Category Archives: News

Talk on bats in Glacier Park this Saturday

Environmental Issues, News, ,

This looks interesting, even if you are not exactly a bat aficionado . . .

Montana House and the Glacier National Park Fund will co-host a free and public presentation by Glacier National Park wildlife biologist Lisa Bate on “What’s So Important About Bats?” at Montana House, in Apgar Village, on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. Bate will discuss current findings of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park Bat Inventory and Monitoring Project that started in 2011. Reservations required. Call 888-5393. There will be an open house after presentation.

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Larry Wilson: Racking up the bear encounters

Commentary, News, ,

Larry talks about the start of hunting season and some recent bear encounters . . .

In my neighborhood, Trail Creek, the early snow translated to hunter success. Although I have yet to get my winter’s meat, my close neighbors have harvested two bull elk and at least four whitetail bucks.

I don’t know whether other North Fork neighborhoods have been as successful, but apparently not. I accompanied a neighbor to town with his elk last Sunday, and R.J. at the checking station said it was the first elk he’d seen, and he’d checked only two deer in the first two weekends of the hunting season. The checking station is only open on weekends, so animals taken out during the week are not recorded.

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Larry Wilson: Group meets on Flathead National Forest Plan

Commentary, News,

Larry reports on a recent meeting of folks interested in the upcoming revision of the Flathead Forest Plan . . .

Updating the Flathead National Forest Plan is almost as much of a controversy as what to do with the North Fork Road. Same thing with the passage of a Montana wilderness bill.

Apparently the Forest Service is going to try again to create a new, updated Forest Plan. According to Flathead Forest supervisor Chip Weber, the Forest is taking preliminary steps, and the process will probably gear up for action in mid-2013.

At least three environmental groups with a big interest in the Whitefish Range have decided to put together a diverse collaborative group to try and influence what happens in the Whitefish Range. The group includes North Fork residents — all three presidents of North Fork organizations plus a few others, Whitefish Mountain Resort representatives, logging interests and a couple of recreationists. Also present for the first meeting were two representatives from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The Kootenai people have strong historical ties to the upper North Fork.

After a two-hour meeting moderated by former Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown, the group decided it was worth meeting again to explore reaching some agreement that would aid the Forest in writing a new plan.

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Montana’s wolverine trapping season heads to court

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

The Flathead Beacon has an excellent article on the wolverine trapping issue, including a few words from the always-pithy Doug Chadwick. Recommended reading . . . . . .

While wolverines’ protected status under the Endangered Species Act remains in limbo, Montana’s trapping season is quickly approaching and a coalition of conservation groups is trying to stop trappers from harvesting any wolverines in the state until the species rebounds to a stable population.

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Flathead Forest Friday breakfast at the Nite Owl, Friday, Nov 16

News, ,

We got a  note today from Wade Muehlhof, Public Affairs Officer for the Flathead National Forest, announcing a “Flathead Forest Friday” breakfast at the Nite Owl in Columbia Falls on Friday, November 16. The idea is to let folks know what is going on in the district and to respond to questions and comments. It sounds like they are planning to make this a regular, every two months event. Here’s the official notice  . . .

Please help spread the word in the North Fork!

Come meet and greet the new Hungry Horse/Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies at the November Flathead Forest Friday breakfast on Friday, November 16, 2012 from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Nite Owl on Highway 2 in Columbia Falls.

In addition to Ranger Davies, Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow will be available for information and questions.  Deb will provide an overview of this summer’s work on the Spotted Bear district and the fires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, but mostly we want to hear your questions and find out what is on your mind.

The Flathead National Forest will coordinate a no-host breakfast meeting every-other month with the goal of sharing good food, great company, and a little information about what’s happening on our National Forest.

I hope you will join Rangers Davies and Mucklow for our November Flathead Forest Friday breakfast at the Nite Owl.  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 by November 14.

(By the way, I’m pretty sure “no-host breakfast” means everyone pays for their own meal.)

First anniversary of Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Our friends on the other side of the Divide, the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front, point out that we’ve just passed the first anniversary of the introduction of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. The Front is a vital link in the larger Crown of the Continent ecosystem, of which the North Fork is a part.

They suggest this would be a good time to send Senator Max Baucus a note thanking him for his efforts so far. For more information or ideas on points you may want to bring up in your email go to http://www.savethefront.org/thank_max.html.

Send emails to Senator Baucus at http://baucus.senate.gov/?p=contact.

Spawning surveys find stable bull trout population

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Here’s some good news . . .

Recently completed bull-trout spawning surveys in the North and Middle Fork Flathead river drainages indicate there is a stable population, according to state biologists.

This year’s surveys were a comprehensive, basinwide effort that focused on all of the known spawning streams in the North and Middle Fork drainages. The basinwide surveys, carried out every few years, were conducted on 31 streams, including the eight “index” streams that are surveyed every year in the North and Middle Fork drainages.

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Montana’s fire season officially ends

Fire Information and Status, News, , ,

Montana’s fire season officially ends at midnight tonight (Wednesday, October 17). Open burning will be permitted locally until the end of November. The Flathead Beacon has a write-up . . .

Montana’s fire season will officially end at midnight tonight and most restrictions will be lifted across the state, according to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

DNRC Director Mary Sexton and Forestry Division Administrator Bob Harrington signed the proclamation effectively ending the wildfire season and rescinding fire restrictions for state and private classified forest lands.

Fire restrictions will remain in some areas of the state, but open burning will be permitted in Flathead and Lake counties until Nov. 30. Burning will be shut down from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28 due to air quality regulations.

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Larger, hotter wildfires the new normal

Environmental Issues, Fire Information and Status, News, , ,

Expect more big wildfires for a while . . .

The trend toward larger, hotter wildfires in this part of the country is rapidly becoming the new normal.

In the four decades between 1960 and 1999, wildfires in the United States scorched more than 7 million acres in a single year just once. Since 2000? Eight times, with 2012 at 8.8 million acres and still climbing. The annual number of wildfires exceeding 25,000 acres in 11 Western states has quintupled since the 1970s, according to a Climate Central report released last month.

The causes, fire ecologists say, are simple enough. A century of fire suppression and traditional “pick-and-pluck” logging practices that removed the largest, most fire-resistant trees have transformed open stands of ponderosa pine into multi-tiered, lower-crowned forests of thinner-barked trees more susceptible to spruce budworm and bark beetle — and catastrophic wildfire.

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Big moms, large packs help wolf pup survival

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

This is worth a read. The Missoulian has a write-up on a recently completed study on wolf reproductive success in Yellowstone Park. The findings should be applicable to other wolf populations . . .

A wolf pup growing up in Yellowstone National Park has a better chance of surviving if it has a big mama that lives in a big pack.

Those were the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology that utilized 14 years of data collected on Yellowstone wolves.

“This is one of the few studies of large carnivores in the world to tease out what drives reproduction,” said Dan Stahler, lead author of the study and a biologist for Yellowstone’s Wolf Project team. “What’s fascinating is that, despite decades of research, we really didn’t know much about reproductive success and what are the triggers for failure.”

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