As Wilderness Act turns 50, dealing with new technologies

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Here’s a thoughtful article by Rob Chaney of the Missoulian concerning new issues technology brings to wilderness management . . .

When the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, NASA was sending astronauts into space guided by an IBM 360 computer with 1 megabyte of memory. That’s enough to hold one minute of a video on today’s iPhone.

And that’s a conundrum for people like Pat Tabor. His Swan Mountain Outfitters lead paying customers into the Bob Marshall Wilderness for camping and hunting trips. That’s considered a “proper” commercial service under the special provisions clause of the Wilderness Act. But shooting a video of the experience with a smartphone for a movie about his company is not.

“Now with the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, it calls into question the viability of what we’re doing,” Tabor said. “There are immense restrictions that come into play when a place is designated wilderness. The language in the Wilderness Act speaks of commercial activity ‘to the extent necessary.’ That means commercial services. But what’s the extent of that?”

Read more . . .

Ultraviolet technique can help spot bat disease

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

There’s hope for a new technique that will allow investigators to detect bats with white-nose syndrome . . .

A new technique to shed light (literally) on a deadly bat disease could help leave Montana cave explorers free to pursue their hobby.

Scientists working for the U.S. Geological Survey found that shining ultraviolet light on a bat’s wings can reveal if it’s exposed to a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. Infected bats glow with a distinctive orange-yellow fluorescence.

The disease kills hibernating bats and is responsible for the destruction of huge colonies in 25 states and five Canadian provinces.

Read more . . .

Montana FWP wants public comment on proposed wolf and sage grouse regulations

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Here’s a chance to make yourself heard regarding wolf and sage grouse management . . .

The Montana Fish & Wildlife Commission is seeking comment though June 23 on some upcoming hunting seasons and additional proposals related to sage grouse and wolves.

For sage grouse, the commission is seeking comment on a proposal that would either maintain the same 30-day season and two-bird daily bag and four bird possession limit as last season; adopt shorter seasons and reduced bag and possession limits; impose region-specific hunting opportunities or closures; or close the sage grouse hunting season statewide.

The sage grouse proposal comes in response to surveys on sage grouse breeding grounds called “leks” that show a continued population decline of the state’s largest native upland game bird. Montana’s 2004 management plan identifies a season closure when lek counts are significantly reduced from historical observations.

The commission also seeks comment on the following wolf-related proposals:

  • the 2014-15 wolf season, which includes adjustments that would close the hunting and trapping season in Wolf Management Units 313 and 316 within 12 hours of the harvests quotas there being reached. These WMUs border Yellowstone National Park. The proposal also includes reducing the harvest quota in WMU 313 from four to three wolves.
  • to offer the opportunity to trap wolves via a drawing on three western Montana wildlife management areas, including the Blackfoot-Clearwater, Fish Creek and Mount Haggin WMAs.
  • a statewide annual quota of 100 wolves taken under a new state law that provides for landowners to take wolves without a license that are a potential threat to human safety, livestock or pets.

Read more . . .

John Muhlfield: Pass the North Fork Watershed Protection Act

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , ,

John Muhlfield, mayor of Whitefish, weighs in on the political foot-dragging delaying passage of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act . . .

Ever since the Great Northern Railway laid tracks through Whitefish in 1904, tourism has been the backbone of our local economy, creating good paying jobs and sustaining thousands of families over the years to put their kids through college, start small businesses, buy a home and retire in one of the most beautiful small towns in America.

Hard-working Americans from all over the country come to Whitefish year round. They spend their hard-earned money locally to buy hotel rooms, fill up gas tanks, eat out and support our local businesses – all because they are called to our amazing wild and scenic areas, access to public lands and clean water, and special places such as Glacier National Park and the fresh powder of Whitefish Mountain Resort. In 2013 alone, Whitefish welcomed over 558,000 out-of-state visitors; 65,000 traveled to Whitefish on Amtrak’s Empire Builder. Resort tax and bed tax revenues in Whitefish increased 10 percent and 16 percent respectively that same year.

