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ONE PLUM CREEK IS ALREADY TOO MUCH

A few weeks ago, down at the saloon, where I regularly get lots of advice about what to write about, I heard about the major western Montana landowner traditionally only interested in timber management but now changing its focus to real estate development.

Everybody already knows about Plum Creek, I replied.

But they weren't talking about Plum Creek Timber Company, the largest private landowner in the USA, and it's now-notorious plan to become the largest real estate developer in the USA. They were worrying about the State of Montana becoming "another Plum Creek."

And it wasn't just bar talk. [more]

from the new west blog: Fish and Game Sets Dates

It's almost time for people from all over the world to descend on Idaho to fish our spectacular rivers.

We natives know the best places, of course. But it's hard to beat Idaho's Salmon River.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission Thursday, May 22, adopted Chinook salmon seasons on the Upper Salmon River and the South Fork Salmon River.

The Upper Salmon will be open from June 19 until August 2 or until further notice. Fishing will be open on the main Salmon River from the Highway 75 bridge – milepost 231.5 – about 10 miles west of Clayton – upstream to the posted boundary 100 yards downstream of the weir at Sawtooth Hatchery.

[more]

2008 COMMENTS WORTH REPEATING IV

There's one thing--and probably the only thing-- about the wolf on which everybody can agree. Every time the word is published or spoken, disagreement follows--and sometimes, that controversy gets amazingly passionate.

Over the past few months, I've written about wolves, the historic reintroduction, wolf management and the delisting controversy, and here are a few snippets of the hundreds of comments that followed. [more]

sharing the road

Cyclists will convene at Caras Park in downtown Missoula Wednesday for the Ride of Silence, an event in cities worldwide aimed at honoring those who have been injured or killed by motor vehicles on public roadways, raising awareness of cyclists and pedestrians, and promoting the concept that all road users must share the road and take responsibility for safety.

Event director Monica LaBarge says the ride is the opposite of Critical Mass, the loosely organized take-over of city streets by cyclists. "The point is not to aggravate people," she says. Instead, the ride is "to really show we can all get along." [more]

SHARE THE ROAD, NOT THE LANE, WITH CYCLISTS

A couple of weeks ago, I was riding my bike up MacDonald Pass, on four-lane U.S Highway 12, on the shoulder. It was a mid-day, low-traffic time, and even though the left lane was available, a driver purposely hazed me by speeding by with his right wheel on the fog line going at least 80 mph. His mirror missed my helmet by about six inches. One minor correction to miss a rough spot on the road, and I wouldn't be writing this.

Besides wondering if this reckless driver realizes how close he came to killing somebody, the incident reminded me of one of the first commentaries I wrote for NewWest.Net when I started the Wild Bill column three years ago called I Can Feel the Scorn. I'm sorry to say that I can still feel it. [more]

SAME ROAD, SAME RULES, SAME RIGHTS

Commendably, and with the counsel of a committee of road cyclists from around the state, the Montana Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) allowed me to re-write the three-page bicycle section of the Montana Driver's Manual, which is now being distributed. It replaces a woefully outdated bicycle section written decades ago and constantly re-used with minor if any updating.

In it, I emphasized the "same road, same rules, same rights" philosophy and urged motorists to "share the road, not the lane." [more]

LET'S GET OUR WORDS STRAIGHT

Have you ever heard somebody say they prefer "multiple use" over Wilderness? I have what seems like a thousand times, and every time I hear it, I say to myself, wrong!

So, it seems like a good time to say it out loud because the words, "multiple use" have been lost in the Wilderness. [more]

CLASS ACTION SUITS TO BE FILED TUESDAY IN ARIZONA, COLORADO

Enough is enough, say the owners of our national forests. And they may have finally found a way to spike the Recreation Access Tax or RAT.

After years of working through cumbersome administrative channels and several rounds in criminal court, people interested in reasonable and free access to their public land have dragged the Forest Service (FS) into civil court. In addition to asking for injunctions against collecting "illegal" fees while the case is being litigated and if successful the fee program terminated, the plaintiffs in the class action complaints--to be filed tomorrow morning in Arizona and Colorado--want all fee collection signs removed and all fees collected through the years under the program returned to the people who shouldn't have had to pay them.

Suffice to say, it's panic time in the FS offices back in Washington, D.C. [more]

2008 COMMENTS WORTH REPEATING III

Over the past two years, I've been periodically posting selections of my favorite comments from readers of my columns and articles. I plan to continue doing this, but differently. Instead of listing comments chronologically, I've edited them into general subject areas. In this case, here are a few insightful comments that came in over the past few months on several articles on the wilderness drought and the green group feud that keeps it alive and if not endless. Enjoy.

Editor's Note: For a complete list of Comments Worth Repeating, click here.
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COMMENTARY

Eight months ago, President Bush signed an executive order directing federal agencies to do everything necessary to "facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat."

The president gave those agencies--specifically the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (FS)--a year to come up with a plan to implement this order, which was, conceptually anyway, drafted to combat news that participation in hunting was waning in the United States.

About the same time, the BLM announced plans to lease the Roan Plateau in Colorado for natural gas development. Plans were also announced to lease nearly 45,000 acres of land in the Hoback River drainage of western Wyoming, and the West was--and still is--in the throes of a full-on energy boom. Sportsmen--the very people who stood to benefit from Executive Order 13443--were deeply involved in important campaigns to protect a number of special places throughout the West from irresponsible oil and gas drilling that would not only trash important fish and game habitat, but significantly reduce hunting and fishing opportunity. [more]

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