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News Nuggets

Strange things come in threes and this week, three animal stories in Montana caught my eye, each of them getting progressively weirder. 

1. Last week, the Great Falls Tribune reported that a grizzly bear was found along the Rocky Mountain Front shot, with all its claws missing. The scary part is that it was the second bear to meet such a fate.

2.  The Daily Interlake reported over the weekend on an albino black bear near Olney that state wildlife officials were able to capture and relocate to Glacier National Park, where they thought the bear might be safer during hunting season. Albino bears are rare, although one official said they have seen a few in the last 10 years.

3. Finally, the strangest: A downed power line near Eureka in Northwestern Montana is being blamed for the deaths of at least 12 animals. The remains found at the site of the power line included five whitetail deer, four black bears, two wolves, one coyote and a turkey vulture. Read Jim Mann’s piece here, also in the Daily Inter Lake on what created the “perfect storm” for all the electrocutions. Very sad.

“Apocalyptic Corn” by Marc Gutierrez, taken outside Stanley, New Mexico.

News Nugget

A new study shows that sage grouse, up for Endangered Species listing in February, will face even bigger population declines in the Mountain West if energy development progresses as Bureau of Land Management expects it to.

The three year study, published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed PLoS One science journal as well as here on WyoFile.com, warns that energy development plans on BLM land in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and North and South Dakota could lead to a 7-19 percent loss of population for the bird.

The study’s authors, which include The Nature Conservancy in Lander, Wyoming, the National Audubon Society in Laramie, Wyoming and the University of Montana’s Wildlife Biology Program are clear about the goal of the research: To help decision makers craft a better oil and gas development pattern that would shift exploration to less sensitive grouse habitat. If done right, the authors say, oil and gas development could keep the sage grouse safe and off the ESA list.

One of the co-authors, David Naugle, a wildlife landscape ecologist at the University of Montana, tells the New York Times: “The answer to energy development in the West is not ‘no,’ but rather ‘where.’ I think our nation’s energy independence is paramount. Thus, the way we designed this study was to be helpful.”

Scott Streater’s piece in the Times’ Greenwire blog does a good job of summing up the report here. And, you can read the full report here.

“Silk Bridge” taken by Doug Cummins in Missoula, MT.

News Nugget

According to a new report out this week from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, fewer Americans believe that world temperatures are warming and fewer and fewer see climate change as a very serious problem.

Of the 1,500 adults polled, 35 percent said global warming is a serious concern, down from 44 percent in April of 2008. And, 57 percent said they think there is solid evidence that the earth’s average temperature is on the rise. That is down from 71 percent in April of 2008.

Respondents in the Mountain West have had the biggest change in attitude, according to the poll. In this year’s poll, 44 percent said they believe the earth is warming. In 2008, that number was 77 percent. That’s a 31 percent drop. The region with the next biggest change was the Great Lakes region, which saw a 20 percent drop.

The Mountain West also had the biggest drop in the the concern over climate change. In 2008, 44 percent of regional respondents said climate change is very serious problem. Today, that number is 26 percent—down 18 percent. Both the West and the Great Lakes region also saw the biggest declines in the percentage of respondents who believe global warming is caused by humans.

“Missing Parts” taken at the Heber Valley Railroad Station by John Dornoff.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has enjoyed a somewhat on-again-off-again relationship with those advocating for sustainable agriculture and food system reform since his appointment late last year and predictably, any mention of biotechnology is what changes those dynamics. So far this month, Vilsack has hit two rocky patches with the sustainable ag community.

First, and it’s not really about him, but more about the department itself, is the appointment of Roger Beachy, who comes from the Missouri-based Danforth Plant Science Center, as the head of the newly formed National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which replaces the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). Ag and GMO-giant Monsanto has given funding to the Danforth Plant Science Center, a red-flag for the sustainable ag community. As Paula Crossfield writes at Grist, “The re-branding of CSREES worries sustainable food advocates who fear U.S. research priorities could shift with the private sector’s coaxing further towards a more biotechnology-oriented focus in an attempt to end world hunger, even though more viable solutions to hunger—a problem of distribution and not yield—exist on the ground that are both cost-effective and ready to implement now in the developing world.”

That worry was only heightened then, by Vilsack’s comments to the Community Food Security Coalition conference in Iowa this week. First, Vilsack got a standing ovation for his comments on supporting local food but when one audience member (Jeffrey Smith, an anti-GMO activist, who writes about the exchange here on the Huffington Post) asked him about his stance on biotechnology, he didn’t quite win over the crowd. From all accounts, it seems he played it well, saying he is essentially all ears when it comes to the criticisms of GMO, but then he did mention the hunger argument, saying, according to Dan Mitchell of Big Money’s The Daily Bread blog: “I’m telling you what people are telling me"—that genetic modification is necessary to feed the world. That alone elicited boos and hisses from the crowd.

“Flo-thru Ventilation” taken by Team Hymas on Hwy 97 between Mary Hill and the Yakima Valley. 

“End of the Road” taken by Deb Alperin on Flanngan Creek road outside of Viola, Idaho.

Guest Column

There is increasing interest in resolving multiple-use conflicts through place-based (national forest-specific) legislation. Throughout the West, divergent interests are negotiating how they would like particular forests to be managed. Many of these proposals include provisions related to wilderness designation, economic development, forest restoration and funding mechanisms, among others. But unlike more typical collaborative efforts, some groups are seeking codification of their agreements.

Numerous factors have precipitated this interest in going to Washington in search of legislation, including perceptions of agency gridlock, unresolved roadless and wilderness issues, and the disarray that now characterizes forest planning.

Nowhere is the place-based approach more apparent than in Montana. [more]

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