Category Archives: News

Glacer Park’s glaciers ‘have paused in active retreat’

Environmental Issues, News,

After a four-year pause, the USGS expects glacial retreat to resume in Glacier Park this year . . .

Healthy snowpack and cooler summers over the past four years have slowed melting of remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park in Montana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“So the glaciers have paused in active retreat,” said Dan Fagre, a research ecologist with the USGS’ Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Bozeman who is stationed at Glacier.

But Fagre anticipates the glaciers, which are receding or disappearing, will likely resume retreating this year, if a forecast for El Nino-induced warmer temperatures comes to pass later this summer.

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Early results suggest habituated mountain goat behavior, terrain use different

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The Glacier Park mountain goat study begun last year is starting to show some results . . .

As mountain goat research prepares to continue this summer in Glacier National Park, preliminary data suggests goats that are habituated to humans display different herding behavior, and use habitat differently, than wild goats.

The three-year research study began late last summer. Glacier officials call it a critical component of the ongoing Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor management planning effort.

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As Wilderness Act turns 50, dealing with new technologies

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Here’s a thoughtful article by Rob Chaney of the Missoulian concerning new issues technology brings to wilderness management . . .

When the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, NASA was sending astronauts into space guided by an IBM 360 computer with 1 megabyte of memory. That’s enough to hold one minute of a video on today’s iPhone.

And that’s a conundrum for people like Pat Tabor. His Swan Mountain Outfitters lead paying customers into the Bob Marshall Wilderness for camping and hunting trips. That’s considered a “proper” commercial service under the special provisions clause of the Wilderness Act. But shooting a video of the experience with a smartphone for a movie about his company is not.

“Now with the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, it calls into question the viability of what we’re doing,” Tabor said. “There are immense restrictions that come into play when a place is designated wilderness. The language in the Wilderness Act speaks of commercial activity ‘to the extent necessary.’ That means commercial services. But what’s the extent of that?”

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Ultraviolet technique can help spot bat disease

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There’s hope for a new technique that will allow investigators to detect bats with white-nose syndrome . . .

A new technique to shed light (literally) on a deadly bat disease could help leave Montana cave explorers free to pursue their hobby.

Scientists working for the U.S. Geological Survey found that shining ultraviolet light on a bat’s wings can reveal if it’s exposed to a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. Infected bats glow with a distinctive orange-yellow fluorescence.

The disease kills hibernating bats and is responsible for the destruction of huge colonies in 25 states and five Canadian provinces.

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Montana FWP wants public comment on proposed wolf and sage grouse regulations

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Here’s a chance to make yourself heard regarding wolf and sage grouse management . . .

The Montana Fish & Wildlife Commission is seeking comment though June 23 on some upcoming hunting seasons and additional proposals related to sage grouse and wolves.

For sage grouse, the commission is seeking comment on a proposal that would either maintain the same 30-day season and two-bird daily bag and four bird possession limit as last season; adopt shorter seasons and reduced bag and possession limits; impose region-specific hunting opportunities or closures; or close the sage grouse hunting season statewide.

The sage grouse proposal comes in response to surveys on sage grouse breeding grounds called “leks” that show a continued population decline of the state’s largest native upland game bird. Montana’s 2004 management plan identifies a season closure when lek counts are significantly reduced from historical observations.

The commission also seeks comment on the following wolf-related proposals:

  • the 2014-15 wolf season, which includes adjustments that would close the hunting and trapping season in Wolf Management Units 313 and 316 within 12 hours of the harvests quotas there being reached. These WMUs border Yellowstone National Park. The proposal also includes reducing the harvest quota in WMU 313 from four to three wolves.
  • to offer the opportunity to trap wolves via a drawing on three western Montana wildlife management areas, including the Blackfoot-Clearwater, Fish Creek and Mount Haggin WMAs.
  • a statewide annual quota of 100 wolves taken under a new state law that provides for landowners to take wolves without a license that are a potential threat to human safety, livestock or pets.

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FWP approves rule allowing landowner take of up to 100 wolves

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The Montana FWP Commission approved a new regulation allowing landowners to kill wolves is they pose a “potential threat” . . .

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission last week approved a measure that would allow private landowners, even if they don’t hold a wolf license, to kill up to 100 wolves per year if they pose a “potential threat to human safety, livestock or domestic dogs.”

The wolf take is separate and in addition to any quota or general harvest associated with the wolf hunting and trapping season.

The commission also made few changes to the wolf season for next year, including reducing the wolf harvest in a management unit near Yellowstone National Park from the current quota of four to three.

How much impact the new regulation will have in Northwest Montana remains to be seen…

Read more . . .

Forest Service approves Bullock’s forest restoration picks

Environmental Issues, News,

As expected, the U.S. Forest Service has approved Gov. Bullock’s forest restoration proposal . . .

The Forest Service has approved Gov. Steve Bullock’s forest restoration proposal for federal lands across Montana.

Bullock recently nominated about 5 million acres of timberlands across the state, including several regions in the Flathead for more logging and other forest management under the recently passed Farm Bill.

The eligible lands are located in the Swan River watershed, the southern end of the Whitefish Range and the Tally Lake Ranger District.

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Researchers start another round of grizzly bear trapping

Environmental Issues, News,

It must be spring. Biologists have begun grizzly capture operations in Northwest Montana . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and tribal wildlife managers have begun trapping bears in Northwest Montana.

The trapping is part of a population monitoring study of grizzly bears that involves seasonal scientific capture operations in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

The study of grizzly bear distribution and population trends is vital to ongoing recovery of grizzlies, according to FWP officials.

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Grizzly makes fatal slip above Sun Road

News, ,

A fatal fall from a steep, snow covered slope claimed one of Glacier Park’s grizzly bears . . .

A dead grizzly bear was discovered along the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park on May 22, according to park officials.

At approximately 10 a.m., a member of the park road crew was traveling down the Going-to-the-Sun Road when he came upon a dead grizzly bear located on the road about one mile above The Loop.

An initial investigation by the National Park Service indicated that the bear probably fell onto the road from a steep snowbank between 9-10 a.m. on May 22, according to the park. Plow crew members had traveled up the Sun Road at approximately 9 a.m. and saw no bear.

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100-wolf quota for Montana landowners in the works

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The rules allowing Montana landowners to shoot wolves posing a “potential threat” are loosening up . . .

Montana landowners could kill a combined 100 gray wolves annually if the predators are perceived to pose a threat to humans or domestic animals, according to a rule that received initial backing from state wildlife commissioners Thursday.

The proposal significantly expands the circumstances under which wolves can be killed without a hunting license.

The Montana Legislature passed a measure last year requiring the change. The legislation didn’t define what qualifies as a “potential threat” so the Fish and Wildlife Commission didn’t detail it either, spokesman Ron Aasheim said.

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