The website’s Wildfire Information Page encountered some link rot this year. We’ve fixed the worst of it.
Enjoy . . .
Akinkoka Fire getting plenty of attention
Forest Service crews and air support hit the Akinkoka Fire (the one up Moose Creek) pretty hard yesterday and have more assets scheduled today. Fire extent is on the order of 10-20 acres on steep, rugged terrain. The fire retardant dropped yesterday was still holding back the fire this morning. Ground crews and aircraft continue to work on the Akinkoka Fire as this message is posted.
No one seems as excited about the pair of small fires near the end of the Hay Creek drainage (the two are quite close together). There are people scheduled to be on that fire complex this morning.
Possible smoke was reported up the Red Meadow drainage late yesterday, but nothing was located by aircraft or ground personnel.
Area fire danger ‘high’; two fires on North Fork
Two lightening-caused fires kindled on the North Fork today, July 30. One up the Moose Creek drainage, the Akinkoka Fire, is being attacked aggressively. Another smaller, as yet unnamed, fire burning in heavy timber toward the upper reaches of the Hay Creek Drainage, should see action from fire crews tomorrow.
In general, fire danger is now considered high throughout the entire valley . . .
Local fire managers have moved the fire danger to “high” based on current and expected weather conditions.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation announced the heightened fire danger Wednesday. No fire restrictions are in place at this time. Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service announced that dry lightning on Tuesday night caused four small fires on the Flathead National Forest. Two of the fires are along the North Fork of the Flathead River and another is north of Whitefish Lake.
Temperatures are forecasted to be in the 80s to 90s with the potential for lightning associated with afternoon thunderstorms. Hot, dry, and breezy conditions will continue to dry fine forest fuels such as grasses and brush that will then be more likely to catch fire.
Flathead Forest hosting open house sessions on vegetation modeling use in forest planning
The Flathead National Forest is offering a couple of open house sessions on their vegetation modeling process. This is one of the tools they use as part of their forest management and planning process . . .
The Flathead National Forest is hosting two open house sessions in August on the topic of Use of Vegetation Modeling in Forest Planning. The first open house will be on Tuesday, August 12, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 650 Wolfpack Way, Kalispell, Montana. The same material will be presented the following evening, Wednesday, August 13, 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Swan Ecosystem Center in Condon.
Members of the forest plan revision team, including the silviculturist, wildlife biologist, and Regional analyst will provide information, present some preliminary outputs, and answer questions about the computer-based analytical modeling processes being used to evaluate vegetation conditions across the forest over time as it responds to various disturbances, such as fire or harvest.
Montana FWP doing fish habitat project in North Fork
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is doing restoration work along the south fork of Coal Creek . . .
A fish habitat enhancement project is underway in the South Fork Coal Creek drainage, a tributary to the North Fork Flathead River that was degraded by historical land management practices, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
More than two dozen large woody structures are being incorporated into the stream channel to create spawning and rearing habitat for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
Idaho suspends use of hired wolf hunter in Frank Church Wilderness
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has declared a temporary truce over its practice of using a hired hunter to kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Yep, that’s right: A state-sponsored wolf hunt in a big “W” wilderness area. You just can’t make this stuff up . . .
Idaho Fish and Game officials say they’re suspending a plan to use a hired hunter to kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness until at least November 2015.
Jeff Gould, wildlife bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, made the declaration in a document filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.
A coalition of wildlife advocacy groups sued the state and federal officials in federal court earlier this year, asking a judge to stop a state-hired hunter from using the U.S. Forest Service’s backcountry airstrips to reach and kill wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return wilderness. A federal judge rejected their request for a temporary restraining order, but state officials pulled the hunter out of the region after he killed nine wolves.
Today! The second ‘Missing Piece Rendezvous’ comes to the North Fork, July 26
The North Fork Preservation Association annual meeting is on Saturday, July 26, featuring Canadian activist Harvey Locke speaking on “The Missing Piece of Waterton National Park.” He is a charismatic orator who thinks in large landscapes. Harvey begins his talk at 7:30 p.m. The potluck dinner starts at 5:00 p.m., followed by the business meeting. For more information call 406-888-5084.
John Frederick wrote the following article about this year’s presentation. It appears in the current NFPA newsletter . . .
