Category Archives: News

Senate Panel Supports Mine Study Funding

Environmental Issues, News

From the Tuesday, June 19, 2007 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .

A U.S. Senate panel Tuesday approved nearly $1.3 million for collection of environmental data in the area where a Canadian company wants to develop a coal mine, just north of Glacier National Park.

Opponents of the mine want the environmental information for a baseline against which to gauge how the Cline Mining Corp. project may affect natural resources in the Flathead River region, which spans the Montana-British Columbia border.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced the allocation by a subcommittee working on appropriations for the Interior Department. Full committee action is likely Thursday, his staff said.

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Cline Mine: What’s Next?

Environmental Issues, News

From the Wednesday, May 23, 2007 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .

With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wading into the issue, Montana has called in the big guns to combat the proposed Cline coalmine project in the headwaters of the Flathead River’s North Fork in British Columbia.

At the urging of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Rice pressed the Canadian federal government last month to invoke a more stringent environmental assessment of the proposed mine’s impacts than British Columbia’s government requires.

As of this writing, the Canadian federal government has not yet formally invoked its environmental assessment act. Until it does, the B.C. government retains authority over the mine’s permitting process.

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Park Service spares book from endangered list

News

From the Thursday, May 17, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

(This is a follow-up to our posting last Tuesday. Ben Long is a well-known environmental writer from Kalispell.)

The latest and last chapter in the story of Ben Long’s popular book has, much to the author’s surprise and delight, a very happy ending.

“It won’t be destroyed,” Long said of his book. “We’ve negotiated a solution.”

Long’s award-winning book, published in hardcover and to critical acclaim in 2000, tells the story of the Lewis and Clark trail. It’s a story of America’s natural history, of what was, of what’s been lost and of what yet remains.
But a couple years back, when his publisher printed a soft-cover edition of “Backtracking: By Foot, Canoe and Subaru Along the Lewis and Clark Trail,” the cover art was changed to include a portion of the famous Corps of Discovery image, a silhouette of the explorers pointing off into the distance.

It’s an iconic image, immediately recognizable. It’s appeared on road signs for some 40 years. And since 1999 it’s been owned and protected by the National Park Service.

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Book ordered off shelves over logo

News

From the Monday, May 14, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .

(Ben Long is a well-known environmental writer from Kalispell.)

It’s not every day the federal government orders a book off the shelves, so you can imagine Ben Long’s surprise when he learned last week his work would be pulled and pulped.

“It’s not like it’s a blockbuster or anything,” the Kalispell author said, “but it’s been good to me.”

And the pulper? The National Park Service, an agency, ironically, that Long has championed for years.

Trouble is, the latest soft-cover release of Long’s award-winning book – “Backtracking: By Foot, Canoe and Subaru Along the Lewis and Clark Trail” – features that famous silhouette image of the Corps of Discovery leaders pointing into the distance.

Despite its appearing on road signs for some 40 years now, turns out the National Park Service owns that image and has the right to reel in Long’s book.

Which is exactly what it has done.

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