General wolf season opened yesterday. Rifle season runs through March 15, trapping through the end of February. The North Fork still has a quota of two wolves. The Flathead Beacon has a good summary.
Category Archives: News
Next ‘Flathead Forest Friday’ meeting discusses weeds
You weed wranglers out there might be interested in the next Flathead Forest Friday get-together. Here’s the press release . . .
Everyone Invited for a Breakfast Chat on Friday, September, 20th
KALISPELL, MONT. – Nearly 30 species of invasive plants, or weeds, can be found on the Flathead National Forest. Each year forest employees strategize when and where to put its resources in the fight against these invaders. The tools used to kill the weeds are constantly changing as botanists consider everything from plant sniffing dogs to plant eating insects. Come chat with us about our efforts.
Forest Botanist Chantelle Delay and others invite you to have breakfast with us (no-host) at the Perkins Restaurant (1390 U.S. 2, Evergreen, Montana) starting at 7:00 AM on Friday, September 20, 2013.
Every other month, the Forest Service will coordinate these no-host breakfast meetings at a local restaurant with the goal of sharing good food, great company, and a little information about what’s happening on our National Forest. We hope the event will be a great way to discuss public land management opportunities and challenges that are important to us all.
If you plan to attend or have any questions, please notify Public Affairs Officer Wade Muehlhof at ewmuehlhof@fs.fed.us or (406) 758-5252. Your response allows us to plan accordingly with the restaurant.
Blackfeet musician Jack Gladstone invites oil company exec to Rocky Mountain Front
Our colleagues on the Rocky Mountain Front are having a problem with Solenex, an oil outfit based in Lousiana. Solenex is suing the feds to allow oil exploration in the Badger-Two Medicine area. Jack Gladstone came up with a unique way to open a conversation with the company . . .
Blackfeet musician Jack Gladstone has invited a Louisiana oil executive to visit him on the reservation and discuss relinquishing his company’s oil leases south of Glacier National Park.
Gladstone wrote to Solenex Inc. manager Sidney Longwell on Aug. 30, telling him the company’s drilling plans along the Rocky Mountain Front would “violate both the sanctity of this landscape and the treaty rights” of the Pikuni-Blackfeet people…
“Sidney, my home is on the Blackfeet Reservation. I may not have all the amenities of the big city, but a pot of coffee is always on and a meal never far from the stove,” Gladstone wrote. “I invite you to visit me here, to deepen our understanding of each other’s motives and visions regarding the Badger-Two Medicine/Hall Creek wildlands.
Jeff Mow takes over at Glacier Park
Glacier National Park’s new superintendent is settling into his new job . . .
Jeff Mow has taken the reins of one of America’s most iconic national parks. The 25-year veteran of the National Park Service officially became Glacier National Park’s 22nd Superintendent on Aug. 28.
Mow, 54, was selected as Glacier’s new chief in June. Before coming to Montana, he was superintendent at Kenai Fjords National Park, a 600,000-acre preserve along the Gulf of Alaska. Since arriving in late August, Mow said he has been meeting with staff and the park’s partners.
The Missing Piece Rendezvous, Sep. 28
Headwaters Montana and Flathead Wild are hosting “The Missing Piece Rendezvous: A Festival for the Flathead” at Waterton Lakes, Canada on September 28. Their aim is to encourage the expansion of Waterton Lakes National Park. Here is the meat of the press release. (You can also read more on the Headwaters Montana web site.) . . .
Citizens of Canada and the United States, wanting peace after the horrors of World War I, embarked upon a truly unique journey when they proposed the creating the world’s first international peace park. This Peace Park, established between Waterton Lakes (Canada) and Glacier (United States) national parks in 1932 still represents a triumph of citizen action that compelled two governments to do what no nations had ever done before: establish a Peace Park as an enduring symbol of peace between their two nations. This achievement – promoted and completed by Rotary International – was further manifested when the United Nations – all the nations of the world – recognized this gift to humanity as a World Heritage Site in 1995.
Yet this milestone in the evolution of human consciousness remains incomplete. Take a look at a map of Waterton-Glacier and you will see what remains undone. There’s a Missing Piece, that part of British Columbia where the Flathead River flows south through a spectacular and biologically rich wilderness.
This part of B.C. is unmatched in North America for its variety, completeness and density of living things. It’s also a critical corridor for animals moving north and south along the Rocky Mountains – the “Backbone of the World”. The B.C. Flathead is a magical place of great wildness that was never permanently settled. As early as 1911 Kootenay Brown, the first superintendent of Waterton Park, called for Waterton to be expanded into the Flathead “to create a breeding ground in conjunction with Glacier National Park”.
With your continued help, we, the citizens of today, can Complete the Park by adding that missing piece in the Flathead to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
Headwaters Montana and our partner groups of Flathead Wild! will host Wildlife Beyond Borders: The Missing Piece Rendezvous Saturday, September 28, 2013, at the historic Waterton Lakes Opera House, starting at 4:00pm. This event is part of the annual Wildlife Weekend in Waterton.
This celebration will be MC-ed by Harvey Locke, a long-time champion of this effort, and joined by renowned conservationists Charlie Russell, Sid Marty, Cristina Eisenberg and the team members of Flathead Wild!
While in Waterton be sure to also visit the Waterton Heritage Center for The Flathead: The Missing Piece Art Show. This exhibit includes paintings and artworks by artists specifically commissioned to interpret the significance of the Flathead Valley.
