http://www.newwest.net/topic/main/C74/L/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:21:55 MST Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:21:55 MST http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/in_kootenai_forest_a_test_case_for_mountain_bike_access/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/in_kootenai_forest_a_test_case_for_mountain_bike_access/C74/C74/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:19:34 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/new_protection_plan_unveiled_for_rocky_mountain_front/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/new_protection_plan_unveiled_for_rocky_mountain_front/C74/C74/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:47:43 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/plans_unveiled_for_first_ever_museum_honoring_the_forest_service/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/plans_unveiled_for_first_ever_museum_honoring_the_forest_service/C74/C74/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:40:19 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/alone_in_the_wilds_is_solo_trekking_okay_for_women/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/alone_in_the_wilds_is_solo_trekking_okay_for_women/C74/C74/ Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:12:16 MST “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? http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/perspective_analysis_on_the_tester_forest_bill/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/perspective_analysis_on_the_tester_forest_bill/C74/C74/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:19:39 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/montanans_overwhelmingly_support_testers_forest_bill_poll_shows/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/montanans_overwhelmingly_support_testers_forest_bill_poll_shows/C74/C74/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:09:03 MST 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. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wolves_will_be_shot_legally_or_not_idaho_official_says/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wolves_will_be_shot_legally_or_not_idaho_official_says/C74/C74/ Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:47:58 MST An Idaho Fish and Game commissioner told a gathering of Western attorneys general that hunters are so angry about Idaho's wolf population, they will hunt the animals in the state's backcountry this fall -- whether the law allows it or not. "It will either be a state-authorized one or it will be an illegal one," Commissioner Randy Budge said about the upcoming hunt, according to Idaho Mountain Express staff writer Jason Kauffman. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/should_grizzlies_be_hunted_in_the_future/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/should_grizzlies_be_hunted_in_the_future/C74/C74/ Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:13:16 MST For people who have an opinion about grizzly bear hunting, the time to speak up is now. Three state agencies -- Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game -- are looking for comments on proposed guidelines for future bear hunting seasons. The hunts, according to the agencies, would only take place if grizzly bear populations are robust enough to withstand the "discretionary" mortality. According to FWP, none of the states are considering a grizzly hunting season at this time. But if populations ever swell to the point where there are "surplus bears," Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have drafted an agreement for developing quotas and other matters related to bear hunting. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/nrepa_the_new_york_times_tells_montanans_how_to_act/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/nrepa_the_new_york_times_tells_montanans_how_to_act/C74/C74/ Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:39:27 MST A New York Times editorial today calls for the passage of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, saying it's a "truly enlightened environmental policy" that would balance "the needs of both nature and local economies." So what's the problem? Foes already complain the bill is an elite Easterner's idea being foisted on the West. And no matter how misguided it might be, the "you ain't from aroun' here, are ya?" backlash can be fierce. An anti-NREPA Facebook group by today's count has 3,090 members. (Not pulling any punches, it's called Don't Mess With the West: Oppose Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.) http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wyomings_national_elk_refuge_on_ten_most_imperiled_list/C74/C74/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wyomings_national_elk_refuge_on_ten_most_imperiled_list/C74/C74/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:42:21 MST A grim future is predicted for the 25,000-acre National Elk Refuge in Wyoming unless the sprawling home to elk and bison gets an infusion of new policies and resources, according to a new report from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The group ranks the wildlife sanctuary -- which has one of the largest concentrations of elk in the world -- as one of America's Ten Most Imperiled Refuges. The refuge was established in 1912 in the wilderness south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks in an effort to resuscitate elk herds, which had faced mass starvation after bitterly cold winters and human encroachment, PEER notes. The results have not been good.