In early April, three senators from Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania blocked bipartisan legislation supported by Montana Sens. Jon Tester and John Walsh and Rep. Steve Daines – Montana’s full congressional delegation – to permanently protect the North Fork Flathead River from future energy development. The bill even has backing from major energy companies, like ConocoPhillips and local businesses, including F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company. But it has stalled for no apparent reason. In a recent poll in the Missoulian, 73 percent said they support permanent protection of the North Fork Flathead River.

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FWP approves rule allowing landowner take of up to 100 wolves

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Montana FWP Commission approved a new regulation allowing landowners to kill wolves is they pose a “potential threat” . . .

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission last week approved a measure that would allow private landowners, even if they don’t hold a wolf license, to kill up to 100 wolves per year if they pose a “potential threat to human safety, livestock or domestic dogs.”

The wolf take is separate and in addition to any quota or general harvest associated with the wolf hunting and trapping season.

The commission also made few changes to the wolf season for next year, including reducing the wolf harvest in a management unit near Yellowstone National Park from the current quota of four to three.

How much impact the new regulation will have in Northwest Montana remains to be seen…

Read more . . .

Forest Service approves Bullock’s forest restoration picks

Environmental Issues, News,

As expected, the U.S. Forest Service has approved Gov. Bullock’s forest restoration proposal . . .

The Forest Service has approved Gov. Steve Bullock’s forest restoration proposal for federal lands across Montana.

Bullock recently nominated about 5 million acres of timberlands across the state, including several regions in the Flathead for more logging and other forest management under the recently passed Farm Bill.

The eligible lands are located in the Swan River watershed, the southern end of the Whitefish Range and the Tally Lake Ranger District.

Read more . . .

Researchers start another round of grizzly bear trapping

Environmental Issues, News,

It must be spring. Biologists have begun grizzly capture operations in Northwest Montana . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and tribal wildlife managers have begun trapping bears in Northwest Montana.

The trapping is part of a population monitoring study of grizzly bears that involves seasonal scientific capture operations in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

The study of grizzly bear distribution and population trends is vital to ongoing recovery of grizzlies, according to FWP officials.

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Researcher correlates climate change with trout hybridization

Environmental Issues, History, , , ,

Aquatics biologist Clint Muhlfeld has just published a paper showing a correlation between climate change and hybridization of cutthroat and non-native rainbow trout . . .

In his published research, aquatics biologist Clint Muhlfeld has detailed the plight of an obscure stonefly endemic to Glacier National Park’s high-elevation streams and revealed how a trout’s ear bone contains a geochemical diary of its liquid migrations.

But his most recent study will appeal to his largest audience yet, not only by virtue of the scope of the revelation, but also the size of the platform.

Muhlfeld, an aquatic ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Glacier Park field office, is the project leader of a study that links the rapid hybridization between a native Montana trout species and an invasive species in the Flathead River system to climate change.

Read more . . .

Grizzly makes fatal slip above Sun Road

News, ,

A fatal fall from a steep, snow covered slope claimed one of Glacier Park’s grizzly bears . . .

A dead grizzly bear was discovered along the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park on May 22, according to park officials.

At approximately 10 a.m., a member of the park road crew was traveling down the Going-to-the-Sun Road when he came upon a dead grizzly bear located on the road about one mile above The Loop.

An initial investigation by the National Park Service indicated that the bear probably fell onto the road from a steep snowbank between 9-10 a.m. on May 22, according to the park. Plow crew members had traveled up the Sun Road at approximately 9 a.m. and saw no bear.

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100-wolf quota for Montana landowners in the works

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The rules allowing Montana landowners to shoot wolves posing a “potential threat” are loosening up . . .

Montana landowners could kill a combined 100 gray wolves annually if the predators are perceived to pose a threat to humans or domestic animals, according to a rule that received initial backing from state wildlife commissioners Thursday.

The proposal significantly expands the circumstances under which wolves can be killed without a hunting license.

The Montana Legislature passed a measure last year requiring the change. The legislation didn’t define what qualifies as a “potential threat” so the Fish and Wildlife Commission didn’t detail it either, spokesman Ron Aasheim said.

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