Category Archives: News

Resolution of Polebridge area arson case still pending

The resolution of Kent Johnson’s arson case is still pending . . .

The case of the Polebridge man charged with setting fire to a neighbor’s yurt and outhouse in September 2010 is still pending in Flathead County District Court.

Kent Johnson initially faced a felony arson charge, with a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $50,000 fine, and a misdemeanor assault charge, with a maximum sentence of six months and a $500 fine . . .

According to a plea agreement worked out with the county attorney’s office last year, Johnson would receive a two-year deferred sentence for the felony and misdemeanor charges if he agreed to sell his house and land in Polebridge and move out of Montana within six months of the plea agreement being granted by a judge . . .

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County road dust control program returns

It’s time again to sign up for the county road dust control cost-share program . . .

Once again, residents living on unpaved county roads will have a chance to participate in a cost-share program to control dust from passing vehicles.

Letters were recently sent out to residents who participated in the program over the past three years to see if they want to participate again. Newcomers seeking information on the program can call the county road department at 758-5790 or visit online at http://flathead.mt.gov/roads_bridges. Deadline to sign up is March 16.

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Public forum on ecological value of Waterton-Glacier Park to be held March 12

(Text and images shamelessly stolen from the latest Headwaters Montana newsletter. . .)

Leading Scientists to Talk about Griz,
Critters with Teeth, and Wet-and-Wild River Things

 ~ Please Join Us for an Informative Evening ~

_____________________________________________

When: Monday, March 12, 2012, 7-9pm
Where: Grouse Mountain Lodge, 2 Fairway Dr., Whitefish
Cost: $10 suggested donation
Cash Bar / Seating Limited ~ come early!

____________________________________________

Headwaters Montana is co-sponsoring an important science forum on the ecological value of Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park and the importance of completing Waterton Park by expanding the park into British Columbia.

Three leading researchers will make presentation on transboundary grizzly bear populations, aquatics, fisheries, ungulates and predator wildlife species.

The three researchers will focus on recent scientific discoveries and insights made in the vicinity of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

  • Dr. Richard Hauer is director of the recently formed Montana Institute on Ecosystems of the University of Montana, will speak about the biological richness of the transboundary Flathead River (aka the North Fork Flathead River), and make the case that the Flathead River system is one of the most ecologically intact rivers in the Lower 48.
  • Dr. Michael Proctor is the Principal Investigator for the Trans-Border Grizzly Bear Project based in British Columbia.  Dr. Proctor recently published a ground-breaking study published in the Wildlife Monographs that documents the challenges facing grizzly bears in the transboundary region of the Rocky Mountains between Montana and British Columbia.

Headwaters Montana is co-sponsoring the event with Wildsight, National Parks Conservation Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and Sierra Club BC.

Recent study shows beetle-killed pine needles burn 3 times faster than live needles

That beetle-killed trees burn faster than live ones seems rather obvious, but it’s good that someone has come up with some hard numbers . . .

A recently study should put to rest the notion that green lodgepole pine needles burn as fast as red ones.

But more than that, Matt Jolly said, the study could help open firefighters’ eyes to the dangers lurking in mountain pine beetle-infested forests where the trees still look to be alive and doing well.

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Extended Montana wolf hunting season ends with 163 killed

The wolf hunting season wrapped up with about 74% of the quota taken . . .

Hunters in Montana have shot about 160 wolves as the season comes to a close, falling short of the state’s 220-animal quota.

State wildlife commissioners are considering extending the season in the Bitterroot Valley near the Idaho border in response to complaints about declining elk numbers.

But for most of Montana the season ends after sunset Wednesday. The 163 wolves killed through Tuesday equals almost 75 percent of the statewide quota.

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Montana wolf hunt will fall well short of quota

It looks like Montana’s wolf hunt will finish up on February 15 at just over 70% of the original quota . . .

Unless the wolf hunt picks up substantially over the next few days, it appears Montana will fall well short of its statewide quota when the extended season closes Wednesday, Feb. 15.

So far, 156 wolves have been harvested, just over 70 percent of the 220-animal quota. In Northwest Montana’s Region One, 61 wolves have been harvested in six wolf hunting districts with a total quota of 73.

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Tea Party group proposes change in Forest Jobs and Recreation Act

From today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .

The Northwest Montana Patriots Association, one of more than a dozen Tea Party groups in the state, is weighing in on the Montana wilderness issue with Sen. Jon Tester.

The group is doing it with an unusual states’ rights suggestion to turn over management authority of some federal lands to the state as other federal lands are designated as wilderness under Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.

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Snowpack close to average in most of Western Montana; Flathead area a little less

Looks like snow snow accumulation is running a bit behind locally, but not in Western Montana generally . . .

The snowmen look a little shriveled, but western Montana’s 2012 snowpack has stuck close to average despite January’s wintry weather.

Readings from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bozeman show the Columbia Basin rivers of northwest Montana at 93 percent of their average precipitation. The Kootenai, Upper and Lower Clark Fork and Bitterroot are all right around 100 percent, with only the Flathead basin lagging at 86 percent of average.

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Whitefish Review call for submissions on “wildness”

Passed along by John Frederick . . .

Want to write about wildness or the wild?

Here is a request for submissions to the Whitefish Review from Christina Eisenberg, soon to be Dr. Eisenberg, who recently studied wolves in the North Fork.

This is a call for submissions on wildness for the Whitefish Review…

I am the lead editor for the Whitefish Review Summer issue. We have chosen as this issue’s theme wildness. Rick Bass will be the fiction contest judge. The Wild Issue, as it is being called, will feature short stories, poetry, nonfiction and art on the theme of wildness. All interested contributors can learn more by visiting our Website: http://www.whitefishreview.org/index.htm We are looking for submissions that celebrate and explore wildness in astonishing, inspiring ways.

The reading period is open through March 15. The launch party will be June 1, 2012, in Whitefish.

Cristina Eisenberg
PhD Candidate
Boone & Crockett Fellow
High Lonesome Ranch Research Director
Oregon State University
College of Forestry

Cristina Eisenberg has appeared here before. She contributed an article to the Summer 2009 NFPA Newsletter discussing the far-reaching and surprising effects on the ecosystem of top predators such as wolves. Later in the year, the Missoulian did a lengthy article — with photos — on the studies she did in the North Fork.

U.S. Forest Service announces plans to boost timber production, forest health work

From today’s Missoulian . . .

The U.S. Forest Service wants to speed up work on national forests, for both timber production and forest health.

“Collaboration is most effective in getting forests managed in a proper way,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a conference call on Thursday. “We want to move beyond the conflicts in the past that slowed progress down. We’re going to look to encourage environmentalists, folks in the forest industry, people who live in forest communities and other stakeholders to work for healthy forests.”

Vilsack pledged the Forest Service would boost its lumber production from 2.4 billion board feet in 2011 to 3 billion board feet by 2014. That would come through a 20 percent increase in forest acres treated over the next three years.

Those treatments also include fuels reduction, reforestation, stream restoration, road decommissioning, culvert work and prescribed fire, as well as timber harvesting.

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