My Page: Bill Schneider
THE GOOD OF THE MANY OUWEIGHS THE GOOD OF THE ONE
Killing Bears to Save Bears
“The good of the one is outweighed by the good of the many.”
That’s one of my favorite quotations ever because it applies to so many issues. It comes from The Wrath of Khan, my favorite Star Trek movie (yep, still a Trekkie, even at my age), and so brilliantly offered by none other than Mr. Spock.
But what does it have to do with bears? A lot, it seems.
[more]PARADISE FOUND
Cycling Kootenai Country
Attention road cyclists. Where can you ride 90 miles straight on smoothly paved, pothole-free roadways; almost devoid of motor vehicles; all lined with fantastic scenery, but no fences, telephone poles, or buildings?
We cyclists all know the answer to that, right? Not many places. But I found one right here in northwestern Montana.
Having been an avid cyclist for decades, I'd frequently heard about the terrific cycling opportunities in Kootenai Country, but for some reason, I never made time to experience it. I finally had my chance this summer.
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ROADHOUSE REBORN AS BISTRO
The Not-So-Dirty Shame Saloon
For decades I've been hearing about the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak, Montana. Some of the stories I heard sent a shiver up my spine and made it sound like one of those rowdy roadhouses of the Deep South where hippies entered and never were heard from again. It is, so the stories go, the type of establishment non-locals might want to avoid, especially if you're decked out in Lycra, and if you dare enter, don't accidentally have eye contact with the wrong person or his girlfriend.
Finally, at least two decades late, I had my chance to check it out, and it was almost a disappointment to learn that, nowadays, the most dangerous thing in the Dirty Shame Saloon is Double Haul IPA.
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SASKATCHEWAN FISHING LODGES
Pine Island Resort: A Lot of Fishing Spiced With a Little Luxury
The first thing you do when going to Pine Island Resort for the fishing adventure of a lifetime is go to the Osprey Wings floatplane base in Missinipe, Saskatchewan. If you're lucky, you'll get to chat with Gary Thompson, owner of both the floatplane service and the resort.
Thompson has been around a long time, and along the way, he has fielded all the stupid questions anglers can ask and has answers ready. For example, when we went in to check in for our short flight to Pine Island Resort, we could hardly find a place to park, so, stupid me, I asked why so many vehicles parked around the base. He quickly replied, "Those belong to all the people we flew out somewhere, but forgot where we took them."
He was joking, eh?
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THE FLIP SIDE OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Leasing Blue Ribbon Fisheries
Last week, I was down on the mighty Yellowstone, the longest, free-flowing river in the Continental United States, drift fishing with Trout Unlimited (TU) and talking energy independence.
Unknown to many anglers, the federal government, through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is currently developing management plans for oil and gas leasing on land it manages, mostly in western states, 32 million acres right in Montana, including 906,000 acres in the Billings Resource Area where we were fishing. Three blue ribbon trout streams (Yellowstone, Stillwater and Boulder) and many key tributaries flow right through it.
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WILDERNESS AND JOBS SEEM LIKE EVERYBODY'S ISSUES
Teachers for Wilderness
Have you ever heard about politics making strange bedfellows?
Well, the junior senator from Montana, Democrat Jon Tester, is certainly proving it.
His Wilderness bill (my adjective not his), S. 1470, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, has been opposed by lefty wilderness groups, but supported my mainstream wildernuts; predictably been opposed by motorheads, but supported by the timber industry. Mountain bikers who opposed the local collaborations that formed the basis for the bill haven't opposed the final product; and now, based on a recent poll, it seems, most Montanans, in general, like the Tester's approach--around 70 percent of them, in fact.
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A MILLION ACRES OR ZERO?
Debate Rages Over Roadless Lands in Tester’s Wilderness Bill
Back in 2006, Democrat Jon Tester vowed many times during his hard-fought campaign with Republican Conrad Burns to protect roadless lands, but his current critics claim that the junior senator's controversial bill, S. 1470, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, gives up more than a million acres of roadless country, mostly in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (BDNF), to future timber management.
It might be unintentional and there might be plenty of time to change course, but the bill's critics insist that as the legislation is currently written, it would trump the National Roadless Rule and congressionally designate that million acres of wild land as officially available for logging.
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A LOCAL COLLABORATION, MOSTLY
The Other Green Group Behind Tester’s Wilderness Bill
Most of us have mistyped URLs, using .com instead of .net or .org instead of .gov. So, when you want to go to the website of the Montana Wood Productions Association, be sure to key in montanaforests.com. If you inadvertently type montanaforests.org, you go a promotional website for Senator Jon Tester's (D-MT) new Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009, S.1470.
Shortly after the website went up last month, I received a couple of emails claiming this was just another example of the heavy hand of the Campaign for America's Wilderness (CAW) had in crafting Tester's wilderness bill. And sure enough, it turns out the domain name was registered by David Chott, CAW online coordinator.
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THIS JUST IN
Roadless Rule Upheld, Again
Ninth Circuit Court Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte ruled today that the Bush administration unlawfully repealed the Clinton-era Roadless Rule. The ruling puts the National Roadless Rule back into affect in at least the states covered by the Ninth Circuit Court, but it is unclear if the ruling applies to other states.
Today's ruling basically reaffirms a September 20, 2006 decision by the same court, but that has been under various appeals ever since.
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YOU ALWAYS ENJOY REVEALING A BEST KEPT SECRET
Fishing the Kootenai River
Anybody who likes fly fishing for trout has heard about Montana's world-famous blue ribbon rivers--the Big Hole, Bighorn, Madison, Missouri, Yellowstone, and all the rest, but when you go there for a relaxing day on a classic trout stream, you not only face competition from the wily salmonids, but also competition from your brethren. On any summer day, you have to courteously share the river with dozens of drift boats and even more wade anglers.
Unless you're on the fabulous Kootenai River in far northwestern Montana, that is.
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