University of Montana Law School Conference

The US Forest Service needs an overhaul in its management of public lands in order to effectively handle diverse recreation, climate change, extractive industries, as well as align with an emerging land ethic, said a prominent panel at the University of Montana Land Law conference.

The University of Montana 32nd annual Land Law Conference took place earlier this week in Missoula. This panel discussion on the future of the Forest Service as it moves into the next administration, was just one of the many in-depth land law discourses presented at the conference. [more]

CHANGE FOCUS TO SAVING WILDLAND HABITAT

Even though it has been around for 36 years, I suspect most people don't know that this Saturday, September 27, is National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Let's make this one the best ever by launching a national effort to protect the last of the best wildlife habitat we have left, our 58 million acres of roadless public land. [more]

Guest Commentary

Editor's Note: If you visit NewWest.Net regularly, you know I've frequently written about the gun issue, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the rival organization, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA). Every time I mention AHSA, commenters claim the group is nothing but a front for anti-gun groups or the ultra-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, or both. To address these concerns, I asked the ASHA to respond in detail to these claims. The Advisory Board of the AHSA prepared the following guest commentary exclusively for NewWest.Net.--Bill Schneider

The recent national Slash and Burn: Why Does the National Rifle Association Leadership Support Congress's Biggest Opponents of Conservation?", a report prepared by the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) to shed light on NRA’s dismal conservation record, has once again fired up the old McCarthy-style, NRA-attack machine.

Rather than question the accuracy of the report, AHSA critics, once again dredge up old character attacks of AHSA leadership and guilt by association innuendo. In the past the AHSA leadership has not responded to the ridiculous NRA attacks, but now may be the best time to publicly respond to the absurd allegations that many NRA apologists on the internet feel compelled repeat.
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From The New West Blog

Outdoor magazine Field & Stream has posted interviews with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, providing insights into their positions on conservation, energy exploration and gun rights.

While neither candidate hunts or owns a gun, both have been busy wooing those who do -- especially as the Rocky Mountain West has emerged as a battleground.

A cursory summary after the jump. [more]

WHAT IS THE CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION HIDING?

My July 9 column titled, Hunters, Look Beyond the End of Your Gun Barrel, urged hunters to look at the big picture instead of basing their vote exclusively on the gun rights issue, which I consider basically over since politicians won't touch it and the Supreme Court has finally reaffirmed the individual's right to bear arms. The column wasn't about whether Barack Obama is more anti-gun than John McCain, even though most of the comments were. It was about voting for the candidate who would do the most to protect wildlife habitat and hunting access and therefore help save our hunting tradition.

Ironically, on the same day I posted that column, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about a new poll showing hunters preferred McCain over Obama by a 14-point margin.

This didn't jive with my feel for how hunters view the big race, so I decided to check out this survey.

Then, it got interesting. [more]

From New West Blog

A judge ruled that Yellowstone National Park’s proposed increase in snowmobile use would have adverse effects on the nation’s first national park.

Federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan stated in his ruling that the proposed number of snowmobiles “clearly elevates use over conservation of park resources and values,” reports the New York Times.

The order negates the current plan to increase 540 snowmobiles daily into the park for the upcoming winter season, and demands another draft of the plan.
[more]

'LONG-TERM TEMPORARY ROADS'

While the fate of a federal roadless rule protecting millions of pristine acres across the country remains in question, Colorado is moving forward with its own proposal to protect roadless lands across the state.

That proposal is under fire from environmentalists, though, who say it doesn’t go far enough. Among the most vulnerable areas, they say, are tens of thousands of acres in western Colorado, where so-called “long-term temporary roads” could be blazed through roadless areas to reach natural gas reserves.

“In our minds, that doesn’t follow in the definition of roadless,” says Clare Bastable, conservation director for the Colorado Mountain Club. [more]

If you float down the Clark Fork River for three hours from Missoula, Montana you’ll come to the charred remains of Harper’s Bridge. An emblem of folly, like all ruins, this one stands for the ludicrous attempt by private landowners to keep the rest of us away from the water.

I started hanging out here in the 1960s, when I moved to Missoula to dodge the draft by enrolling in college, a strategy that worked till it didn’t.

I squandered many hours flailing around with my frat brothers in the deep holes, jumping off the bridge, and trying to convince our Kappa Kappa Gamma dates that these bright beaches were topless. [more]

SNOW CAPS

Western ski resorts are finding themselves pinched for employees this coming winter, thanks to a cap on visa workers that has all but eliminated their usual stream of foreign workers who fill thousands of jobs.

The shortfall sent Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, to Washington last week to lobby legislators for help in what has become an unusual sideline in the national immigration debate. [more]

HUNTERS SHOULD DO MORE OF IT

Editor's Note: This is a rerun of a column I posted two years ago, slightly expanded with new research, and it seems, still quite timely.

Big game hunters, it's your time to rule the forests. Archery seasons are underway, and general big game seasons will be soon throughout the New West. Thousands of hunters will be crawling around grizzly country in the predawn darkness, alone, as quietly as possible, into the wind, and smelling like stale elk pee. If they have a successful hunt, they'll fill the wind with the smell of high-quality grizzly food.

Is this a problem? [more]