The “Missing Piece” refers to the area north of us known as the Flathead of British Columbia (in Canada, the North Fork Flathead is called just the Flathead River). The region east of the river is a logical extension to the existing Waterton Lakes National Park on the other side of the Continental Divide in Alberta. The first “Missing Piece Rendezvous” was at Waterton town site last fall to a large crowd of happy people.
The second “Missing Piece Rendezvous” will be held on the porch of the North Fork Community Hall featuring Harvey Locke and Sid Marty at 7:30 pm on Saturday, July 26. Both are engaging entertainers. Bring folding chairs or a blanket and bug dope, if needed.
Harvey Locke does not give up easily. This well-known Canadian activist has been trying to have the part of the Flathead of British Columbia that is above Glacier National Park added to Waterton National Park for over twenty years.
I met him 25 years ago on a Waterton-Glacier Superintendents’ Hike and remember him talking in French to a warden in Waterton Park, demonstrating to me his appealing personality (even though I didn’t know French). I marked him as someone unique although I knew nothing about him at the time.
Harvey Locke is recognized as a global leader in the conservation of wilderness and large landscapes. He is known in Canada as one of the leading conservation activists there. He thinks about large landscapes – the movement to establish wildlife corridors from Yellowstone to Yukon was his idea. Harvey has many conservation groups in place on both sides of the border to back up what he says and when he says something it has authority. His connections to powerful individuals are truly amazing. He makes things happen. Continue reading Today! The second ‘Missing Piece Rendezvous’ comes to the North Fork, July 26
Artist-Wilderness-Connection showcase at Hockaday Museum August 7
The Flathead National Forest, Hockaday Museum of Art, Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and the Swan Ecosystem Center are hosting a reception and presentation of Visions of the Wild, an Exhibition of the Artist-Wilderness-Connection Program (AWC) at the Hockaday Museum of Art on Thursday, August 7. A reception with light refreshments will begin at 5 p.m. There will be an opportunity to meet the 2013 artists, NW Montana photographer Randy Beacham and Bozeman painter Barbara Rusmore. The reception will be followed by a brief presentation by both artists.
The evening’s event will include a slide presentation by Beacham, “Discovering Wilderness through the Lens”, reflecting on his ‘discovered images’ that capture the uniqueness of the wilderness around Silvertip Cabin where he spent his 12-day residency. Rusmore will share her experiences and painted images from “On the Divide – a view from on top of the Great Bear Wilderness.”
In recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Artist-Wilderness-Connection Program and the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, a special exhibit of AWC artwork will be on display at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, July 24 through September 13. The exhibit features artwork created over the last ten years from 31 participating artists.
‘State of the Lake’ report discusses water quality, modeling and oil spill threat
Here’s a good summary of the ‘State of the Lake” report given at the Flathead Lakers annual meeting . . .
The bad news about Flathead Lake is that primary productivity, or the lake’s ability to grow algae, climbed back above 100 grams of carbon per square meter per year in 2012, exceeding the water quality target of 80.
“The good news is that the decline in dissolved oxygen at the bottom of the lake isn’t getting any worse,” Flathead Lake Biological Station director Jack Stanford reported in his annual State of the Lake report at the Flathead Lakers’ annual meeting.
Nitrogen, a nutrient that contributes to algae growth, is increasing, Stanford said, but the increased nitrogen means that algae growth is now being limited by the amount of phosphorus coming into the lake.
Flathead ‘Bat BioBlitz’ may help Canada’s endangered bats
The Canadian Flathead, as well as the area immediately below the border, has hosted a number of bat studies in the past few years, including this most recent one…
Bat biologists are converging in B.C.’s Flathead River Valley tomorrow. They hope to gain new information to advance bat conservation in B.C.’s southeast and to ultimately minimize the impacts of White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious disease that has killed millions of North American bats.
The four-day Bat BioBlitz, organized by conservation groups in B.C. and Alberta and led by Wildlife Conservation Society Canada’s bat biologist, Dr. Cori Lausen, will build on an initial inventory of Flathead bats that Lausen conducted last summer during a BioBlitz. That inventory detected two species of bats in the Flathead that are considered federally Endangered by the Committee on Endangered Wildlife in Canada: little brown myotis and northern myotis.
“In the southeast corner of B.C., the Flathead may be the gateway for entry of White Nose Syndrome into B.C., and it is thus urgent to start monitoring bats in this area,” said Lausen. “Significant bat hibernation caves have never been found in B.C. and yet the Flathead is surrounded by karst and has the deepest cave in all of Canada.”