More coverage of Interior Secretary Salazar’s visit to the North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

The Missoulian covered yesterday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with a nice write-up and about five minutes of video. Here’s the lead-in . . .

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, on a swing through Montana to highlight water issues, came to the North Fork on Tuesday to see the confluence where the South, Middle and North forks join to make the Flathead River. But the crowd milling below Blankenship Bridge, about 10 miles north of Columbia Falls, kept him from water’s edge.

Finally Salazar linked arms with Democratic Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Then, turning to Baucus, who has fought upstream development for decades, Salazar said, “Show me your river, Max.”

The North Fork Flathead is not, of course, Max’s river; but it has run steadily through the senator’s political career, countless gallons of wild and scenic water under Baucus’ bridge.

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]

US Interior Secretary visits the North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

Yesterday’s visit to the North Fork by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, accompanied by Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, and Chas Cartwright, superintendent of Glacier National Park, is getting lots of coverage.

Here’s the lede from the Flathead Beacon’s write-up . . .

Standing near the bridge below the confluence of the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead Rivers, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he hopes there can be some type of designation protecting Glacier National Park and the Flathead Basin from upstream natural resource development in place by next year.

Read the entire article . . .

Gold mining threat to North Fork growing

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Uh, oh. It appears the threat of a gold mining operation in the trans-boundary North Fork is growing. From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .

Expanded gold exploration north of Glacier National Park has Montana interests worried about downstream environmental and economic impacts.

“The mining company has apparently made a business decision that investment in the Canadian Flathead may bear fruit for them,” said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association. Hammerquist called the gold exploration “just one more example of an industrial land use that fails to recognize the importance of this area.”

Located about 10 miles north of the Montana border, the mining zone drains south into the North Fork Flathead River. That waterway forms the western edge of Glacier Park before spilling into Flathead Lake.

For decades, the two countries have battled over Canadian coal mining proposals, often pulling the federal governments into the fray.

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]

Parks could help protect species as climate shifts

Environmental Issues, News,

From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .

The country’s national parks – iconic cultural emblems for millions – could hold the key for species protections in a warming world, according to a report released Monday.

“This is a unique moment in time,” said Tom Kiernan, “to leverage the power of America’s national parks for change.”

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]

Interior Chief and other pols to visit North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Looks like Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, as well as both of Montana’s Senators will be visiting the North Fork today. There’s the story from the Missoulian . . .

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will travel into the remote North Fork Flathead River Valley on Tuesday, a watershed long threatened by mining proposals from the Canadian north.

He will be accompanied by Montana’s Democratic U.S. senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus.

Read the entire story . . . [link repaired]

Wilderness debate heats up

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Here’s an interesting article in today’s Missoulian discussing the renewed debate over designation and expansion of wilderness areas . . .

For more than three decades, millions of Montana federal acres have been de facto wilderness.

Over the past few weeks, those slumbering lands have been shoved back into the spotlight. And last Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the nation’s 40 million acres of “inventoried roadless lands” were properly protected by a 2001 Clinton administration prohibition on development.

But the 10th Circuit Court in Wyoming is deliberating on a mirror-reverse case, where a lower-court judge has declared the Clinton rule is wrong. That would leave standing a subsequent Bush administration rule allowing states to make their own rules governing federal roadless land.

And in between, Sen. Jon Tester’s proposed Forest Jobs and Recreation Act might open 1 million acres of Montana roadless land to logging, according to some of its critics.

Read the entire article . . . [link repaired]

Time for peace in the Flathead Valley

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Today’s Vancouver Sun has a first-rate article — with photos and video, no less — concerning the often contentious issues surrounding preservation of the Canadian Flathead Valley. Very nicely done. Recommended reading.

Here’s the lede . . .

GRIZZLY WIDE PASS — No one knows for sure when humans first discovered this impossible place.

Perhaps it happened on a warm summer evening like this one, an awe-struck group of backcountry travellers watching the mountain goats brave an amphitheatre of sheer rock atop southeastern B.C.’s Flathead Valley.

Read the entire article . . .

Text of UNESCO World Heritage Committee resolution available

Environmental Issues, Site Updates

Regular visitors to this web log will recall that, in late June, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, during their meeting in Seville, Spain, voted to send a mission to investigate threats to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. They were specifically concerned with proposed mining and energy development projects in the Canadian Flathead.

For those of you who like to read source documents rather than have someone tell you about them, we now have the original text of the committee’s resolution, courtesy of Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Crown of the Continent weed guide available

Environmental Issues, News

Today’s Missoulian has an article about a new publication regarding invasive plant species (i.e., weeds). Beware of one bad pun . . .

Go ahead. Pick the flowers.

And to be sure you’re picking the right ones, the botanists at Glacier National Park have published a brand-new field guide. Several field guides already cover the park’s wilds – guides to mammals and guides to birds, rock guides and track guides and star guides and even an outhouse guide.

But this latest – “Invasive Plants of the Crown of the Continent Field Guide” – is the first of its kind, a window into the wide world of weeds.

Read the entire article . . .

Tester’s forest bill faces challenges

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Flathead Beacon has a good overview, minus the sound bites and PR-speak, of the challenges faced by Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. Here’s the lede . . .

Jon Tester’s recently introduced Forest Jobs and Recreation Act may be the most significant piece of legislation he has created in his, still relatively short, career in the U.S. Senate.

Read the entire article . . .