Columbia Gorge News

MISSOURI RIVER WALLEYES--AND MORE

Now I know what I’ve been missing every time I sped through Loma, Montana, on my way to somewhere else. This sleepy little ranching and farming community, located 55 miles north of Great Falls on U.S. Highway 87, is a gateway to some fast-action fishing like you probably have never experienced--catching a variety of warm-water species on a free-flowing section of the Mighty Mo.

To call it “diverse” might an understatement. In our first hole, for example, we quickly caught five fish, all different species. At the same time, all around us, we could soak in the incredible diversity of flora and fauna and the unspoiled scenery of this still wild stretch of the Missouri River.

BEST IDEA IN A HUNDRED YEARS?

Remember the last time you heard somebody say a federal agency did a great job? Not recently, eh? I, too, confess to not saying it often, but I’m saying it today.

Three years ago (click here). I wrote about an innovative new shuttle system getting underway in Glacier National Park. In my first line, I asked, “If we built it, will they come?”

The results are in, and the answer is yes. In 2009, in fact, 157,000 of people used shuttle buses instead of driving personal vehicles over the traffic-choked Going-to-the-Sun Highway, and according to Glacier’s public affairs manager Amy Vanderbilt, “We will easily exceed that figure this year.”

GUEST COMMENTARY

Whether or not you care about the recovery of grizzly bears, we face a serious challenge today of how to protect the safety of people who live and recreate in grizzly country, as whitebark pine, the driver of the health of the population for Yellowstone grizzly bear population, continues to suffer from a climate-driven beetle epidemic. At this critical juncture, it has been confusing and unconstructive to see grizzly bear management agencies flip-flop on the fundamental question of whether or not whitebark pine matters to the Yellowstone grizzly bear population, and the effects of its loss on human-bear conflicts.

DON'T GO UNLEASHED

I’m hardly the first person to write about this issue, but I want to be one of the first to hit it head on instead of nervously dance around it, so here we go.

If I had a hundred bucks for every time I’ve observed dog owners acting irresponsibly on wilderness trails, I’d have enough to buy all new hiking gear and clothing--new Lowe-Alpine backpack, new Merrill boots, new Magellan GPS, new G. Loomis backpacking fly outfit, new Patagonia from head to toe, and all the rest--and best.

If I had a hundred bucks for every time I’ve observed dog owners acting responsibly on wilderness trails, I’d have enough to buy one of those new, spiffy, BPA-free, double-walled, vacuum-sealed, stainless-steel water bottles from New Wave Enviro.

Well, not quite, but close. The point is, most people who take their dogs into the wilderness don’t get it.

SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES

When you walk into the main building at Cree Lake Lodge, that’s the sign you see on the wall, Pike Capital of the World. Actually, to be fair, a lot of fishing lodges justifiably call themselves something similar, but after visiting more than my share, I’d have to say Cree Lake Lodge deserves the title.

IS ANYBODY SURPRISED?

If anybody is surprised U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy put the gray wolf back on the endangered species list and stopped wolf hunting in Idaho and Montana, he or she hasn’t been following the debate. I’m sure not surprised, but his decision, released Aug. 5, puts the spotlight back on a lot interesting issues.

Here are my thoughts on the next chapter of the biggest outdoor story of the century.

PLEASE DON'T LET IT BE A TREND

I haven’t seen much of an uproar over the rather startling news of two green groups essentially extorting $20 million (later revised to “at least $22 million") from Big Oil. So, I’m wondering if I’m the only greenie choking on it.

On July 18, El Paso Corporation, one of America’s largest natural gas pipeline builders, and two fairly small green groups, the Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Foundation, announced a “partnership.” (Click here)

WILL IDAHO AND MONTANA BE LEFT OUT?

With the severe escalation of partisan politics and divisiveness in recent years, it has become basically impossible to pass a Wilderness bill or any other type of public lands or outdoor recreation legislation on its own. Time on the Senate and House floor is so scarce and closely guarded and partisanship so bitter that the only way public lands legislation has any realistic chance is a relatively new invention called the omnibus bill.

As you may remember, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed S. 22, a massive public lands omnibus bill on March 30, 2009 after a long, heated debate and lots of last-minute maneuvering. The 1,300-page bill was the combination of 170 pieces of legislation creating new national parks and monuments, plus park expansions and national recreation trails, protecting hundreds of miles of wild and scenic rivers, and designating more than 2 million acres of Wilderness.

EQUAL RIGHTS? WHAT A NOVEL IDEA!

You could call this old news, but I didn’t see much press coverage on this rather momentous event, so I wanted to do my part to make sure cyclists and motorists knew the rules of the road are changing.

Back on March 12 Ray LaHood, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, went to the National Bike Summit and dropped a bomb. Transportation policy might have, finally, made the right turn.

IT'S ABOUT TIME OBAMA DID SOMETHING GREEN

Back in February somebody leaked seven pages of a “vision document” conceived within the Department of the Interior and created quite a political uproar. OMG! Top brass in the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service (all Interior Department agencies) and a few green groups were actually discussing the idea of creating 14 new national monuments using the same end-run strategy employed by President Bill Clinton when--only three days before turning over the keys to the White House to George W. Bush--he used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate the 377,000-acre Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument in north central Montana and 12 more monuments in other states.

Now, it appears as if President Obama might do the same thing, even though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar claims it’s all “false rumors.” But in an excellent analysis (click here), Great Falls Tribune capital bureau reporter John S. Adams verifies that Interior Department higher-ups have indeed been seriously chatting up the monument idea. Salazar should have been proud to admit it.