Category Archives: News

Grizzly bear managers anticipate hunts in Northern Rockies

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Grizzly bears have recovered in some areas to the point where some very limited hunting may be permitted in a couple of years . . .

With bear-human conflicts on the rise, wildlife managers in the Northern Rockies are laying the groundwork for trophy hunts for grizzlies in anticipation of the government lifting their threatened species status.

It’s expected to be 2014 before about 600 bears around Yellowstone National Park lose their federal protections, and possibly longer for about 1,000 bears in the region centered on Glacier National Park.

Yet already government officials say those populations have recovered to the point that limited hunting for small numbers of bears could occur after protections are lifted…

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Chas Cartwright prepares for retirement

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Chas Cartwright, Glacier Park’s current superintendent, retires the end of this year. (He’s staying in the area, though.) The Flathead Beacon has a nice write-up . . .

It takes a stretch of the imagination for a suburban boy growing up in the cityscape of Detroit to grasp the mountains and untamed nature of Glacier National Park. It requires setting foot inside the sylvan world of one of America’s most pristine places, witnessing the silver ridges and discovering some of the last natural backcountry in the Lower 48.

Chas Cartwright vividly remembers the first time he visited…

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Supreme Court to decide how logging roads are regulated

Environmental Issues, News,

The issue of how the EPA should regulate logging roads comes up before the Supreme Court this Monday . . .

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to switch gears on more than 30 years of regulating the muddy water running off logging roads into rivers.

At issue: Should the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency keep considering that muddy water the same as water running off a farm field, or start looking at it like a pipe coming out of a factory?

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Judge temporarily halts wolverine trapping

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Wolverine trapping in Montana is blocked — for now, at least . . .

The wolverine trapping season in Montana has been halted after a Helena judge approved the request by eight conservation groups and an individual.

District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock issued a temporary restraining order Friday morning that suspends the trapping, snaring or killing of wolverines in Montana until after a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for Jan. 10.

The wolverine trapping season was scheduled to begin Saturday, Dec. 1 . . .

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Transboundary Flathead still open to coal mining

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Just when you think you can put your feet up and relax. The Flathead Campaign reports that the mining ban passed by British Columbia last year protecting the Canadian Flathead from development has a loophole. There are some federal coal blocks technically unaffected by this provincial legislation. The biggest sits right at the headwaters of the whole transboundary Flathead drainage.

Here’s the lead-in. Read the full article for details, including a map of the areas affected . . .

B.C.’s Flathead River Valley is still open to mountain top removal coal mining and coalbed methane development because a federal coal block is not included in a provincial ban on energy and mining development, conservation groups warned today.

“The Flathead is not protected from open pit coal mining after all,” said Wildsight Executive Director John Bergenske. “We’re calling on the federal government to make an immediate public commitment to join the ban on Flathead mining and energy development.”

The B.C. mining ban, legislated one year ago in November 2011, has no legal effect over 6,290 hectares of federally owned Dominion Coal Blocks in the headwaters of the Flathead River Valley which are being considered for development.

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Glacier Park stonefly could be first species put on endangered list due to climate change

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Glacier Park’s meltwater stonefly is a candidate species for addition to the endangered species list . . .

An obscure aquatic insect found exclusively in the high alpine streams of Glacier National Park will remain a high-priority candidate for endangered species protection because it is at risk of extinction due to climate change, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week.

The rare stonefly, called Lednia tumana, has narrow temperature requirements and lives only in cold-water streams fed by Glacier Park’s melting glaciers and snowfields – a mountain ecosystem rapidly disappearing due to global warming. It was included on the most recent list of 192 candidate species eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, it did not receive emergency listing for protection.

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Flathead National Forest brings new avalanche site online

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This should prove useful. The Flathead National Forest just put up a new “Flathead Avalanche Center” website . . .

Hoping to increase awareness in the winter backcountry, the Flathead National Forest has reorganized its avalanche program with the launch of a new website.

The Flathead Avalanche Center (FAC) launched its site last week, www.flatheadavalanche.org. The site will provide up-to-date information about local avalanche conditions, snow pack, mountain weather and upcoming education classes and events for all types of recreationists. The center’s coverage area will include the Cabinet, Flathead, Mission, Purcell, Swan and Whitefish ranges in the Flathead and Kootenai national forests as well as sections of Glacier National Park.

The FAC is also increasing the number of weekly winter advisories from two to three. Beginning in December, advisories will be released on Saturdays as well as Tuesdays and Fridays. The advisories will include current danger levels for avalanche conditions and expected weather.

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Beargrass focus of new report

Environmental Issues, News,

Well, now. Science Daily reports that beargrass, a common sight around here, is the focus of a research report just released by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. One tidbit I didn’t know: Beargrass leaves are very popular with the commercial floral industry . . .

Beargrass is an ecologically, culturally, and economically important plant in the Western United States and, for the first time, landowners, managers, and harvesters now have a comprehensive report about the species.

The report, Natural and Cultural History of Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax), published by the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, identifies critical knowledge gaps and areas for future research. It also documents how changes in disturbance, including fire, may affect the species across its range.

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Link: Natural and cultural history of beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax)

Logging road debate headed to Supreme Court next

Environmental Issues, News,

Platoons of lawyers and all three branches of government are weighing in on this one . . .

Do logging roads create water pollution, or just carry it?

The question has triggered a case of dueling government branches and left many in the woods, both industry leaders and environmental activists, anxious to see what happens.

“It’s an on-the-ground nightmare,” said Loren Rose of Seeley Lake’s Pyramid Mountain Lumber. “It would bring a lot of things to a screeching halt.”

The federal Clean Water Act specifically says farm and ranch roads are not a “point source” of water pollution and don’t need a special permit for construction or maintenance. Forest roads never got a similar exemption. But for decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not considered logging roads a water pollution source.

That started to change last year, when an Oregon lawsuit made it to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the judges ruled the Clean Water Act should come down hard on logging roads. That case is now headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears oral arguments on Dec. 3.

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Chas Cartwright retiring as Glacier Park superintendent

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Chas Cartwright is stepping down at the end of the year . . .

The superintendent of Glacier National Park is retiring at the end of December, a park spokesperson confirmed Thursday night.

Chas Cartwright announced his plans this week to step down at the end of the year. Park officials will release further details in the near future, including who will serve as interim superintendent in Cartwright’s absence…

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