U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on Wednesday announced legislation that would add 79,000 acres of public land to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex while expanding access to snowmobilers and mountain bikers and boosting forest restoration projects with timber harvest.
The Democratic senator introduced the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act in Seeley Lake at Rich’s Montana Guest Ranch, adjacent to the 1.5 million-acre wilderness area, surrounded by outfitters and wilderness advocates.
The act would expand the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area to include Grizzly Basin and the Swan Front, the Scapegoat Wilderness Area to include the North Fork of the Blackfoot and Monture Creek, and the Mission Mountains Wilderness Areas to include the West Fork of the Clearwater.
The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project, a coalition of loggers, ranchers, outfitters, recreationists and others that formed a decade ago to find collaborative solutions for public land uses in the Seeley Lake and Ovando area, crafted the proposal that became Tester’s legislation.
It’s getting close. The final draft of the Flathead National Forest Plan will be released in June. There are actually two pieces: the final draft of the forest plan, along with the final version of the associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which includes guidance for grizzly bear management in coordination with neighboring national forests.
Here’s the official press release . . .
Flathead National Forest Plan Revision Status
Kalispell, MT-February 21, 2017 – The Flathead National Forest released the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the draft revised Land and Resource Management Plan (draft forest plan) in late May 2016. The draft EIS also includes the environmental consequences of the draft forest plan amendments to incorporate habitat-related management direction for grizzly bears for the Helena-Lewis and Clark, Kootenai, and Lolo National Forests.
The comment period ended on October 3, 2016 for the draft EIS, the draft revised forest plan and draft forest plan amendments. The120-day comment period resulted in over 33,000 comments. Comments help the Forest Service identify the range of issues to be addressed, and the significant concerns related to the draft forest plan, draft amendments, and draft EIS, and are assisting the interdisciplinary team in developing and recommending a preferred alternative.
The final EIS and draft record of decision is expected to be released in June 2017 and will be subject to a pre-decisional administrative review process; commonly referred to as the objection process. The Forest Service’s objection process provides an opportunity to have any unresolved concerns reviewed by the Forest Service prior to a final decision by the responsible official. Objections will be accepted only from those who have previously submitted substantive formal comments during an opportunity for public participation provided during the planning process, and attributed to the individual or entity providing them. Continue reading Final draft of Flathead National Forest Plan rolls out in June→
Evidence of invasive mussels at Tiber Reservoir last November triggered an extensive survey for Flathead Lake. So far, so good . . .
The Flathead Lake Biological Station reported that more than 130 water samples from 30 locations on the lake came back negative for invasive mussels, researchers said Friday.
Following the November 2016 announcement of the first detections of invasive zebra or quagga mussels, the Flathead Lake Biological Station, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Flathead Lakers immediately collected and analyzed more than 130 environmental DNA (eDNA) samples from across Flathead Lake. The results for all of the samples did not identify any traces of the aquatic invaders, the research facility’s staff announced Feb. 17. However, lack of detection does not prove that the mussels have not arrived in the Flathead system, according to a news release from the station.
In addition to being analyzed at Professor Gordon Luikart’s Montana Conservation Genetics Lab on the University of Montana campus, the samples were also sent to an independent U.S. Geological Survey lab in Wisconsin with years of experience working on zebra and quagga mussels. The Wisconsin lab’s results are also all negative for mussels, confirming the results from Luikart’s lab, researchers stated.
Cougars in Yellowstone National Park – Dan Stahler, NPS
Here’s a pretty interesting article about Yellowstone National Park’s cougar population . . .
Through DNA analysis of scat and hair, along with photographs and specially equipped GPS collars, researchers in Yellowstone National Park are acquiring new information about the Northern Region’s secretive cougars.
“Because cats aren’t seen or heard much, they’re kind of out of sight, out of mind,” said Dan Stahler, Cougar Project manager.
“We’re trying to change the dialogue and get the public to understand this is a multi-predator ecosystem,” he added. “There’s another top predator that also plays an important role here.”
In response to last year’s detection of invasive mussel larvae, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is adding a new bureau to fight aquatic invasive species.
(By the way, they are also looking for additional aquatic invasive species inspection and laboratory technicians for the upcoming season. Go here for details and interview dates.)
As part of the statewide effort to address the risks of invasive mussels, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks plans to create a new bureau to manage the prevention, detection and control of aquatic invasive species within state borders.
The Aquatic Invasive Species Bureau will be housed in FWP’s Fisheries Division, with plans to be operational beginning in March. The agency began a nationwide recruitment for a bureau supervisor this week.
“Aquatic invasive species pose an enormous risk to Montana’s waters, economy, and way of life,” said Eileen Ryce, FWP Fisheries Division Administrator. “The increasing scope and complexity of managing these threats requires a more comprehensive approach.”
Responsibilities of the Aquatic Invasive Species Bureau will encompass all aspects of AIS prevention, including early detection, rapid response, control, outreach and vector management.
In October 2016, Montana’s first-ever detection of invasive mussel larvae showed up in Tiber Reservoir – and “suspect” detections turned up in Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the Missouri River below Toston Dam, and the Milk River. The discovery triggered a natural resource emergency in Montana and led to several recommend strategies to manage the threat of invasive mussels spreading to other areas.
