Land & Water
missoula's open space bond
Beyond Open Space, Public Money Preserving Working Lands
Editor's note: This is the second story in a series on how Missoula's $10 million open space bond is being put to work. Click here for the first installment.
Missoula County's open space bond, passed by voters last November, rounded up $10 million dollars to ensure the protection of area lands for perpetuity. But it's not just for treasured viewsheds like the hills around Missoula. Traditional agricultural and timber lands -- working lands -- protect Montana's heritage, too.
An example, and one of Missoula County's first open space pay outs, is the Hayes family Circle Bar One Ranch in Potomac, east of Missoula in the Blackfoot Valley. The county bought the property's development rights in the form of a conservation easement -- a tool that's allowing the city and county to stretch their open space dollars, says Jackie Corday, Missoula open space program manager. Plus, she says, "it keeps farmers on the land."
As Jim Berkey of the Five Valleys Land Trust says, “We’re not going to have petroleum forever. It’s important to keep some land open for growing food nearby.”
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conservation overkill?
To Protect Cutthroat, the South Fork of the Flathead to be Poisoned
It sounds like the most drastic of measures -- killing an entire natural fishery in order to replace it with another.
But federal and state officials, and some environment groups, say a controversial plan to poison 21 lakes and streams in the South Fork Flathead River Watershed in Northwest Montana beginning next month is a necessary move, aimed at protecting one of Montana’s prized species, the native westslope cutthroat trout.
Others, including many local ranchers, businesses and outfitters, maintain that the Westslope Cutthroat Conservation Project's attempt to remove rainbow and hybrid trout species from the drainage is destined to fail, causing further damage to fragile ecosystems.
The opportunity for opponents to comment, however, has long passed, and barring unforeseen circumstances, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials will begin the poisoning project in early October.
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transboundary tussle
Baucus Slams BP Execs Over Mining ProposalIn a Washington D.C. meeting with executives for British Petroleum, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., issued his harshest rebukes yet for BP’s coalbed methane exploration proposal in the Canadian Flathead, according to a release sent from his office Monday afternoon. Baucus also called for public meetings in Kalispell to allow Montanans to weigh in on the project. [more]
fishing restrictions lifted
Rock Creek Reopens SaturdayAnglers and other recreationists will again have access to Rock Creek (and Rock Creek Road) beginning 7:00 a.m. Saturday with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks lifting the restrictions that have been in effect due to the nearby Sawmill Complex of fires and high water temperatures.
The river has been closed from Stony Creek to the Clark Fork since August 15, and from the Skalkaho Highway Bridge downstream to Windglass Bridge since August 2.
Area closures on the Lolo, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, and Bitterroot National Forests remain in effect. For more information, head to MFWP's Drought and Fire page.
guest editorial
Montana Stockgrowers Association Misses Mark on Rural ValuesOver the past few months, Congress has been debating broad sweeping legislation that will impact farm and ranch families all across the country. Two very important pieces of legislation are the farm bill that has now passed the House and various versions of energy reform being debated by both chambers. The farm bill contains much needed provisions such as finally implementing country of origin labeling, which will give consumers a choice and allow Montana producers to compete in a global marketplace where they find themselves on a less than level playing field. The energy proposals include incentives for renewable energy programs, like wind and biofuels. Family farmers ought to be part of the solution to our addiction to foreign oil. America's farmers have a history of helping their neighbors and country in times in crisis—much more than the likes of Exxon Mobile, and other big energy corporations.
While the debate is taking place it is my hope that the MSGA is doing a better job representing the interests of Montana's farm and ranch families in Washington than they do in the Montana Legislature.
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fishing restrictions lifted
Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers Open for AnglingThe Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers will open back up to fishing beginning Saturday, August 18.
With water temperatures having not exceeded 70 degrees for at least three consecutive days as of Wednesday, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is lifting the "hoot owl" restrictions (no fishing between 2 p.m. and midnight) that have been in effect since the middle of July.
Click "more" to get the status of other nearby fishing holes...