We are honored to help host this exhibit throughout the latter part of September. The exhibit will be formally opened by Harvey Locke on Saturday, September 28 at 4:00 pm, with artist in attendance.
Third forest plan revision field trip scheduled for Sep. 12
In the midst of everything else they do, the Flathead National Forest has started the process of revising their Forest Plan. According to the Forest Plan Revision web page, “Forest Plans provide strategic direction to guide management of forest resources and provide a framework for decision making on site-specific projects and activities.”
The last Forest Plan was established in 1986. They hope to have the new one in the bag by 2016. This time around, they are required to have better transparency and consultation with the public.
As part of this effort, they are running a series of field trips this year, open to the general public. The third trip is on September 12. Here’s the press release . . .
The Swan Lake Ranger District will host the third of four field trips to kick off the collaborative effort for forest plan revision on Thursday, September 12,2013. This trip will focus on terrestrial and aquatic habitats, threatened and endangered species, species of conservation concern, and invasive species. Each of the public field trips focus on subject matter important to the forest plan revision effort. On these field trips we ask people to provide input to help us accurately assess the current conditions we have on the forest as they pertain to the topic of the field trip. The trips will also be an opportunity to experience the distinct geographical areas that make up our ranger districts.
The Flathead National Forest is embarking on a multi-year process to update its forest plan, the document that guides how we manage your public lands. The forest plan provides direction for managing resources and activities such as recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, historic and sacred sites, vegetation and timber production. Forest plan revision is achieved in a three-phase process: assessment, revision, and monitoring. The 2012 National Forest System land management planning rule calls for an enhanced commitment to collaboration and public engagement across all three phases, including outreach to groups such as youth.
The last two trips are planned to run from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Transportation is provided for all the field trips. The trips will begin and end at the Flathead County Fairgrounds with one additional pick-up/drop-off spot on the way to the area we are visiting. The second pick-up/drop-off point for the September 12th trip will be at the Swan Lake Campground just off of Highway 83 at 9:30 AM.
- September 12 – Terrestrial and aquatic habitats, threatened and endangered species, species of conservation concern, and invasive species (Swan Lake Ranger District)
- September 26 – Inventoried roadless areas, recommended wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers (Glacier View Ranger District)
* Social science, economics, and the role and contributions of the Flathead National Forest will be a component of each of the field trips.
The information shared and the feedback received will be used to develop and finalize the assessment, determine needs for change, and to draft a proposed plan. There will be additional opportunities to engage in the collaborative process as the plan is developed over the next few years.
Please RSVP to Wade Muehlhof (ewmuehlhof@fs.fed.us or 406-758-5252) at least one day before the field trip(s) you plan to attend. Please let us know if you have any special accommodation needs. For additional details please visit the Flathead National Forest Plan Revision page on our website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/flathead/landmanagement/planning/?cid=stelprdb5422786&width=full.
World’s oldest radio-collared bear dies
The oldest radio-collared bear in the world died recently . . .
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported last week that a black bear they had been tracking since 1981 died in the wild at 39 1/2 years of age.
Bear No. 56 was found Aug. 21 in the Chippewa National Forest. She was radio-collared in July 1981 when she was seven years old. At the time, the black bear was accompanied by three female cubs. From 1981 through 1995, Bear No. 56 had eight litters of cubs and successfully raised 21 of 22 cubs to 18 months of age.
Bear No. 56 outlived all of the 360 black bears that MDNR researchers radio-collared in 1981 by 19 years.
A senator’s fight to protect the Flathead’s North Fork
North Forker Doug Chadwick has an excellent article on the National Geographic web site discussing Sen. Max Baucus’ decades-long efforts to protect the North Fork Flathead watershed and the reasons behind this work . . .
Daybreak on August 8 found me on a bank of the North Fork of the Flathead River in northwestern Montana, among the mixed tracks of deer, otters, and grizzly bears, marveling, as I have a thousand times before, at the near-magical transparency of these waters.
The bottom stones stood out as if on display under glass. Decades ago, my wife and I built a cabin nearby.
Across the river on the east bank, in Glacier National Park, the campers were stirring in their tents and the first cars were snaking up the Going to the Sun Road. But I was headed west that day, into the Whitefish Range, to see a man about the future of this valley.
Access to Coal Ridge lookout area reopens
The gate at the foot of Moran Basin Road is open again, restoring access to the trail to the old Coal Ridge lookout and points nearby. The trail should be in good shape. Earlier this year, a forest service crew cleaned it up. They also performed maintenance on the old patrol cabin.
Moran Basin Road is the second left heading westbound on Hay Creek Road. The Coal Ridge trailhead is about three miles up Moran Basin Road, just before the terminating “kelly hump.”
Update: This summer’s crew did more than just clean up the trail to Coal Ridge, they performed major renovations to the old “pray-and-scramble” trailhead, replacing it with a couple of well-designed short switchbacks. Nicely done.
Flathead Valley’s smoky haze coming from Idaho
In case you were wondering why the air looked a little murky . . .
The Flathead Valley was socked in with smoke Thursday for the first time this summer, and according to the National Weather Service most of it was drifting in from wildfires in Idaho.
“Throughout Idaho there’s a lot of smoke,” meteorologist Marty Whitmore said Thursday morning. “We were in a westerly [wind] flow earlier this week, but now we are in much more of a southwesterly flow.”
There are five fires in Idaho that have exceed 10,000 acres, including the 108,094-acre Beaver Creek Fire and the 131,258-acre Elk Complex.