview. These well trained interviewers want to know about your visit to the national forest. All information you give is confidential and the survey is voluntary.
This on-going national forest survey has already been conducted once on every National Forest in the country. We are now returning five years later to update the information previously gathered as well as to look at recreation trends over time…
State asks judge to reconsider Wyoming wolf ruling
A federal judge kicked Wyoming’s wolf management plan to the curb a few days ago. After making a few legal tweaks to the plan, the state is asking her to reconsider . . .
Conservation groups are urging a federal judge not to allow the state of Wyoming to regain control of wolves.
The groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012. They’re challenging the agency’s acceptance of Wyoming’s wolf management plan, which classifies wolves as predators that can be shot on sight in most areas.
Longtime Montana FWP filmmaker has dream job
For 37 years, Mike Gurnett has been paid to do something lots of folks would do for free . . .
The question longtime Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks filmmaker Mike Gurnett gets asked perhaps most frequently is: “Wait, you get paid to do this?”
“It reminds me that this is a good gig I’ve got going,” Gurnett said. “I figure that every month I take the trip of a year for somebody.”
In his 37 years making documentary films and short videos for FWP, Gurnett has spanned the state, filming in some of the most beautiful locations Montana has to offer. One week he may be filming biologists collaring grizzly bears. The next, it could be elk rutting in the Missouri River Breaks or sage grouse dancing on the prairie.
Young female griz to be released up Whale Creek
The North Fork News has a report from Tim Manley of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks that they will be releasing a young female grizzly into the upper Whale Creek drainage.
Judge places Wyoming wolves back under federal control
The saga of Wyoming wolf management continues . . .
Wyoming wolves are back under federal projection after a ruling Tuesday by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday rejected a Wyoming wolf-management plan that had declared wolves unprotected predators that could be shot on sight in most of the state. Her ruling sided with national environmental groups that had argued Wyoming’s management plan afforded insufficient protection for wolves…
Berman ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to trust nonbinding promises from the state of Wyoming to maintain at least 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs, outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Tribes from U.S. and Canada sign bison treaty
This probably should be getting more news coverage than it is currently receiving . . .
Native tribes from the U.S. and Canada signed a treaty Tuesday establishing an inter-tribal alliance to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions of the animals once roamed.
Leaders of 11 tribes from Montana and Alberta signed the pact during a daylong ceremony on Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation, organizers said.
It marks the first treaty among the tribes and First Nations since a series of agreements governing hunting rights in the 1800s. That was when their ancestors still roamed the border region hunting bison, also called buffalo.