Category Archives: News

Obama administration voices concerns about Tester’s wilderness bill

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

An AP article posted in today’s Missoulian summarizes some of the concerns with Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act expressed by Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman during today’s hearings on the bill. (Sherman is the Forest Service’s boss.) This is one of those read-between-the-lines articles, not to be taken entirely at face value. Nevertheless, it has some useful information.

Here’s the lead-in . . .

The Obama administration said Thursday it has several concerns about Sen. Jon Tester’s plan to create more wilderness and mandate more logging in Montana’s national forests.

Read more . . .

Schweitzer Backs Tester’s Wilderness Bill

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

The governor says he is backing U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s plan to both create more wilderness and mandate more logging.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, submitted the testimony in advance of Thursday’s hearing on the bill in the U.S. Senate. He says it will create good jobs with more logging.

Read more . . .

New York Times posts coverage on upcoming “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” hearings

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Yesterday’s New York Times carried coverage, with a minimum of snark, on Senator Jon Tester’s proposed “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” bill. The article includes a pretty good discussion of the issues likely to be covered during the upcoming hearings on the bill, which are scheduled for this Thursday.

Trying to satisfy everyone from wilderness advocates to timber companies, Sen. Jon Tester has proposed a new model for managing national forests.

The Democrat’s controversial proposal, which he has dubbed the “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” to emphasize its economic aspects rather than its wilderness components, would guide how federal agencies manage large swaths of land in his home state of Montana.

Read the entire article . . .

Senators ask Clinton for help to stop gold exploration in North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

This story posted to last Friday’s Great Falls Tribune has some additional information on potential gold mining activity in the Canadian Flathead . . .

U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester on Thursday urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to help them stop continued gold exploration north of Glacier National Park in Canada.

The Montana Democrats urged Clinton to engage Canada in bilateral talks, with the focus on conducting an environmental assessment of the mining activities before they continue.

Read the entire article . . .

Montana says wolf hunt worked, but lawsuit looms

Environmental Issues, News, ,

From an AP article posted to today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

An examination of Montana’s first public gray wolf hunt showed at least nine of the animals were killed in an area prone to livestock attacks — a finding that could blunt criticism that the hunt was ineffective.

Confident state wildlife officials said they could increase the quota on the predators next year. They want to zero in on a number that would strike a balance between protecting the wolf population and curbing attacks on livestock and big game herds.

Read the entire article . . .

Significant gold find in Canadian Flathead, just north of Glacier Park

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Yet another potential threat to the Transboundary Flathead: The Missoulian reports that significant gold deposits have been discovered at the Crowsnest field in the Canadian Flathead, about 10 miles north of the border . . .

A Canadian mining company, digging for gold just north of Glacier National Park, has discovered a significant deposit, and that has Montana interests worried about upstream development.

Max Resource Corp. spent much of last summer drilling sample holes about 10 miles north of the Montana border, on a ridge clearly visible from Glacier Park. The company recently announced that at least some of those samples are rich in gold…

Read the entire article . . .

Conservation photographers create exhibit highlighting threats to Flathead Valley

Environmental Issues, News, Photos & Images, , , ,

From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a group of conservation photographers is giving the Flathead an ample voice as an exhibit on the values of and threats to the valley heads to Washington D.C.

Read the entire story . . .

State FWP insists wolves recovered enough to be delisted

Environmental Issues, News, ,

From today’s Missoulian . . .

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks claims wolves are recovered sufficiently to be delisted from the federal Endangered Species Act.

“The delisting of this population in Montana is a well-deserved victory for the ESA,” attorneys for FWP wrote in a brief filed in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year by conservation groups looking to overturn the delisting. “The delisting accomplished two fundamental goals of the ESA, to recover a species and transfer the care of the wolf from federal oversight to state management.”

Read the entire article . . .