Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act

New Protection Plan Unveiled for Rocky Mountain Front

A new plan that’s been three years in the making would add new protections to 394,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front and help protect the embattled wilderness from additional road building and oil and gas development, a grassroots coalition says.

Members of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front unveiled the proposed legislation yesterday and are seeking a congressional sponsor for it. The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, as the coalition has called the proposal, seeks to preserve many existing uses in the region, including grazing, outfitting, and some motorized and non-motorized use of national forest lands—elements that aim to keep recreationalists, ranchers, hunters and anglers happy.

But the group also wants to take new steps to protect the Front’s unique wildlife habitats, landscapes and water. To achieve that, it proposes adding 86,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and taking increased measures to fight the spread of noxious weeds.

The Coalition’s main goal is to use a new designation—Conservation Management Area—for 307,000 acres of public lands along the Front. The CMA, the coalition says, would follow regulations set down by the U.S. Forest Service in 2007.

Devastating Break-in

Dixon Melons Burglary Hits Hard

Joey Hettick, who along with her husband Harley Hettick is a longtime owner of Dixon Melons Inc., said today she was devastated by a break-in at the couple’s Dixon home. Thieves took an estimated $50,000 to $80,000—wiping out all the money the family earned this season, she said.

Hettick said she believes three teenagers committed the crime, including two youths who worked for Dixon Melons for several years. The break-in occurred Saturday at about 1 p.m. at the family home off of Highway 200, surrounded by 18 well-tended acres. The Hetticks were in Missoula at the time selling their popular melons, their passion for the past 21 years.

Green Light for Wolf Hunts

Wolf Hunts Will Go On; Judge Denies Injunction Bid

The Montana and Idaho wolf hunts will not irreparably harm wolf populations and may proceed, according to a ruling filed last night by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy.

Molloy on Aug. 31 heard arguments from environmental groups seeking to halt the fall wolf hunts—the first of their kind in the lower 48—on the grounds that the killings would irreparably harm the species, which was on the Endangered Species List until just this spring. The coalition of 13 environmental groups, which has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an attempt to restore federal protections for the gray wolf, asked Molloy to issue an injunction to stop the hunts, arguing that killing even a single wolf is a problem.

In a 14-page ruling, Molloy disagreed, and said the “low threshold” for irreparable harm—a single wolf death—was not supported by the law. 

Missoula's Coming Attraction

Plans Unveiled for First-Ever Forest Service Museum

The U.S. Forest Service has been around for 104 years, said a bevy of speakers who gathered today under blue skies on a stubbled field in Missoula. And as important as the USFS has been all that time, it’s never been honored with a museum. “Why is that?” one of the day’s dignitaries asked audience members munching sandwiches under a tent.

Missoula Mayor John Engen had an answer.

“You actually have to let your stuff get old before you can have a museum,” he told the crowd, to applause and laughter.

It seems the USFS and its stuff are plenty old enough to deserve what they’re finally getting: a museum that honors the legacy, hard lessons and achievements of one of the nation’s most important agencies. The end result will be the National Museum of Forest Service History (NMFSH), a $12 million, 300,000-square-foot, energy-efficient building in Missoula with a theater, research and meeting rooms, exhibits, education center, a collection of some 40,000 artifacts, and more.

Canis of Wormis

Wolves Shot, Boycotts Called, Fur Flies

Game officials and wolf hunt fans often say the same thing when it comes to the wolf hunt in Idaho and the upcoming one in Montana. Don’t worry, they say. Wolves are fast, nocturnal and darn hard to draw a bead on.

The question of just how tough they are to shoot even came up in federal court, where U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Monday heard a plea by environmental groups for an injunction to stop the wolf hunt seasons.

“Isn’t there evidence ... that with fair-chase hunting, not many wolves will be killed?” Molloy asked.

Yes, that’s right, as Steven Strack, attorney for the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, explained during the hearing. “There are nine million acres of wilderness areas in Idaho,” Strack said. It’s hard to even spot a wolf without using a helicopter, traps, baits or motor vehicles like ATVs (which are not legally allowed in the hunts), he noted.

The news from Idaho this week seemed to, well, blow a hole in that theory.

The Wolf Hunt Frontlines

Three Views of the Wolf Wars: A Hunter, Advocate, and Game Official Speak Out

Twenty five miles upriver from St. Maries in the town of Calder, John Walters eats a burger in the cafe. On his table by the window newspapers are opened to pages with wolf pictures. A recent ruling by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission that establishes the latest attempt at a hunting season for gray wolves in Idaho is the top story.

Walters, one of the directors of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, planned to be first in line to buy a hunting tag when they went on sale Monday for $11.25 per resident. He called his attorney a few days before an injunction was filed Aug. 20 by Earthjustice to stop the hunt. Thirteen groups were named in the suit.

He asked his attorney whether he could sue Fish and Game for fraud if the heavily advertised wolf hunting season didn’t transpire. “He said no, because an injunction hasn’t been filed yet to close the season,” says Walters, between bites of his burger.

Walters has been fighting for years for the right to kill wolves or sue the federal government for what he calls an illegal introduction of wolves into the state. A barrel of a man with long hair going gray, he’s a former construction worker who was injured on the job and now collects disability.

The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho native moved to the St. Joe Country in 1983 after years of advocating for the Fish and Game department that he is now at odds with. The agency, in Walters’ opinion, has turned tail on the hunting public—people who buy hunting licenses and who expect Fish and Game to manage the herds so hunters can bag bulls and bucks.

Grace Asbestos in the Attic

Vermiculite Claims Due Soon From Canadians, Later for Americans

It’s the stuff of fairy tales to discover unexpected treasures in the attic. In real life, unfortunately, people do find surprises in their attics—and the endings aren’t always happy ones. That’s particularly the case in Canada these days as thousands of residents come to terms with an insulation called Zonolite made by W.R. Grace & Co.

According to a Toronto Star feature story by reporter Jennifer Wells, Zonolite, containing a natural mineral called vermiculite, was poured into an estimated 242,000 homes in Canada. “Easy as pouring popcorn from a bag,” ads once said about the product, Wells writes.

Power in the West

Small Hydro: The Wave of the Future?

Big public utilities these days are turning to the wilderness to produce power—on streams that are so remote, hardly anyone complains, according to a fine Wall Street Journal story by Jim Carlton.

The article kicks off with news about how the Snohomish County Public Utility District (from the area north of Seattle) is building a small hydroelectric-power plant on “picture-perfect” Youngs Creek in the Cascades foothills—with little opposition.

According to the story: “So-called small hydro plants like Youngs Creek are sprouting up across the country, with around 500 potential sites identified by a federal study in Washington state alone.”

Wilderness Bill Analysis

Perspective on the Tester Forest Bill

I’ve been holding off writing anything about Senator John Tester’s Forest Jobs bill for a while. I’ve talked to many people, both supporters of Tester’s bill and those who have many questions about its implications. As most people in Montana know, Senator Tester combined three different logging/wilderness proposals formulated by collaborative efforts affecting all or portions of the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest, Seeley Lake District of the Lolo National Forest, and Three Rivers Ranger District Kootenai National Forest into one bill that will designate wilderness areas. But the bill also mandates a minimum acreage for logging, new ORV and mountain bike trails, plus some other tax payer supported goodies like the specific subsidy of a biomass plant for Pyramid Lumber in Seeley Lake. He then added some twists of his own.

Unlike some of my friends and associates, I do believe there are some good things in Tester’s legislation and other things that I could live with if there were some modification of the bill’s language.