Getting air, losing a ski. Photo taken at the opening of Sun Valley's new terrain park by Nils Ribi. Read more about the terrain park on Ribi's blog.

See more photos on the New West Images photoblog.

Rocky Mountain Fires

Hot Topic? Predictions for the 2010 Fire Season

In Montana and other parts of the Rocky Mountain West, forests are now losing the moisture stored from spring rains and drying out.  The drier the material, of course, the greater potential there is for fire. Factor in lightening and campfires and summers bring a familiar haze in the mountains that surround us.

In an effort to anticipate the fire patterns, the U.S. Forest Service uses a complex set of equations that result in four predictive outputs that best evaluate the potential for fire. Usually, these outputs follow a typical pattern in any given year and, using reference points of extremely high and low seasons, the USFS is able to gather information regarding spread components, energy release components and burn indices, among others.

Column: Sunday

Cleaning Up Boise For The Minnesota Vikings

With the finest of intentions, I spent Sunday morning cleaning up trash in Boise. I would be lying if I said it was for the purpose of keeping the planet and community clean. I did it to generate good karma for the Minnesota Vikings.

A Minnesota Vikings fan since my youth, I will remain so until my hair is either gone or gray.

The first collection of rubbish I came upon was scattered on the side of the road. It was a hideous mess of crushed and empty Coors cans. Also mixed with the rubbish were several pieces of mail, an empty bottle of Ensure and some plastic bags containing absolutely nothing.

Where had this mess come from? There’s no evidence to prove this, but I’ll bet the trash was left by two people: an idiot, and another idiot. 

From the Flathead Beacon

Wild Homage: Photos of Flathead Valley Travel to Washington, D.C.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a group of conservation photographers is giving the Flathead an ample voice as an exhibit on the values of and threats to the valley heads to Washington, D.C.

The International League of Conservation Photographers, along with the National Parks Conservation Association, spent two weeks in the Flathead River Valley in British Columbia and parts of Glacier National Park documenting the animals, plants and landscape. But, along with the beauty, the photographers also attempted to capture the threats the valley could face in the future.

“Here’s a million acres that is pretty much the way it always has been. It’s a very unique valley in that respect,” said Will Hammerquist, Glacier program manager for the NPCA.

From the Flathead Beacon

In Kootenai Forest, a Test Case for Mountain Bike Access

A proposed travel and recreation plan for a section of the Kootenai National Forest has some mountain bikers in northwest Montana concerned that they could lose access to trails they have ridden for years. And though any new restrictions on trail access for cyclists are far from finalized, the case demonstrates how mountain biking, a relatively new sport when compared to uses like horseback riding or snowmobiling, can prove difficult for federal land managers to categorize.

The area in question is known as the Galton Project, a section of the Fortine Ranger District stretching from U.S. Highway 93 to the edge of the Kootenai Forest south of Dickey Lake. The Galton Project encompasses the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area (WSA), which was established in 1977. After a 2007 lawsuit settlement with the Montana Wilderness Association, the U.S. Forest Service is moving more quickly to establish travel plans for the Ten Lakes WSA.

Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act

New Protection Plan Unveiled for Rocky Mountain Front

A new plan that’s been three years in the making would add new protections to 394,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front and help protect the embattled wilderness from additional road building and oil and gas development, a grassroots coalition says.

Members of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front unveiled the proposed legislation yesterday and are seeking a congressional sponsor for it. The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, as the coalition has called the proposal, seeks to preserve many existing uses in the region, including grazing, outfitting, and some motorized and non-motorized use of national forest lands—elements that aim to keep recreationalists, ranchers, hunters and anglers happy.

But the group also wants to take new steps to protect the Front’s unique wildlife habitats, landscapes and water. To achieve that, it proposes adding 86,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and taking increased measures to fight the spread of noxious weeds.

The Coalition’s main goal is to use a new designation—Conservation Management Area—for 307,000 acres of public lands along the Front. The CMA, the coalition says, would follow regulations set down by the U.S. Forest Service in 2007.

Missoula's Coming Attraction

Plans Unveiled for First-Ever Forest Service Museum

The U.S. Forest Service has been around for 104 years, said a bevy of speakers who gathered today under blue skies on a stubbled field in Missoula. And as important as the USFS has been all that time, it’s never been honored with a museum. “Why is that?” one of the day’s dignitaries asked audience members munching sandwiches under a tent.

Missoula Mayor John Engen had an answer.

“You actually have to let your stuff get old before you can have a museum,” he told the crowd, to applause and laughter.

It seems the USFS and its stuff are plenty old enough to deserve what they’re finally getting: a museum that honors the legacy, hard lessons and achievements of one of the nation’s most important agencies. The end result will be the National Museum of Forest Service History (NMFSH), a $12 million, 300,000-square-foot, energy-efficient building in Missoula with a theater, research and meeting rooms, exhibits, education center, a collection of some 40,000 artifacts, and more.

Guest Column

Alone in the Wilds: Is Solo Trekking Okay for Women?

“You did what?” my friend Virgil said, dumbfounded, when I told him I had just backpacked overnight in the backcountry by myself, as if he could not process such a notion.

Other friends were equally baffled, and they all live in the Big Sky/Bozeman area of Montana, where civilized country as opposed to backcountry is represented by mere pinpricks on a map.

Are we so gregarious as a species that the thought of one night of complete aloneness is foreign? Or can we only enjoy “the wilderness” in the company of other humans who will fill the silence and grandeur of mountain nights with familiar conversational reference points? Could the wilderness be too wild a thing to be in by ourselves?

Wilderness Bill Analysis

Perspective on the Tester Forest Bill

I’ve been holding off writing anything about Senator John Tester’s Forest Jobs bill for a while. I’ve talked to many people, both supporters of Tester’s bill and those who have many questions about its implications. As most people in Montana know, Senator Tester combined three different logging/wilderness proposals formulated by collaborative efforts affecting all or portions of the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest, Seeley Lake District of the Lolo National Forest, and Three Rivers Ranger District Kootenai National Forest into one bill that will designate wilderness areas. But the bill also mandates a minimum acreage for logging, new ORV and mountain bike trails, plus some other tax payer supported goodies like the specific subsidy of a biomass plant for Pyramid Lumber in Seeley Lake. He then added some twists of his own.

Unlike some of my friends and associates, I do believe there are some good things in Tester’s legislation and other things that I could live with if there were some modification of the bill’s language.

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act

Montanans Overwhelmingly Support Tester’s Forest Bill, Poll Shows

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, landmark legislation introduced last month by Montana Sen. Jon Tester, enjoys strong support from Montanans in nearly all walks of life, according to a new statewide poll.

The poll, conducted in late July by Boulder, Colorado-based Harstad Strategic Research (HSR), found that 7 in 10
Montanans support the new bill, which focuses on job creation, forest management, clean water protections, and issues relating to wilderness and the economy.