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Busy Week for Fires in Northern Rockies
A Record-Breaking Fire Season?Little over one week into August and the already-busy wildfire season is set to get even busier as continued dry conditions across the West set the stage for large, intense and long-lasting wildfires. The nation’s highest priority region remains the Northern Rockies Area where 11 large fires burn in Idaho and 13 in Montana. Currently, the top five priority fires—the Tin Cup, Jocko Lakes, Chippy Creek, Sawmill and Skyland Fires—are all burning in the Big Sky State.
This week, 10 Montana counties and the Blackfeet Nation fell under emergency declarations due to wildfires with three counties under disaster declarations. Officials evacuated several hundred homes throughout the week across western Montana. In Idaho, six counties are under disaster declarations.
August is typically the hottest, driest and busiest fire month in this region, but an existing drought and a trend of earlier, warmer springs resulted in mountain snow running off three weeks earlier than normal this year. The drought and earlier springs are combining with sustained above-average temperatures to create a longer fire season and some of the most extreme fire danger in history, according to the Northern Rockies Coordination Center (NRCC).
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Warm Water Blues
Montana Fly-Fishing Businesses Hurt by River Closures
As another week of 90-plus temperatures further warms Montana’s rivers and creeks, anglers all over are lamenting lost fishing time due to the sustained mandatory 2 p.m. to midnight fishing closures on 29 water bodies across the state.
Fishing guides and fly shops are feeling the heat more than anybody as trends of low snowpacks, early springs, scorching summers and ongoing drought put the squeeze on their bottom line. Fly-fishing businesses are largely reliant on tourists who come from all over the world to fish Montana’s legendary trout streams in the summer, and as Kris Kumlien, manager of Bozeman’s Montana Troutfitters explains, misperceptions about the situation are only making things worse.
“From a business perspective, the thing that’s hurt us more than anything else is the perception that everything is closed,” Kumlien says. “To put it bluntly, it sucks.”
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"a toxic time bomb"
Mike Horse Dam Above the Blackfoot River to be RemovedThe Mike Horse Dam and its meld of toxic mine wastes near the headwaters of the Blackfoot River will be fully removed, the Forest Service announced Tuesday.
Regional Forester Tom Tidwell signed the decision, which means that "at least 370,000 cubic yards of mill tailings containing lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, aluminum, manganese and arsenic in and around the unstable dam — formally known as an impoundment — must be removed and encapsulated," reports Eve Byron of the Helena Independent Record.
The IR called the dam a "toxic time bomb of sorts, just waiting for the inevitable mountain downpour or sudden thaw to wash it away — dumping tons of mining waste into one of Montana’s most revered trout streams," as it did in 1975.
Matt Clifford of the Missoula-based Clark Fork Coalition was quoted as saying, “This is happening because over 8,000 citizens wrote to the Forest Service and asked to get rid of this threat to the Blackfoot River.”
Who's paying for it? Asarco, it looks like, which acquired the Mike Horse Mine and Milling Company years ago. Click here for the full story by Eve Byron.
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Where Xutos tries to opt out of mosquito spraying
Don’t Spray MeI just sent off my personal skeeter abatement plan that I have implemented at my new home. Of course, I have not seen a mosquito in the yard and have not been bitten all summer. But you never know when the neighborhood could be preemptively sprayed.
Jen Miller at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides sent out a sample plan last week that anyone in the state can follow. She has run it by the Ada County Abatement officials, but it should apply in other counties as well. According to a new state law passed earlier this year, anyone can opt out of spraying if they follow a simple plan to abate mosquitioes on their own property.
Ironically, the Legislature intended this new law to make it easier for some counties to spray. But it does contain opt out language that organic farmers requested. So I'm opting out. Here's my plan. I'll just add that even if it's in my abatement plan, I don't really intend to use bug spray. But if you come over to visit you are welcome to daub it anywhere you like.
Oh, and feel free to steal the plan, customize her and send it in to WeedandPest@adaweb.net. If you live outside Ada County, send it to the proper mosquito abatement district.
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