In January, Montana’s Joint Mussel Response Implementation Team leaders presented a series of recommendations to the Montana Legislature to address prevention, detection and control efforts, including the creation of an AIS management bureau within FWP. Other recommendations included additional mandatory Montana watercraft inspection stations; deployment of watercraft decontamination stations at Tiber and Canyon Ferry reservoirs; and doubling sample collection to more than 1,500 taken from more than 200 waterbodies, all of which will fall under the management of the new bureau chief.
The AIS bureau chief will be responsible for the rapid response to AIS detections, which will often require coordination among multiple agencies, partners, and stakeholders, while mobilizing and redirecting resources to address threats. The Incident Command System, used in Montana under Gov. Steve Bullock’s natural resource emergency executive order last November, will become a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of emergency responses for specific AIS detections in the future.
Information on the AIS bureau chief position is available online at: Bureau Chief – https://mtstatejobs.taleo.net/careersection/200/jobdetail.ftl?job=17140292. Applications are due Feb. 28.
The Joint Mussel Response Implementation Team includes staff members from FWP, DNRC and other agencies. It is tasked with carrying out recommendation to further minimize the risk of spreading mussels to other Montana waters.
All boaters and anglers are urged take year-round precautions and to Clean, Drain and Dry their equipment after each use. For more information visit musselresponse.mt.gov or Montana Mussel Response on Facebook.
In Yellowstone National Park, hungry wolves wait to access their elk kill as grizzly bears feast on the spoils – Daniel Stahler, NPS
Science is at its best when it produces unexpected results . . .
Research that compared Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear and wolf interactions with those same animals in Sweden has produced a surprising finding: brown bear presence in both ecosystems reduces the wolf kill rate.
“It’s a baffling finding,” said Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s wolf biologist. “To be honest, for 20 years I’ve been saying bears increase wolf kill rates because bears steal so many carcasses.”
That data from two very different ecosystems pointed to the same conclusion helped convince Yellowstone bear biologist Kerry Gunther that the research was “not just a fluke.”
Public lands rally at the Montana State Capitol on Jan. 30, 2017 – Greg Lindstrom, Flathead Beacon
Over at the Flathead Beacon, Tristan Scott has a lengthy, well-researched article on the public lands debate.
Recommended reading . . .
On Jan. 30, a lively crowd of more than 1,000 public land advocates packed the Capitol rotunda floor, lining the balconies of the statehouse in Helena while chanting, “Keep public lands in public hands,” and waving signs denouncing the sale of “Our American Heritage.”
Conrad Anker, the famous mountaineer who has summited Mount Everest three times and who lives in Bozeman, raised his chin and literally howled at the high-domed ceiling, invoking the wild heritage of Montana’s outdoors and calling on attendees to protect public land while holding their lawmakers accountable. “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children,” he said, paraphrasing Duwamish Chief Seattle.
Fly-fishing guide and Trout TV host Hilary Hutcheson, who grew up in Columbia Falls and is raising her daughters under the banner of Glacier National Park’s peak-studded boundary, said the quality of her family’s outdoor environment is critically linked to their livelihood.
Congratulations to everyone, including the Stoltze company, who worked to make this happen . . .
A $9.5 million, 7,068-acre conservation easement has been finalized for the Trumbull Creek area north of Columbia Falls, the Trust for Public Land and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Park announced Friday.
The land-use agreement for the property, owned by Stoltze Land & Lumber Co., permanently bars commercial and residential development, while allowing timber management and public recreational use to continue. Stoltze contributed to the cost of the easement by donating a portion of the land value. The majority of the $9.5 million came from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, Forest Legacy Program and Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund.
“It really has high resource values,” Trust for Public Land Northern Rockies Director Dick Dolan said in an interview. He added that the land includes grizzly bear and Canadian lynx habitat, and serves as the headwaters for bull trout spawning areas.
Montana has a plan to step up efforts to fight invasive mussels. Now, they need to get it funded . . .
The Montana Mussel Response Team has released its $10.2 million strategy to combat the threat of invasive zebra and quagga mussels and is urging the Montana Legislature to help fund the two-year plan.
The plan, called the Invasive Mussel Framework Implementation Strategy Recommendations, marks a shift from the team’s initial emergency response to the detection of mussel larvae in the state to an implementation strategy to detect, contain and control the invaders if they take hold.
Developed by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the plan recommends doubling the number of inspection stations on roads leading into the state from 17 to 34 in an effort to intercept infected watercraft before boats are launched, while adding four new decontamination stations.
Conditions in the Elk Valley, a little ways to the west, serve as a reminder of why it is so important to fight extractive industry in the transboundary Flathead watershed. . . .
Last week the Canadian government charged Teck Resources with three environmental violations after 74 fish were killed near the mining company’s treatment facility in British Columbia’s Elk Valley north of Montana, elevating concerns over contaminants entering transboundary waterways.
The fish were found dead in late 2014 and an investigation determined they died from nitrite poisoning and low dissolved oxygen levels in the water. The deaths occurred near one of Teck’s open-pit coal mines and treatment facility.
The charges followed an investigation by the company.
