From today’s Missoulian . . .
Federal and state wildland fire agencies will rescind Stage I fire restrictions on Wednesday throughout much of western Montana.
Included in the order are Flathead, Lake, Mineral, Sanders, Missoula, Powell, Ravalli, Granite, Deer Lodge and Silver Bow counties.
Restrictions will remain in effect on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
There’s no explicit North Fork connection, here, but North Forkers tend to be grizzly aficionados and this is a good griz story . . .
Could it be webbed claws? Or maybe an ancient connection to a Labrador bloodline?
In any case, a young grizzly bear has demonstrated Olympian swimming skills on Flathead Lake, proved with GPS data from a satellite collar that was recovered Monday near the town of Swan Lake…
Mace calculated that the bear traveled 1,200 miles on land and water while she was wearing the collar from June 2010 to September 2011…
Newly available in digital form . . .
“The North Fork: Living with Wildlife” is a joint NFLA/NFPA publication that outlines recommendations on how to live responsibly in wildlife habitat and suggests specific ways to minimize the chances of conflict with such animals as grizzly bears, black bears, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, deer, elk and moose. This is an excellent brochure for new and current landowners alike. It also includes some wonderful illustrations by Diane Boyd.
This brochure is available at the NFLA web site or you can download it right here (PDF format). It also has a permanent home in our archives. Please feel free to reproduce and distribute as often as you like.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
With the early rifle season in wilderness areas opening today, the Spotted Bear Ranger District is urging backcountry hunters to be aware of multiple trail closures caused by ongoing wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
And Forest Service officials advise there could be more trail closures with future fire growth. The National Weather Service is forecasting increased westerly winds, especially in higher terrain across Northwest Montana starting later today and continuing into Friday.
In his column this week, Larry Wilson discusses the fire season and getting ready for colder weather . . .
A few weeks ago, I wrote that it looked like there would not be much of a fire season on the North Fork. Like all politicians and most columnists, I did add a disclaimer – unless we have unusually dry weather. So far I am sticking with my original opinion. No big fire season on the North Fork in 2011. However, I’m going to expand on my disclaimer.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Several wildfires touched off by lightning Sept. 8 made galloping runs over the weekend along the Continental Divide, most of them in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Larry Wilson’s column this week discusses the recently-formed NFLA History Committee, tasked with preserving the history of the North Fork . . .
The North Fork Landowners Association has established a history committee, and their current project is to do oral interviews with North Fork old timers. It’s too bad the project cannot include original homesteaders of the area, all of whom have now passed over the Great Divide. Good thing is that today’s old timers knew the homesteaders.
That knowledge, coupled with the written interviews of homesteaders done by the Forest Service, Park Service and Hungry Horse editor Mel Ruder, should make a more complete picture of North Fork history from homestead days up to the 1960s.
From the Hungry Horse News , , ,
A fire on the south side of Big Mountain and another in Marion drove home the point of the Flathead County Commissioners in imposing Stage 1 fire restrictions on private property in Flathead County…
As fire crews battled the two fires – both likely human-caused – and facing persistent hot and dry conditions that continued to fuel fires, the Flathead County Commissioners approved Stage 1 fire restrictions on Sept. 6.
The restrictions ban fireworks, require that campfires have a fire ring no larger than three feet in diameter and limits smoking to buildings, vehicles or areas that are cleared of vegetation…
From the Flathead Beacon . . .
Grizzly Bear Management Specialist Tim Manley has been busy.
In the past two weeks Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks captured five grizzly bears in the north end of the Flathead Valley.
This very interesting, if lengthy, article is not nearly as silly as it sounds. Turns out the rising interest in hobby farming is triggering some pretty serious bear conflicts. Bears like chicken and sweet corn just as much as humans do.
There are some great quotes here from a collection of highly irritated wildlife managers.
From today’s Missoulian . . .
More grizzly bears are keying in on unprotected chicken coops in western Montana, with increasingly deadly consequences – both for the bears and the pilfered poultry.
The rise in bear-related chicken raids is ruffling the feathers of state and federal wildlife managers who are forced to move or kill bears that receive a food reward, be it from a trash can, a fruit orchard or a bird pen. The conflicts are entirely avoidable, managers say, but it’s the responsibility of landowners to buck the disturbing trend…
“I sometimes get calls daily on chickens, whereas I used to never hear about it,” said Jamie Jonkel, FWP’s bear management specialist in Missoula. “Chickens are the new garbage. There are so many chickens on the landscape that it’s like having garbage cans with wings just tempting the bears.”