LOADED FOR POLITICS, NOT BEARS OR CRIMINALS
More Guns in National Parks
You've probably heard about pending legislation to allow visitors to our national parks to carry loaded and accessible firearms. The cover story is the concern that people must be able to protect their families from perverts and wild animals infesting out national parks.
To this overused assertion, I must ask why doesn't the gun lobby get out front with the real reason it does these things?
Footnote: Click here to read more NewWest.Net articles on the NRA.
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Power to the People
Energy Expansion Across the West
Resort communities require a lot of kilowatts, and bustling Big Sky, Montana is no exception to this rule; between 1996 and 2005 there were 660 new residential units built in Big Sky – a dramatic 8.2 percent increase. And this does not include the Moonlight Basin and Yellowstone Club ski resorts.
In order to meet the energy needs of Big Sky, Northwestern Energy is planning to upgrade the existing 69-kV power line from Four Corners to Big Sky with a 161-kV line. Northwestern is also seeking to bypass state and public review through right-of-way agreements with private landowners to build the 35-mile, $20-$30 million line.
In order to serve a slightly larger growing population, the West Wide Energy Corridor federal plan is buzzing right along with a public comment period closing on Thursday, February 14, 2008. The corridor could affect nearly 3 million acres in 11 Western states.
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WHY NOT?
Bowhunting Helena
All across the nation, bowhunters help cities control urban deer herds, but whenever the subject comes up, it's followed by a lot of questions on safety, costs, legalities and logistics. To answer some of these questions, I browsed the web for a few hours and then called three cities that effectively, inexpensively and safely keep deer populations in check with bowhunting.
Doubters beware. I couldn't come up with a single reason why bowhunters couldn't safely and inexpensively solve the "deer problem" in Helena, Montana, nor why bow hunts wouldn't work in other cities in the New West.
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ANIMOSITY, EGOS GIVE WILDERNESS DROUGHT STAYING POWER
Green Group Feud Stifles Efforts to Protect Roadless Lands
If you follow the Wilderness issue like I do, you know that Congress is currently considering the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), which would designate as Wilderness basically all of the remaining roadless land in Idaho and Montana, and most of northwestern Wyoming as well as smaller tracts in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington--22.7 million acres in all, including 3 million already-protected as national parks, a chunk of real estate about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
That might be too big of a bite for anybody to chew, but it seems like something a pro-Wilderness group could support, don't you think?
And sure enough, the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club support NREPA, as does the Idaho Conservation League, the major pro-Wilderness group in the Gem State. But you might be surprised to learn that the major nonprofit we depend on to protect wild land in the Big Sky State, the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), not only won't support NREPA, but opposes it.
Editor's Note: The MWA sent a response to this column. It's the 61st comment. To save time schrolling through the first 60, you can find it faster by searching for its headline, "New Montana Wilderness on the Horizon."--Bill
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TOURISM INDUSTRY GROUP PREDICTS BILL'S DEMISE
Two Key Western Senators Sign up as Sponsors of Baucus-Crapo BillThe Baucus-Crapo Bill, S.2438, the Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act, recently received a big boost when two more key western senators signed on to the grassroots effort to bring sanity to recreational fee policy on federal lands.
Meanwhile, a tourism industry group discounted the bill as "not a serious threat" to the expanding recreational fee program on federal lands.
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Introducing...
A New Magazine: The New West
The best way to check out The New West magazine is to subscribe. We want to know who’s interested in The New West, so we have made the magazine available free to qualified subscribers who answer a short questionnaire.
In the Spring Issue and online here:
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- Montana’s Cash Cowboy
- Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out
- Essay: The Family Farm, Version 2.0
- Essay: Tracks Across A Landscape
- Have Your Ranch & Develop It, Too
- Design Showcase: The Big and Little of Western Building
- Stuff It: Can Wolf Hunting Help Conserve the Species?
- Traffic Perplexes New Western Communities
- Boise in Its Own Little Bubble
- Revenge of the Resource Economy
- Spotlight North Idaho: On the Agenda: Youth, Growth & Silver
- Spotlight North Idaho: Players of the Panhandle
- Spotlight North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom
PUT THE BIG ONES BACK
Preserving Pike
They don't call it the water wolf for nothing. To some trout fanciers, pike, as in northern pike, is consummate four-letter word, just like wolf is to some ranchers and elk hunters. And for the same reason. Both species eat our prized native game species.
But there is a big difference. The wolf has a large constituency supporting its preservation, but when you go out and advocate preserving pike, especially here in the New West, here in Trout Country, you can feel mighty lonely.
Well, I guess I'll just have to learn to live with a little loneliness.
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A FEW BEST READ TWICE, AT LEAST
Comments Worth Repeating, 2008
As I'm sure many of you have noticed, NewWest.net has engaged readers who take the time to make excellent comments that frequently add value to stories. And they keep coming in. The hardest part was narrowing down the list to a manageable size. Even though there are obviously many more comments worth repeating, here are some of my favorites. For more comments, check out the Comments Worth Repeating Chronology. Enjoy. [more]
WILL OTHER CITIES FOLLOW HELENA'S LEAD?
Our Most Expensive Deer
Pardon the cliché, but if you want to know why something is happening, follow the money. So, that's what I did this week, and at the end of my search, I found what must be the most expensive deer in the world.
You could have some of these high-priced deer in your town, too. What's happening in Helena, Montana, could be coming to a city near you.
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THE BIGGEST OUTDOOR STORIES OF THE NEW YEAR
Wild Bill’s Predictions for 2008
It's that time of year again, when many of my peers in the writing biz reflect on what already happened--you know, the best and biggest stories of the year. But as I asked last year, how hard is it to look into the past and be a visionary? Being a forward-looking sort of guy, I again prefer to look ahead and predict what will happen instead of looking back to predict what did happen.
So, for the New West, here are my predictions for the top outdoor stories you can expect to read in 2008.
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