Wolf impact on northwest deer populations small

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

Field and Stream magazine has an articel up on the impact wolves are having on deer populations in this corner of the country. Short version: Mountain lions and coyotes take far more deer than wolves, but the effects of all three are dwarfed by the impact of the weather. The North Fork gets a specific mention in the discussion . . .

In 2011, for the first time ever in Idaho, hunters harvested fewer mule deer than whitetails–big news for a state with a deer harvest that has long been dominated by muleys, and whose recent-big game headlines have been dominated by wolves and stories of their impacts (some exaggerated, some true). Wolf kills, scat, howls, and tracks… are frequent reminders of wolves’ presence in the Western whitetail woods.

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Larry Wilson: Much of North Fork is already ‘wilderness’

Commentary, Environmental Issues, ,

Larry responds to yet another op-ed on the North Fork wilderness issue . . .

I had never heard of a “liberal conservationist” until that label was applied to me by Matthew Chappell in a recent letter to the editor in the Hungry Horse News.

My opposition to a wilderness on the Whitefish Range led Mr. Chappell to believe that I oppose all wilderness and want motorized vehicles to be allowed everywhere.

He supposes that I might want a parking garage at Polebridge and maybe even a Pizza Hut on Trail Creek.

In fact, his suppositions are just so much horse apples. I do not oppose all wilderness. I do oppose a Whitefish Divide Wilderness for what I believe are good reasons.

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Visitor from Colorado drowns in North Fork

News,

For those of you wondering about the radio traffic, a visiting Colorado man drowned in the North Fork just south of Camas Creek yesterday. North Valley Rescue supported the recovery efforts . . .

A 67-year-old man from Colorado who was visiting family in Whitefish drowned Tuesday while fishing in the North Fork Flathead River.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said the man was wearing waders and fishing with a relative near the river’s confluence with Camas Creek when the two got separated by a bend in the river. “The local guy went to look for the other guy who was just downstream and could not find him,” Curry said.

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Site update: Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation

Site Updates, ,

We’ve added another “neighbor” organization to our “Related Links” sidebar: The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

In their own words, the “Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the trail system and wilderness values in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.” Quite a few folks from the North Fork have taken advantage of the foundation’s good works at one time or another.

Patagonia pledges trail maintenance support in Bob Marshall Wilderness for next five years

News, , ,

The Patagonia company is giving the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation some significant support over the next five years . . .

The outdoor clothing company Patagonia recently pledged its support for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation by sponsoring one trail project per year for the next five years.

Patagonia is the first corporation to make a long-term commitment toward the sponsorship of individual trips, according to the BMWF. The work is critical for keeping trails open for the public who seek solitude in the wilderness, according to the local foundation.

The BMWF fosters wilderness stewardship and works to ensure access to Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex…

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Funding goal reached as part of deal to protect trans-boundary Flathead

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , ,

Since the announcement last week that the funding goal for money to compensate companies for losses when the Canadian Flathead was closed to development had been reached there’s been a fair amount of press coverage, mostly in the Canadian prfess. The Hungry Horse News this week put a nice, local spin on the event . . .

Bob Patterson, of Oregon, was slinging a line in the North Fork of the Flathead River last week, catching small cutthroat in a run at Glacier Rim.

He’d been on a big looping tour of famous waters in Canada and the U.S., but this was the first stop where he was getting into fish, even if they were small ones.

Patterson said he gave money to the Nature Conservancy’s campaign to compensate mining interests in the headwaters of the river and forever end the threat of mining and energy exploration in the Canadian Flathead. When asked why he did it, he shrugged.

“I’m always for the fish,” he said.

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Larry Wilson: No outhouses in RAC project list

Commentary, News, , ,

Larry starts off discussing some of the projects proposed to the Resource Advisory Committee and finishes up pointing out that bears can do it, but you can’t — at least not on federal land . . .

The Resource Advisory committee (RAC) has been reauthorized for one year. Previous reauthorizations have all been for three years, so this year’s federal dollars may well be the last. Of course, we were told last year that the 2012 monies would be the end of the program, so who knows?

At any rate, the North Fork has received a great amount of money over the years helping to fund road work, battle weeds, thin timber, repair trails and, no doubt, things I have forgotten. Because we have received so much in recent years, we should not really be surprised at the low number of North Fork requests this year.

Flathead County has only requested funding for eight miles of dust abatement, from Camas Junction to Polebridge…

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Wolves again fair game in many states

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Washington Post put up a pretty good article on Wolves yesterday. Here’s the lead-in. (Thanks to the ever-alert Richard Wackrow for spotting this article.) . . .

Most wolves in the continental United States soon will be off federal assistance.

For more than 300 years, trappers and settlers did their best to exterminate wolves, for their pelts and to protect livestock. They were so successful that only a few hundred gray wolves were left in the lower 48 states when they were listed as an endangered species in 1973.

Now the wolves are back, with roughly 6,000 in the contiguous United States and 7,700 to 11,200 in Alaska. The Obama administration has declared all but two small populations — Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico and Arizona, and red wolves in North Carolina — fully recovered. On Oct. 1, Wyoming will become the fifth state with a significant wolf population to legalize hunting.

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Funding goal reached for Canadian Flathead compensation fund

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

It looks like the funding goal for money to compensate companies for losses when the Canadian Flathead was closed to development has been reached . . .

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (“NCC”) and The Nature Conservancy (“TNC”) today announced that, through a collaboration of public and private partners, more than $10 million has been raised to help remove the biggest ecological threat to British Columbia’s Flathead River Valley — a spectacular wilderness area that straddles the Canada-U.S. border.

Thanks to the generous funding contributions from the Government of Canada’s Natural Areas Conservation Program (NACP); Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing; and other private donors, the Canadian portion of the Flathead River Valley is now permanently protected from mining and other sub-surface development.

The Government of Canada contributed $5.4 million to the project through the NACP for the conservation of the Flathead River Valley. Warburg Pincus is contributing $2.5 million to the project–the largest private contribution.

The funding is being used by the British Columbia government to implement the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, which was passed last year. The legislation permanently prohibits coal mining as well as exploration and development of oil, gas and mineral resources on nearly 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) of land in southeast British Columbia.

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Larry Wilson: North Fork fall activities slated

Commentary, News, ,

Larry discusses upcoming fall North Fork activities . . .

The ground squirrels have withdrawn to their winter quarters, there’s fresh snow on the mountains in Glacier Park, and the lone quaking aspen in my meadow is nearly one-third bright yellow. Also, orange paint is being sprayed on trees up and down the road. There are even a few folks with blackened faces and camo clothing, armed with bows and arrows, creeping around in the woods.

Due to freezing nights and cooler days, I’m starting to take wood out of the woodshed to warm the cabin. A heavy rain this week probably ended the risk of a major North Fork wildfire until next summer. Sure signs of fall.

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