COULD IT ALL HAVE BEEN OVER ON SEPTEMBER 30?

The founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW), a multi-state conservation group that has been aggressively pushing for a congressional resolution to the wolf delisting controversy, claims Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, both Democrats, are not his allies.

Instead, he insists, both the Montana Senators worked behind the scenes to actually derail delisting efforts at the same time they were jointly introducing a bill to delist the wolf.

No, I’m not making it up.

Governor's Race

The odds seem stacked against Keith Allred, 2010 Idaho Democratic gubernatorial candidate—a non-Republican has not won the state since 1990, when Cecil Andrus was elected to a second term.

While a Democratic win in a redder-than-red state may seem to be a daunting task, Allred’s campaign is not unlike that run by former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, now Secretary of Health and Human Services, who won over her deeply conservative state in 2002 and 2006. Sebelius focused her campaign on people over partisan politics and won the support of many Republicans. As it turns out, the Allred and Sebelius campaigns share more than one similarity.

THEY PUSHED TOO HARD, TOO LONG

Everybody who even remotely follows the wolf issue knows how bad it is, politically. About the only way it could get worse would be a wolf breaking into an urban backyard and biting a child.

Federal District Judge Donald Molloy’s August 5 ruling putting the Big Dog back on the endangered species list and stopping hunts in Idaho and Montana was that proverbial last straw for a lot of people, even a lot of fence sitters who actually like wolves and supported the reintroduction.

LET'S BE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS INSTEAD

Today, I’ve decided to abandon my normal manner of being diplomatic and gentle and say something that needs saying without sugarcoating, so here goes.

Just in case you haven’t traveled around Europe, here’s how it works. You can, for example, fly into Spain, rent a car and drive over to France. And guess what happens when you get to the border?

Absolutely nothing! 

GUEST COMMENTARY

Whether or not you care about the recovery of grizzly bears, we face a serious challenge today of how to protect the safety of people who live and recreate in grizzly country, as whitebark pine, the driver of the health of the population for Yellowstone grizzly bear population, continues to suffer from a climate-driven beetle epidemic. At this critical juncture, it has been confusing and unconstructive to see grizzly bear management agencies flip-flop on the fundamental question of whether or not whitebark pine matters to the Yellowstone grizzly bear population, and the effects of its loss on human-bear conflicts.

IS ANYBODY SURPRISED?

If anybody is surprised U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy put the gray wolf back on the endangered species list and stopped wolf hunting in Idaho and Montana, he or she hasn’t been following the debate. I’m sure not surprised, but his decision, released Aug. 5, puts the spotlight back on a lot interesting issues.

Here are my thoughts on the next chapter of the biggest outdoor story of the century.

WILL IDAHO AND MONTANA BE LEFT OUT?

With the severe escalation of partisan politics and divisiveness in recent years, it has become basically impossible to pass a Wilderness bill or any other type of public lands or outdoor recreation legislation on its own. Time on the Senate and House floor is so scarce and closely guarded and partisanship so bitter that the only way public lands legislation has any realistic chance is a relatively new invention called the omnibus bill.

As you may remember, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed S. 22, a massive public lands omnibus bill on March 30, 2009 after a long, heated debate and lots of last-minute maneuvering. The 1,300-page bill was the combination of 170 pieces of legislation creating new national parks and monuments, plus park expansions and national recreation trails, protecting hundreds of miles of wild and scenic rivers, and designating more than 2 million acres of Wilderness.

Column: The Political Cycle

What sounds worse than making cold telephone calls trying to sell stinky used cowboy boots for $500 each?

Some political candidates would say that at least it could be more amusing than “dialing for dollars,” a necessary evil known as fundraising.

With four months until the midterm congressional election, campaigns are focused on money.

But it’s also the season to take “name recognition” into the next campaign phase, “building a brand.”

We’re starting to read news based on press releases designed to spur an opponent into a response. The press secretaries who write the releases which turn into published news have persuaded reporters that the subject is real news, and could spark a news cycle shootout between the candidates.

Conversely, a press release is sometimes released because a reporter inquired about a candidate’s position.

From the Panhandle

Keith Allred thinks things are going to be different this time. He has to. He’s a Democrat running for governor in Idaho.

Allred took a swing through Sandpoint earlier this week and stopped for coffee at a home on Second Avenue, where he was joined by far more people than there were chairs for, all wanting to hear his vision for the state that sits mostly south of us.

Guest Column

Last week, Congress turned to an unlikely group to explain how public lands management and policy are affecting rural jobs and communities – people who are actually tied to the land. Not lobbyists or lawyers, but real people from places a long way from nowhere like Condon, Mont., and Salmon, Idaho.

They came at the request of Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. Grijalva is frustrated with a national dialog that he said has erroneously put forward a false choice between economic development and conservation in rural places.

The testimony at the subcommittee’s hearing was hopeful and solution-oriented, but laced with a dire urgency to reverse the gridlock and contention that have eroded both livelihoods and landscapes in the West.