The Missoulian, in the person of Michael Jamison (of course), has more detail on the closure of this season’s wolf hunt on the North Fork . . .
When a hunter pulled the trigger Monday morning with a wolf in his crosshairs, the bullet killed the big-game season on canis lupus for the region west of Glacier National Park.
That area came with a quota of just two wolves, which now has been met. In addition, three more wolves in that area are known to have been killed by poachers in recent weeks.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced the results of its annual Bull Trout redd (spawning bed) survey last week. The redd count was down in most areas this year. The North Fork did pretty well, though, with the exception of Coal Creek where no redds were discovered.
KPAX has an overview. The Daily Inter Lake posted some additional details.
That’s it for wolf hunting on the North Fork this year. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks announced it is closing the hunt officially a half-hour past sunset tomorrow, November 10th, after the shooting of the allowed two wolves in the “North Fork Sub-unit.” An AP article posted to the Flathead Beacon has some additional background.
The October 25th Missoulian had a fascinating article — with photos — on Cristina Eisenberg’s study of the surprisingly broad impact wolves have on the general forest ecosystem. Thanks to Oliver Meister for pointing this one out . . .
A clinging mist quieted the morning meadow, the icy hem of its robes brushing silent against autumn’s crackling knee-high grass.
In the darkest shadows, the cold crunch of snow remained, criss-crossed with wolf tracks, bear tracks, elk and deer tracks. Scat and bone and hair and hide. These were the morning news reports written in muddied prints, each with a thin film of ice.
Cristina Eisenberg scanned the headlines, then waded into the meadow to read the particulars.
“It’s all here,” the researcher said. “You just have to know the language.”
Today’s online edition of the Missoulian has an article explaining why the recent wolf poaching incidents on the North Fork did not affect the local wolf hunt quota . . .
When a Columbia Falls man pleaded guilty last week to poaching two wolves just outside Glacier National Park, many thought the area’s wolf-hunting quota would be adjusted accordingly.
They were wrong.
“Looking at Idaho might have been somewhat constructive,” said Louisa Wilcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They had a poaching incident there, and they cut the quota in response.”
But state wildlife officials say Montana and Idaho came at their quota counts in different ways, and in Montana those poached wolves already were considered dead, long before they were killed.
This article from today’s Hungry Horse News offers a little more information about the October 9th wolf poaching incident near Whale Creek . . .
A Columbia Falls man has pleaded guilty to poaching two wolves near Whale Creek up the North Fork.
Randy Houk, whose age wasn’t released, paid fines totaling $1,135.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information on the shooting death of a wolf found Oct. 25 in the Red Meadow drainage of the North Fork Flathead.
From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Federal officials did a good job of balancing road work and grizzly bears in the Flathead National Forest, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“It’s a very significant victory for us,” Flathead forest planning staff officer Rob Carlin said Wednesday. “It supports us in the direction we’ve been taking at the Flathead.”
The court combined two cases involving road removal in areas burned in the 2003 wildfires. One was in the Roberts/Wedge fire along the North Fork of the Flathead River, and the other was along the west side of Hungry Horse Reservoir. Both areas have large grizzly bear populations and are covered by special forest plan rules for how many miles of road are allowed in grizzly habitat.
From yesterday’s Flathead Beacon . . .
Wildlife officials say a Columbia Falls man has been cited for killing two wolves during a closed season in northwestern Montana.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say the wolves were shot and left along Whale Creek Road in the North Fork Flathead drainage on Oct. 9.
From yesterday’s Flathead Beacon . . .
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says fellow Montana Sen. Max Baucus has co-signed a proposal to both add more wilderness and require more logging on federal land.
Tester made the announcement Monday during a public meeting in Missoula meant to answer questions about the “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.”
From the Wednesday, October 14, 2009 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .
There’s a renewed push for wilderness in the North Fork. Headwaters Montana, a relatively new conservation group has released a plan for land conservation on both sides of the border.
Tucked in that plan is a call for 140,000 acres of designated wilderness in the Thompson-Seton and Mount Hefty areas.
But the plan doesn’t end there. It includes a wilderness designation for Glacier’s backcountry, expansion of Waterton Lakes National Park to the Canadian Flathead and wildlife management zones west of the Waterton expansion.