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new west news brief

After five years of review, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that bull trout, one of Montana’s largest native trout, should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, the AP reports.

"The health of bull trout populations varies by location but overall, the species in the United States still needs protection," said Ren Lohoefener, director of Fish and Wildlife's Pacific Region.

Bull trout, considered the most environmentally sensitive cold-water fish around, have been listed as a threatened species in the Lower 48 for ten years. But in recent years, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, the former governor of Idaho, and the Idaho congressional delegation have contested the trout’s status as “endangered.”

Click here for more. [more]

Guest Commentary: George Wuerthner's "On the Range"

A month ago the wolf was delisted under the Endangered Species Act and state wildlife agencies were permitted to take over wolf management. Most state wildlife agencies profess a desire to minimize human-wolf conflicts. Yet their management plans are, without exception, guaranteed to create greater conflicts.

All state wildlife agencies (and FWS employees in charge of managing wolves are as guilty) conveniently ignore the socio-biological relationship of predators like the wolf which makes any indiscriminate killing of animals counter productive. Just as a hundred years of coyote persecution has failed to reduce rancher/coyote conflicts, so called wolf "management" by the states will have the same effect. [more]

from timberlands to subdivisions

The dust kicked up by closed-door negotiations between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Company to amend forest road easements brought Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey to Missoula Monday, where he apologized for keeping western Montana counties in the dark but did little to ease concerns that local communities will increasingly bear the burden of Plum Creek's transition into residential real estate.

Rey, a Bush Administration appointee and overseer of the Forest Service, said he's "extremely sensitive" to the effects the development of Plum Creek's timber lands could have -- increased firefighting in the wildland-urban interface, road maintenance and other public service costs, plus environmental impacts -- "but that sensitivity does not empower me to write new laws," he said, and in the end Plum Creek can do whatever it wants with its land.

"You ought to think harder about executing these responsibilities yourselves," he said, whether through zoning or other means. [more]

New West News Brief

With more than half of the Yellowstone National Park bison population removed this season due to slaughter, winter weather and hunting, the Interagency Bison Management has halted all additional deaths and are holding 255 cows and calves until the grass greens.

Meanwhile, an estimated 600,000 pounds of meat from the slaughtered 1,700 bison is currently being distributed to Montana tribes and food banks, reports the Billings Gazette. An additional 700 are estimated dead due to weather.

The Montana Food Bank network recently purchased 15,000 pounds of bison meat that will be distributed to 189 banks throughout the state, perfect timing with the February recall of 143 million pounds of Californian beef. [more]

12 Groups file on first day allowed

As expected, a coalition of 12 environmental and animal-rights groups filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont. seeking to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The lawsuit seeks a immediate injunction to protect gray wolves from public hunting and aims to return the wolf to federal management under the Endangered Species Act. Gray wolves were officially delisted on March 28th.

“We’re trying to prevent the wolf slaughter from going forward,” said Doug Honnold, managing attorney of the Bozeman office of Earthjustice, the legal organization representing the coalition.

The groups argue state management plans fail to provide adequate protection for the species, especially against indiscriminate public hunting. Instead of protection, state management actually promotes the killing of wolves, Honnold said. [more]

NewWest.Net Conferences

The Designing the New West: Architecture and Landscape in the Mountain West Conference is wrapping up here in Bozeman at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn. Put on by NewWest.Net and sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, the conference brought together designers from all over the country to explore innovative design ideas, identify best practices, and better understand how to bridge the gap between good architectural theory and sometimes-messy building practices in the fastest growing region in the nation.

A mix of presentations and engaging panel discussions tackled pressing Western issues like sustainable development, land design and the special challenges of urban, rural and resort design, historic preservation and affordable housing.

Click on the photo or here for a slideshow of the days' events. Click "more" for a recap of the conference. [more]

the abcs of h20

In Montana, and throughout the Intermountain West, water law affects every part of our lives and communities.

Priority dates dictate the volume and distribution of water from wells and streams. Landowners must put the water to beneficial use without waste to retain their right to use the State’s water. News articles about water issues illustrate that many people are confused about Montana’s water laws, even landowners and local officials.

Here are the key points to understand the basics of Montana water law.
[more]

growth and rivers

Streamside setback regulations protect a stream from “death by a thousand cuts” hydrogeologist Dr. Chris Brick told City Club Missoula at its monthly luncheon Monday.

By themselves, a single home or a stretch of rip-rapped bank do not present much danger to a stream, but collectively, all the structures, armored stretches of bank and cleared riparian vegetation do, said Brick, the staff scientists for the Clark Fork Coalition, an organization focused on community development and environmental protection of the Clark Fork River.

“What we’re concerned about is how we can maintain our Montana values for our streams and rivers in the face of lots of people wanting to come here,” Brick said. [more]

Western Book Roundup

Just in time for Earth Day, several Boulder authors have released ecologically minded books. Read on to learn about Disappearing Destinations, Go Green, Live Rich, and The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw.

Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them
Vintage, 400 pages, $15.95

Former NewWest contributor and Boulder resident Heather Hansen co-authored this book with Kimberly Lisagor. Disappearing Destinations documents the environmental problems at popular tourist sites around the world. Publishers Weekly calls it a "fact-packed survey of travel destinations endangered by global warming, environmental degradation, predatory logging, mining and fishing and the impact of too many tourists… The authors' accounts of how the world's beauty is being despoiled, based on sharp on-site reporting, are a cautionary call to arms for tourists to fight environmental excesses and, when traveling, to tread lightly." In an email, Hansen noted that the book includes regionally-relevant chapters on " Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Cascades."

Heather Hansen will discuss the book at the Boulder Book Store tonight (April 22, 7:30 p.m.) and at the Tattered Cover in LoDo on May 28 (7:30 p.m.). [more]

Hillary doesn't listen anyway

I’m much too worried about the Idaho fruit crop to fret over Tuesday’s presidential primary in Pennsylvania.

It’s my next-door neighbor’s fault. She’s related to a Very Important Idaho Political-and-Fruit-Growing Family with operations at Sunny Slope in Canyon County, just west of Boise. I’m fond of my neighbor. We met yesterday on a dog walk, and while her nice small dog stood still and my let’s-get-going retriever tried to yoink my brain out my ears, she told me that the peaches on the family ranch had bloomed a week or so ago, and the whole crop was threatened. Sure enough, freezing weather came along last night and there’s more predicted for tonight.

Suddenly, I am next-door neighbor to an entire fruit ranch. I’ve eaten those yummy peaches. I am invested. I am part of the chain. [more]

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