Over the past few days, Tim Manley of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks trapped and collared two local grizzlies as part of an ongoing population study.
The NFNews site has the story, including photos . . .
States seeking to halt mule deer population decline
State agencies are trying to figure out what’s going on with mule deer populations over recent decades . . .
Wildlife management agencies, hunters and wildlife organizations have done a lot of research, habitat work and plain old head scratching in recent years over what is causing a decline in the number of mule deer across parts of the West.
A recent report by Western wildlife agencies found mule deer declining in four states, including Wyoming, and one Canadian province. Montana’s population was reported as stable, although certain regional populations have seen some dramatic declines.
“Certainly numbers are still down,” said Quentin Kujala, Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife management section chief, but whether that constitutes a downward trend or simply a temporary pause he could not say.
Environmental groups petition to intervene in Badger-Two Medicine oil & gas lawsuit
Our friends on the other side of the Divide are not happy about an oil exploration threat to the the Badger-Two Medicine area . . .
Several environmental groups have petitioned to intervene in a legal battle over a disputed oil and gas claim in the Badger-Two Medicine area about two miles southeast of Glacier National Park.
Solonex, a Louisiana-based oil and gas company sued the Forest Service and the Department of Interior claiming it has been illegally prevented from exploring about 6,200 acres of land it leases for oil and gas. Solonex obtained the leases in 1982, but over the years the government continually delayed exploration.In 1998, the government suspended exploration activities there indefinitely. Solonex, which is owned by Sidney Longwell, claims this is a violation of federal law. Congress can allow delays but can’t suspend activities on leased lands indefinitely, Solonex claims.
Late last month, the Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance, based in Browning, and the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, headquartered in East Glacier, applied for intervenor status in the lawsuit. The National Parks Conservation Association, Montana Wilderness Association and the Wilderness Society also filed for intervenor status.
Teck purchases three land parcels for conservation in B.C.’s Flathead River valley
Some good news from British Columbia: Teck Resources bought up a sizable amount of land (almost 28 square miles) in southeast British Columbia for conservation purposes, most of it in the Flathead River drainage. The Vancouver Sun has the story, including a map . . .
Mining giant Teck Resources will spend $19 million to buy thousands of hectares of land in southeast British Columbia for conservation, the company announced Thursday.
The company said it purchased more than 7,000 hectares in the Elk and Flathead river valleys from Tembec Inc., not for mining but to preserve wildlife and fish habitat. “While not amenable to mining, the lands have the potential to be used for conservation purposes,” the company announced.
Company president Don Lindsay said Teck will work with area First Nations and conservation groups to ensure the protection of key wildlife and fish habitat.
Further reading: “Flathead Wild Congratulate Teck on Land Purchase”
And more: “Canadian Mining Giant to Buy Land North of Glacier Park for Conservation”
The grizzly revealed — with a Canadian perspective
John Frederick passed this article along. I’ll let him do the intro: “This is a quite a different article on bears by Larry Pynn. It was posted 12 October 2013 by the Vancouver Sun…”
“Note that Bruce McLellan who is mentioned below had a cabin for many years across the Flathead River just a ways past the Canadian border and used a canoe to cross back and forth on the river to study bears.”
The Interior Salish know him as Kelowna or Kee-lau-naw, the Sechelt as Mayuk, and the Nisga’a as Lik’inskw.
Alaskans call him the brown bear. And to British Columbians he is the grizzly, a name that engenders respect, wonder and fear – sometimes all at once.
Even the Latin name commands attention: Ursus arctos horribilis.
No other animal better embodies the spirit of the wilderness than the grizzly, an animal that has no natural predators – other than humans and others of its kind – and is also the object of such unrelenting attention that it has generated competing multi-million-dollar industries designed both to kill it as a trophy and to photograph it as living keepsake.
North Fork watershed protection bill gets warm reception in U.S. House
Hearings in the U.S. House of representatives on the North Fork Watershed Protection Act are going well . . .
A bipartisan bill to protect the North Fork of the Flathead River from mining and energy development got a warm reception in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., presented his version of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act to the House Natural Resources Committee, along with Whitefish City Councilman John Anderson. The bill is a companion of legislation by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., that passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June.
A spokesman from Stoltze Lumber Co. was unable to make Thursday’s hearing in person, but Daines testified to a list of other backers that included the Montana Logging Association, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Citizens for Balanced Use, the Wilderness Society and ConocoPhillips.
Whitefish city councilman testifies for North Fork watershed bill
John Anderson, a Whitefish city councilman, testified this week in favor of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act . . .
A councilman from Whitefish implored House lawmakers Thursday to support legislation to protect the North Fork Watershed and Flathead River…
Anderson said it’s important to preserve such areas so he and other Montanans can enjoy the wilderness.
He noted that Whitefish gets its drinking water from mountain streams that run through the watershed…
Feds defend plan to drop gray wolf protections
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service insists it’s time to delist gray wolves . . .
Federal officials offered a staunch defense Monday [September 30] of their proposal to drop legal protections for the gray wolf in most of the country, as opponents rallied in the nation’s capital before the first in a series of public hearings on the plan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called for removing the wolf from the endangered species list for the lower 48 states in June, except for a subspecies called the Mexican wolf in the Southwest, which is struggling to survive. Ranching and hunting groups have praised the proposal, while environmentalists have said it is premature.
Pro-logging bill would ramp up timber sales
Here’s more information on U.S. Representative Steve Daines’ pro-logging bill . . .
A pro-logging bill making its way through Congress would dramatically revise forest management throughout the country, ramping up timber production four-fold on the Flathead National Forest, while dramatically increasing harvests on all of the state’s national forests and restricting litigation designed to halt those projects for environmental scrutiny.
The “Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act,” or H.R. 1526, was co-authored by U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and passed the House of Representatives Sept. 20 on a 244-173 vote.
The bill mandates annual harvests of one-half the U.S. Forest Service’s long-term sustainable yield for each national forest, matching the statewide harvest rates that were commonplace two decades ago.
Flathead River plan needs updating
A new Wild and Scenic River management plan for portions of the Flathead River, including the North Fork, is in the works . . .
One of the most noticeable changes in the North Fork Flathead River drainage can be found on the river — at its put-in and take-out sites for floaters — and it is a change that is in part driving an effort to develop a new Wild and Scenic River management plan…
Vehicles loaded with rafts, kayaks and canoes are now a far more common sight than they were in 1980, when the current river management plan was developed. That came on the heels of portions of the North, South and Middle forks of the Flathead River being designated as Wild and Scenic rivers in 1976.
“It’s pretty old,” Hungry Horse-Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies said of the river management plan. “We’re not saying it’s bad. There are elements that are very good in that plan. We don’t want to throw it out and start from scratch. We want to figure out what needs to change, what elements of that plan need fixing.”