Countdown 320

I’ve got dry bags strewn across the house and flies poking out of my carpet.  I’ve got all my shirts and shorts laid out, and I’ve been spreading out my map of the Clark Fork across the kitchen table every night after dinner.  I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to put in for the adventure of a lifetime this coming Saturday.  On Saturday, June 27th, I’m starting a float of epic proportions-- the Clark Fork 320.  I’ll be putting in at Racetrack near Butte, Montana, for a 20-day float of the entire length of the Clark Fork River. 

From the Missoulian

Tom Tidwell is New Forest Service Chief

The new Chief of the U.S. Forest Service will be Tom Tidwell, the Region 1 Forest Supervisor, according to a Missoulian news story by reporter Rob Chaney.

In February 2007, the U.S. Forest Service promoted Tidwell to regional forester for the Northern Region, which includes more than 25 million acres of public land in Montana, Idaho and North Dakota. Prior to the promotion, Tidwell had been deputy regional forester in the Pacific Southwest Region.

New Report Questions Fire Plan Logging

A new report on the effectiveness of thinning forests under the National Fire Plan shows that most logging occurs far from communities, thus questioning their effectiveness. Plus the majority of lands that should be treated lie not on federal lands, but private lands. The report gives new credence to critics such as myself who maintain that most fuel reduction logging operations are wasting tax dollars and causing more harm than good.

Buzz Off

Crews to Dig Up Radioactive Wasp Nests at Hanford

Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington this month are going to dig up scores of radioactive wasp nests spread out over six acres, according to Tri-City Herald reporter Annette Cary.
The newspaper says the, ahem, sting operation involves some heavy lifting. “There are so many radioactive nests spread over six acres by H Reactor in northern Hanford that six to 12 inches of top soil are being dug up to remove the nests,” Cary reports.

From the Flathead Beacon

Powerful Mystery: Whitefish Hydro Plant has Murky Past, Brighter Future

WHITEFISH – Abandoned and lonely, this old hydroelectric plant has sat untouched for nearly two decades. Few records and even fewer people with knowledge of the plant can be found today. Right now it’s a turbine of mystery, but it may soon buzz with electricity again.

Jeff Arcel of Mother’s Power Inc. wants to bring back to life a hydropower plant located just north of Whitefish near the city’s water treatment plant. It appears city officials are on board too. But of course, these things all come down to money and any effort to retool the plant must first be approved through the city’s budgetary process, which is underway.

Factory Farming’s Long Reach

The impact of factory farming upon the American land and native biodiversity is seldom discussed, but animal protein production has a significant impact upon the Nation’s land and water. The direct environmental problems like air or water pollution associated with large factory farming operations may be clear, but less obvious are the environmental impacts associated with the agricultural production of feed crops and other consequences associated with large factory farming operations.

On the Range

Wild bighorns threatened by domestic sheep

Should domestic sheep be permitted to graze on public lands when their presence threatens the survival of wild bighorn sheep? That's a question that is increasingly getting serious discussion around the West.

2009 Montana State Legislature

Conservationists: Montana’s Legislative Session Has Been ‘Rotten’ on Environment

There’s only a short time left in a legislative session that one environmentalist says has been just plain “rotten.”

“There really is very little good coming out of this session,” Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center, said.

This is the way we tidy up....

Lawsuit: Don’t Quit on the Cleanup, Stimson

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath sued Stimson Lumber Co. on Wednesday to force the removal of a berm, a wastewater pond and some old wooden structures at the defunct mill site near the mouth of the Blackfoot River.

The berm, pond, wood pilings and old foundations are dangerous and in immediate danger of collapse, the suit says. If the berm fails, Blackfoot River waters could wash toxic metals downstream.