My Page: Mike Wolfe

The Eagle has Landed

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced the delisting of the Bald Eagle from the endangered species list Wednesday. Speaking at a ceremony in Washington D.C., Kempthorne expressed what seems to be the widespread sentiment that the recovery of the bald eagle is the first major testament to the success of the Endangered Species Act.

The Bald Eagle population reached its all time low in the early 1960’s with as few as 417 breeding pairs. Once estimated to at half a million birds, the Bald Eagle population was in steady decline in the early 1900’s mainly from ranchers and farmers who shot and poisoned them, mistakenly believing they were livestock predators. In 1918, the Bald Eagle was first protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and then protection was again bolstered in 1940 with the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Our national symbol’s habitat was increasingly threatened by human development as well as the prolific use of DDT during the mid 20th century, thus the subsequent listing on the endangered species list in 1973.

Even though the Bald Eagle is being delisted, this by no means that the bird will not continue to be protected. [more]

culling the heard

Roaming the city streets of Helena the resident mule deer only avert their gaze from feeding on the local fare of tulips, freshly fertilized lawn, or ill-fenced vegetable starts, to momentarily sneer at me, recognizing that I am the wild creature on their home turf.

As a temporary resident of Helena for the summer, I was astounded in my first week in town to see herds of mule deer literally living right downtown. Unlike my hometown of Missoula, where deer frequent city limits for easy pickings at night and generally vacate the streets and yards by sunup, the deer in Helena are permanent citizens.

The herd, now pushing 500 animals, has become such a vexing problem the city commission voted 4-1 last Monday to OK a plan to shoot 330 of the deer. [more]

The Overheard Blog

Overhead in the local pub in Bozeman, on a normal Wednesday night:

Gentleman from Phoenix- "Have you experienced much gentrification here in Bozeman?"

"Uncomfortable and befuddled silence from onlookers."

Gentlemen from Phoenix- "It was great for me to be able to move into a run-down neighborhood when home prices were low, in conjunction with others doing the same. We transformed the neighborhood into a great place to live, and really increased the value of homes there." [more]

Always good for challenging convention thinking and laying new ideas on the table, FREE’s (Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment) Pete Geddes, offers a Op-Ed piece in The Bozeman Chronicle today to follow up on last week’s by Jerry Johnson. Both pieces reflect the concern for the population of people struggling to survive in places like Bozeman; i.e., burgeoning communities in our New West that squeeze pocket books with bloated housing markets and laughable wages. [more]

An interesting column today in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle by MSU political science professor, Jerry Johnson, draws attention to a significant ill-effect of community and economic growth. This piece is especially timely as we see major headlines touting the upswing in the job growth in the West.

What makes Mr. Johnson’s argument poignant is the fact that the phenomenon he speaks of is all too easily swept under the carpet, even by those who are victims of it.
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eminent Domain

The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday on the ever-unfolding Eminent Domain case in New London, Connecticut, where they have now called in a mediator to assist. If you haven’t followed Kelo v. New London, you may be wondering why such a story is newsworthy here in the West.

Well, imagine this scenario: the house that you grew up in, that your parents inherited from their parents, that was ultimately built by your great grandparents, is going to be torn down and the property sold off to commercial developers who are planning to build a strip mall. Your parents just received their eviction notice from the city and now they have thirty days to vacate the premises before the bulldozers move in. Your parents have no choice in the matter, but, hey, it’s all in the name of “urban renewal� and, “economic development,� so no problem, right? [more]

The cries, gurgles and arduous first-breaths of the 1,000th baby of the year for Bozeman weren’t the only such sounds of interest coming from our neck of the woods late last week. Rather, this glorious entrance into the new world by young Blake Lawrence perfectly exemplifies other shouts, murmurs and under-the-breath grumbles emanating from our region as of late.

This new record for Bozeman Deaconess Hospital speaks directly to the 16% population growth in Bozeman in 2004, and the same general trend for the Greater Yellowstone Region. The Missoulian recently reported on this with a piece on a new National Park Service Conservation Association study. The most telling one-liner to add-exponentially- to our baby boom was, “one in every four businesses [in the Greater Yellowstone Region] is owned by someone who first came to Montana as a tourist.�

Now, I know what you’re thinking- here comes another litany on growth in the West. Well, speaking of judgmental, that is what I want to address here; the fact that all over the headlines, lift lines and coffee shop lines is hearty, albeit often heated, conversation over what is sacred to us in the West. And, yes, people are making judgments. I think, to our own credit, that what we are bantering about these days throughout our region--the idea of a western primary, the controversial National Park Service re-write, the budget reconciliation rider to open public lands for sale and development, the insatiable appetite of growth, etc. -- is in fact, a hopeful sign.
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Land & Resources

Well, Richard Pombo (R-CA) is at it again. The controversial chairman of the House Resources Committee who has been capturing plenty of headline time lately with his proposal to sell 16 national parks in the hopes of reducing the federal deficit, now wants to put a “For Sale� sign on 270 million acres of public lands for mining.

His reasons are, in his own words (stated just yesterday), “When it comes to deficit reduction efforts and providing access to cheaper energy supplies in America, there are tough choices that have to be made. Not only will this package cut the federal deficit, it will increase domestic energy supplies and lower prices for American families at the same time. The only thing that needs balance more desperately than the federal checkbook right now is the supply and demand relationship in our energy policy. Conservation is critical as well, but we can’t conserve our way out of empty fuel tanks. We need to put Americans to work filling them up. This legislation will do that.� [more]

PARK SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Last week I reported on Department of the Interior (DOI) deputy assistant secretary Paul Hoffman’s proposed rewrite of National Park Service core Management Policies. His disturbing edits obviously struck a chord. As reported twice this week in the New York Times, the DOI is now back-peddling with another revision, released on Tuesday-but is this version any better?
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IMPAIRED FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Change may truly be the only constant here in the West, and nowadays, most changes are ones we bemoan. However, if there are certain change-less places that give everyone peace of mind in knowing they will never be altered, it’s our nation’s national parks. Such is the case for me, and it gave me a serious jolt when I recently read that a major re-write of the National Park Service Management Policies was under way, and these changes are anything but laudable. One of the last comforts I held deeply within my psyche had suddenly shattered (is nothing sacred anymore?); if these changes are accepted, the NPS will allow oil and mining development in Yellowstone, McDonalds to sponsor the Yosemite YART bus system, and snowmobiles on “any� road that vehicles are allowed on in the summer months. [more]