New West Network

My Page: Daniel Testa

Officials and Conservation Groups warn Threat still remains

With the peaks of Glacier National Park visible through the window, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., told a crowd at Flathead Valley Community College Thursday that British Petroleum is dropping its plans for coal-bed methane exploration in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River in British Columbia. Baucus said he received a phone call earlier in the day from Robert Malone, chairman and president of BP America, informing him that the company was backing off.

“I think it’s basically because we all worked very hard to prevent that from happening,” Baucus said. “I take this very personally.”

The Democratic senator, now running for a sixth term, made the announcement at a town hall-style meeting, and was joined by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. Also present were several scientists and conservation group leaders who have been campaigning against the proposed energy development in the region north of Glacier Park since BP first announced its plans in May of last year.
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Earning Turns and Fighting Burns

Every small town has its sports heroes. Every few years, some local kid puts up big numbers playing hoops or football, gets recruited by a university, and ends up reaching for a wider kind of fame in a distant city. But not every town has someone like Brandon French, an accomplished athlete at a sport both grueling and obscure. Rarer still, are those athletes who serve their hometown with dedication as a Kalispell, Montana firefighter. [more]

I'm Not Bitter

You couldn’t resist, could you? You saw that squat, perfect orange jack-o-lantern, helplessly grinning at you as it sat – defenseless – on my front porch. And you had to destroy it, leaving its remains strewn along Fifth Avenue West, with tire tracks through its shattered shell. I picked up the pieces on a gray, Saturday morning, pre-coffee. A grim start to the weekend.

That pumpkin was a squash of beauty. I pulled it out of a farm stand bin, incredulous that no one else had snagged it: symmetrical and deep orange, with a long, jaunty stem. I painstakingly carved each of its fangs to perfection with a thin, serrated blade – shaving orange curls out of the corners so as to get the candlelight to project a slight glow through the pumpkin’s hide around the eyes and mouth. [more]

Logging Against the Clock

Timber companies and sawmills endured multiple work stoppages during 2007’s severe fire season, but while flames still flickered, officials at the Plum Creek Timber Company were already planning how to salvage the lumber from tens of thousands of burned acres.

According to Plum Creek’s Regional Northwest Manager Tom Ray, the company suffered roughly 41,000 acres of burned land from the summer’s five major fires: Brush Creek, Chippy Creek, Jocko Lakes, Mile Marker 124 and Black Cat fires. Although it’s too early to say definitively, Ray estimates about one-third of what was burnt will be salvageable. Plum Creek announced earlier this month that, after salvage logging, it will still have lost about $4 million in timber. [more]

transboundary clash

The media storm by Montana’s U.S. senators opposing mining proposals in the Canadian Flathead has been difficult to avoid lately, but the third member of the state’s federal delegation has been conspicuously silent on the issue. U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., attributes his low profile – not to a difference in opinion on the mining proposals by British Petroleum and Cline Mining Co. – but to a difference in tactics. [more]

transboundary tussle

In a Washington D.C. meeting with executives for British Petroleum, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., issued his harshest rebukes yet for BP’s coalbed methane exploration proposal in the Canadian Flathead, according to a release sent from his office Monday afternoon. Baucus also called for public meetings in Kalispell to allow Montanans to weigh in on the project. [more]

Flathead Tribes Deny ‘Letting it Burn’

As the danger from another wildfire season tentatively begins to draw down, the finger-pointing over fire policy and management has already ramped up. The rumor mill that inevitably takes shape amid natural disasters has given rise to a controversial story regarding mismanagement of the Jocko Lakes fire by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. It’s a rumor a tribal spokesman is taking great pains to dispel, and one he said reveals an alarming disconnect between the CSKT and surrounding communities.

According to Rob McDonald, communications director for the tribes, the rumor began circulating around Aug. 6 – a few days after the Jocko Lakes fire started expanding rapidly – that CSKT officials obstructed a DNRC crew from an initial attack of the beginnings of the fire July 18 because it was burning in a tribal primitive area. The fire, which as of this writing has burned more 35,000 acres, came close to destroying the town of Seeley Lake. [more]

A License to Pour

David Lewis, chef and owner of Pescado Blanco in Whitefish, is desperate for one of the beer and wine licenses up for grabs Aug. 8.

“If I don’t get it, I’m closing for sure,” he said last week. “It just is not working.”

Lewis works 14-hour days and said he barely pays himself at all. And despite the popularity of his cooking, he still has wildly discouraging moments: like when a 20-person party enters Pescado Blanco, then walks out because a few people want to have a glass of wine with their meal. [more]

whitefish timber sale

Before their informal tournament in the Stillwater State Forest, a dozen disc golfers gathered among the massive pines to discuss their sport – and the potential impact on it of a logging project proposed by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

“Depending on what trees are removed here, the course would be worthless,” said Ken Deeds, the unofficial organizer of the weekly tournaments.

In addition to the area encompassing the disc golf course near Smith Lake, the DNRC proposes thinning on areas near Skyles Lake and Beaver Lake as part of Montana’s State trust land program. [more]

Montana Legislature

While Montana’s 60th Legislature was an unmitigated disaster at reaching compromise on the session’s biggest issues, many bills were successfully passed that could change how Montanans live in ways small and large. What follows is a breakdown of the bills I covered throughout this session, many of which have been signed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, or will be in coming days. [more]