As in past years, the Daily Inter Lake is leaning into its wildfire coverage. Here’s the latest write-up . . .
Two large wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness settled down somewhat Friday, while a burnout operation was initiated on a fire just outside the wilderness seven miles southeast of Swan Lake.
Another report — with photos — from the Daily Inter Lake on the area’s fires . . .
Wildfires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness have spread rapidly over the last couple of days, and an aerial burnout operation is planned today on a fire burning just outside the wilderness southeast of Swan Lake.
In just one day after it was detected, the Big Salmon Lake Fire went on a wind- and fuel-driven rampage Wednesday, growing to 2,000 acres. The fire started near the north shore of Big Salmon Lake, burning upslope to the northeast in heavy timber.
It has a high potential for growth toward the South Fork Flathead River, prompting multiple trail closures and efforts to protect the Salmon Forks Cabin, the Salmon Forks suspension bridge and the Little Salmon Bridge.
Today’s Daily Inter Lake has a pretty good report on the wildfire action in the Flathead Valley . . .
Flathead Valley residents got to take in a familiar summer spectacle Wednesday: Smoke columns towering over the Swan Mountain Range.
The smoke was pouring from two fires burning in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
It was the first time big smoke columns have been visible from the valley floor since summer 2007…
From this week’s Hungry Horse News . . .
After a long, cold winter and equally cold spring, all but four of Glacier National Park’s backcountry campgrounds are now open.
As of presstime, Brown Pass, Hole-in-the-Wall, Sperry Chalet and Beaver Woman Lake were the only campgrounds that remained closed.
The four are closed “due to sensitive environmental conditions,” which usually means they’re too wet, have snow or may have seen other winter damage. Hole-in-the-Wall in particular usually opens late due to snow.
While many backcountry campgrounds are open, finding a spot may prove challenging…
Larry Wilson discusses the recent organizational elections . . .
At first it seemed that summer would never arrive. It certainly took its own sweet time. June was cold and rainy, and it was cool and wet in July – we celebrated the anniversary of the Wedge Canyon Fire of 2003 on July 18 with a rainstorm.
All of a sudden it’s mid-August and already there are signs of fall. The huckleberry crop is waning, and the serviceberries are ripening. Just a note to Joe Novak – ripe serviceberries may be purple, but they are otherwise nothing like huckleberries.
All of the local organizations have held their annual elections…
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Environmentalists have asked a federal appeals court for an emergency injunction to halt wolf hunts scheduled to start in a few weeks in Idaho and Montana.
The request filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was made public Saturday. The groups want the hunts canceled until the court issues a decision in an appeal filed Monday challenging a federal judge’s ruling allowing the hunts to go forward.
For those of you who have been following the “greenbelt” zoning kerfuffle, the Hungry Horse News posted a brief report . . .
A new zoning district proposed for county land along highways was unanimously approved by the Flathead County Commissioners on July 27.
As proposed, development in the B-2HG general-business highway-greenbelt zoning district would require mitigation of visual impacts of commercial development, with special attention to setbacks, landscaping and signs.
In the Columbia Falls area, the zoning district could be applied to U.S. 2 and Montana Highways 40 and 206, but it will not affect properties regulated under the Canyon and North Fork neighborhood plans and will not apply to properties within the Columbia Falls two-mile planning and zoning jurisdiction.
**Sigh** From the Hungry Horse News . . .
Glacier National Park’s Inside North Fork Road probably won’t open in its entirety until at least the end of this month, Park spokesperson Denise Germann said last week.
The road has been closed from Fish Creek to Logging Creek because of a slump and washout damage, Germann said. Crews are still waiting for water levels in some streams to drop so the damage can be repaired, she said.
Patti Hart, editor of the NFNews site, ably standing in for Larry Wilson this week, adds a little context to the North Fork experience . . .
I’m new to the North Fork. Although I’ve been living on the North Fork for more than 11 years and have actually spent several winters here, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that I’m a newcomer.
That’s not to say that I’ve not learned a lot since arriving. I now know that wimpy city tires are a guaranteed way of getting a flat tire on the North Fork road, that locally-sourced game is the best meat in the world, that hummingbird feeders attract grizzly bears, and that diesel will fail to do its duty at 40 below.
I still have a lot to learn, however. For example, I don’t know the best method for getting rid of pests like ground squirrels and noxious weeds. And I still don’t understand how 20 or so otherwise rational adults can stand around at a party and discuss the relative merits of headlamps for an hour. As I said, still a lot to learn.
From the Missoulian . . .
Wyoming ranchers and hunters fed up with wolves attacking livestock and other wildlife would be able to shoot the predators on sight in most of the state under a tentative agreement state and federal officials announced Wednesday.
Gov. Matt Mead and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said they’ve come to terms over how to end federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming – the last state in the Northern Rockies where the animals remain under federal management.