To the casual observer, the upper Big Hole River valley is just another classic Western landscape with postcard-worthy vistas and comforting desolation.  But in this high-altitude river, the struggle of an imperiled fish is playing out.

In this valley, time has stood relatively still, with the terrain intact just as it was 50 years ago. The river, however, is changing. It is home to the last native population of fluvial (river-dwelling) Arctic grayling in the Lower 48, and the fish has been in steady decline since it was described more than 25 years ago by nature writer David Quammen as “under certain specific conditions, the most exquisitely colorful bit of living matter to be found in the state of Montana.”

Missoula Notebook

If passed, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act would designate the first new Wilderness Areas in Montana since 1983, and I’m up here, in a plane provided by the non-profit Ecoflight, to get a first-hand look at what the bill would actually mean to miles of backcountry in some of the most cherished wilderness in the state. Down below me is the battle zone: forests and landscapes treasured by hikers, loggers, snowmobilers, mountain bikers, horse packers, anglers, hunters, and oil and gas firms, among others. The Tester bill aims to protect wild land while satisfying as many of these groups as possible. But can it succeed?

Wildlife

When grizzly bears were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in 2007, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition sued in federal court, and on Monday, they won.

“But the biggest winner is the grizzly bear, an iconic symbol of Greater Yellowstone’s power and beauty,” says a press statement from the Coalition.

The decision, handed down by Judge Donald W. Molloy in Montana district court, finds that, among other reasons, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not adequately consider the impacts of global warming and other factors on whitebark pine nuts, a key grizzly bear food source:  “There is a disconnect between the studies the agency relied on here and its conclusions.”

Guest Column

Three of Montana’s conservation groups recently sponsored a showing of the new Greenfire documentary “Lords of Nature” at the Roxy, followed by a two-hour panel discussion that included Montana’s Wolf Coordinator, Carolyn Sime. The evening served to put in perspective the current controversy over the wolf hunt in Montana and Idaho, which was the subject of a court hearing just a few days earlier. 

As the Montana Director for the Western Watersheds Project, one of the plaintiffs in that suit, it seems to me that this element of perspective is sorely lacking from Montana’s plans to manage wolves, though I certainly appreciated the recent comments from Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Commissioner Ron Moody in NewWest.  While I am doing my best to keep an open mind on this subject, and appreciate the role sportsmen continue to play in wildlife conservation, I am puzzled by the seeming unwillingness of Montana to look to Minnesota for guidance on this critical issue.

Minnesota is about half the size of Montana, with a population of over 5 million people, and currently has three times as many wolves.  It has almost as many hunters as our entire population (half a million), and derives 3.6 times as much income from livestock as we do. The North Star state also has a lot more experience dealing with wolves than we do, as their wolves were never exterminated.  The contrast in attitudes between Minnesota’s hunters, ranchers, and wolf managers and our own is striking.

Missoula's Coming Attraction

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.

On the Range

Those advocating wolf hunting may be doing more to solidify opposition to all hunting than any other action they could take. 

Canis of Wormis

Game officials and wolf hunt fans often say the same thing when it comes to the wolf hunt in Idaho and the upcoming one in Montana. Don’t worry, they say. Wolves are fast, nocturnal and darn hard to draw a bead on.

The question of just how tough they are to shoot even came up in federal court, where U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Monday heard a plea by environmental groups for an injunction to stop the wolf hunt seasons.

“Isn’t there evidence ... that with fair-chase hunting, not many wolves will be killed?” Molloy asked.

Yes, that’s right, as Steven Strack, attorney for the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, explained during the hearing. “There are nine million acres of wilderness areas in Idaho,” Strack said. It’s hard to even spot a wolf without using a helicopter, traps, baits or motor vehicles like ATVs (which are not legally allowed in the hunts), he noted.

The news from Idaho this week seemed to, well, blow a hole in that theory.

Judge could halt scheduled wolf hunt

Wolf hunters and conservationists are waiting Tuesday morning for a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula on whether the scheduled opening day for hunting wolves can proceed.  Here is some recommended reading:

Monday’s latest from NewWest.Net’s Amy Linn is a full report on the lawsuit by 13 groups in a coalition represented by Earthjustice. Linn was in the courtroom yesterday and it’s a fascinating you-are-there piece on this controversial issue.

“Perhaps the most dramatic moment in the courtroom came when Earthjustice attorney Honnold said reintroduction won’t be a success until 3,000 to 5,000 wolves are in the northern Rockies—up to three times more wolves than today’s numbers. The statement drew audible gasps from the pro-hunt contingent.”

Also yesterday, the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s Betsy Russell had three short, informative pieces. Excerpts and links:

Column

I like to hunt, and I like to fish, and I like to do them in good conscience. This means, first and foremost, that I do my best to obey the rule of law, toe the line in the interests of, among other things, preserving the resource. As a hunter and fisherman, I want people to think well of me. I bristle at stereotypes, I wince at photos of 300 pound rednecks on ATVs proudly holding up forkhorns they shot under a jacklight. Aware of the public relations disaster that is too often the image of hunters viz the city folk, I dig it when the bad guys get their comeuppance.

I should be pleased, then, to see a few more ne’er-do-wells taken off the playing field in Montana.

Charges were recently filed in state district court against James Reed (Rexberg, Idaho), Blake Trangmoe (Glendive) and John Lewton (Whitehall). Lewton received the majority of the charges, including felony unlawful sale of a game animal, felony unlawful possession of a game animal, two misdemeanor counts of hunting without landowner permission, and a misdemeanor count of outfitting without a license.

Indeed, I should be pleased to see these guys caught. But…

From the Flathead Beacon

During Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s Aug. 11 visit to the North Fork of the Flathead River, he heard from members of various local conservation groups about ways to discourage the development of coalmines and gas drilling in British Columbia, north of Glacier National Park.

But when Dave Hadden of the Flathead Coalition spoke to Salazar, he wondered out loud whether there were measures the United States could take on its own territory to help the cause of preserving wildlife and water quality in the Flathead.

“What can we do south of the border to secure further protection, to demonstrate to the Canadians that we’re doing what we say we want them to do?” Hadden asked Salazar, along with Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. “There are proposals for Glacier National Park, there are dormant oil and gas leases in the North Fork, there are lands on the North Fork against the Canadian border that the Forest Service has recommended for Wilderness – these are the kinds of proactive things that we can do and assert our conservation vision for the watershed.”