From The New West Blog
Groups Sue to Protect Wolverines
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Missoula Tuesday seeking federal protection for the wolverine outside Alaska.
They're arguing that Fish and Wildlife Service conclusions that wolverines need protections were rejected by higher-ups at the Interior Department because the agency did not want another prominent case of a species affected by climate change around the time of a status decision on polar bears.
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Guest Commentary: George Wuerthner's "On the Range"
Media Complicit in Oil Dependency
As gasoline prices have climbed during the past year, there has been a lot of talk about energy independence. The response has been to push more oil drilling in the United States as if that would solve the problem. And in this effort the supposed "liberal media" is complicit in spreading misinformation to a gullible public that doesn’t want to hear that we need to conserve energy and change our lifestyles if we are to make any significant progress towards reducing our addiction to oil. [more]
forestland development
Missoula County Grills Forest Service, Plum Creek on Road Easement Amendments
Two items of note came out of Monday's sometimes-heated conversation among Missoula County Commissioners and officials from Plum Creek Timber Co. and the U.S. Forest Service regarding the contentious cost-share road easement amendment proposal: Montana counties that object to the amendment may be able to opt out, and before the amendment is finalized counties will be able to review the specific easements that will be affected, something that Agriculture Undersecretary and Forest Service overseer Mark Rey had previously refused.
Other than that, the meeting offered "virtually nothing" to further explain the need for, and the implications of, amending the road easements, said an exasperated Fred van Valkenburg, Missoula County Attorney. Instead it became a back-and-forth spoken in Forest Service legalese and hypotheticals about what triggers an environmental review.
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MICROBREW MONTANA
Bozeman Brewing: The Best Possible Use of an Old Pea Cannery
Todd Scott, owner and brewmaster at Bozeman Brewing Company thinks I have the world's second best job, traveling around visiting microbreweries, tasting some local brew, and writing about it, but of course, he also believes he has the best job, making that beer.
He is, in fact, so passionate about his job and his product that he mixed some of the chocolate malt he uses to make his Plum St. Porter with the drywall texture when he refurbished a corner of his facility, a retired pea cannery, into his tasting room, which is, according to Scott, "is a little known fact."
I told him I could keep his secret, but couldn't vouch anybody who used the Internet, so if you see chocolate addict chewing the taproom walls, well, you'll just have to blame it on me.
[more]
guest commentary
A Sportsman’s Response to “Drill Here, Drill Now!”
Sportsmen have come to realize in the last decade that the places we hunt and fish: the Upper Green River Basin, Roan Plateau, Powder River Basin, Book Cliffs, and many other public hunting and fishing lands throughout the West are becoming industrial zones. Game is being run off, habitat is being destroyed, streams are sullied and we are losing the places we know and love. And the price at the pump keeps going up, and up…and up. Sportsmen know when they are getting a raw deal, and destroying more of our public lands for an unattainable, unachievable energy policy is only making this deal worse. [more]
Wildland Fire Conference
The Fires Next Time
Think about wildfire in the West and it’s hard to picture a rosy future, except for the sunsets bleeding through the smoke.
Climate change is creating longer, hotter, more explosive burning seasons, while more and more homes sprout on flammable ground. Meanwhile, the pool of firefighting talent keeps getting smaller: there are fewer trained crews, air tankers and helicopters available than there were 20 years ago. Complicated and sometimes contradictory federal policies make it difficult for the next generation of firefighters to get the training and experience they need.
And for those who do meet the requirements for this dirty and dangerous work, there’s a new specter searing the mind of fire bosses: criminal prosecution if something goes wrong and firefighters are hurt or killed.
While fire is increasingly – and properly – understood as a necessary part of many functioning ecosystems, controlled burning is a complicated and sometimes dangerous process. Fire managers often are reluctant to start fires or let natural fires burn, because an escape could leave their careers in ashes, or at least well toasted.
Those were some of the topics outlined this week at a four-day conference sponsored here by the International Association of Wildland Fire and the National Park Service, an event that drew about 400 firefighters, scientists and officials from land management agencies.
[more]
Destruction of the Western Forests
Pine Beetles: Worse Than You Thought_thumb.jpg)
Two pieces of grim news this week indicate that the beetle infestation plaguing the pine forests of the Western Slope is likely to get far worse in the next couple of years.
First, reports from the Front Range indicate that the mountain pine beetle has, as expected, successfully crossed the Continental Divide and is now boring through trees in Fort Collins, Boulder, Greeley, Loveland, Berthoud and Windsor.
[more]
local food
The Rise of Wyoming Farmers’ Markets (But Not its Bread)
The leaves are turning. If you're in Sheridan and it's Thursday, it's time to hie yourself to the Farmers' Market.
But Sheridan, luckily, is not alone in offering fresh produce. Wyoming has 27 farmers' markets. They're still small potatoes, so to speak, but they're starting to make a place for themselves among Wyoming's food options.
Moreover, farmers' markets have caught the state's attention. The Wyoming Department of Agriculture website, under its, "Current News About Wyoming Agriculture," has a link to developments in Wyoming farmers' markets.
Ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Angus and artichokes? Nah.
[more]
multimedia slideshow
An Early Fall Float Down the North Fork of the Flathead
Whether on a raft, kayak, drift boat, float boat, sailboat or skiff boat, traveling by river is hard to beat.
Montana’s North Fork of the Flathead River supports a remarkable array of biodiversity and provides an incredible experience to humans lucky enough to pass through. This is wild country, true wilderness, incorporating all the original players. Great bears fill the mountains along with elk, moose, wolverine, lynx, wolves and large cats. A 50-mile long dusty road leads from Columbia Falls to Canada, with few signs of human life.
NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes recently led a team of friends down the North Fork from the remote Canadian border. Five days later, 45 miles further south, and with a few fat trout smiles, they left the North Fork and this remarkable country.
Click the image above to view a multimedia piece from this trip.
[more]
University of Montana Law School Conference
Forest Service Needs an Overhaul, Experts Say
The US Forest Service needs an overhaul in its management of public lands in order to effectively handle diverse recreation, climate change, extractive industries, as well as align with an emerging land ethic, said a prominent panel at the University of Montana Land Law conference.
The University of Montana 32nd annual Land Law Conference took place earlier this week in Missoula. This panel discussion on the future of the Forest Service as it moves into the next administration, was just one of the many in-depth land law discourses presented at the conference.
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