Parks & National Forests
Energy, Environment
House Passes Mining Reform, White House Threatens VetoThe House voted 244-166 to reform a 135-year-old mining law Thursday afternoon, and force the hardrock mining industry to pay royalties on minerals extracted from public lands – just like the coal, oil and gas industries.
The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (HR 2262) requires miners on federal lands to pay royalties of 8 percent of gross income on new mining operations, four percent on existing operations.
Republicans like Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho, predicted that the bill will destroy the American mining industry, exporting jobs and the industry to overseas countries that have little or no environmental regulations and have child labor in the mines. The White House has threatened a veto, saying that placement of royalties on existing mining operations invites lawsuits.
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Connecting the Greater Yellowstone Area
Meeting Focuses on Regional Biofuel Public Transportation
With the hopes of creating a network of public biofuel transportation systems throughout the Greater Yellowstone Area—particularly between Livingston, Bozeman and Gardiner—local government officials and citizens held a community meeting at the Livingston Public Library on Friday, October 19, 2007.
The City of Livingston and Park County are currently involved in a Transportation Advisory Committee with David Kack of the Western Transportation Institute and Bozeman’s Streamline bus service. The committee’s goal is to provide a commuter bus service between Livingston, Bozeman and Gardiner.
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Discover trail closures with no names on map
Sparsely Labeled Gallatin Forest Recreation Map Released
The long-awaited motor vehicle travel plan for the Gallatin National Forest became available to the public today— but with maps that are not clearly marked.
The Gallatin National Forest is stressing that particular areas and trails are now closed to motorized travel unless designated open, with up to a $5,000 penalty. The new maps are the only place to locate these closures since updating trail route markers and destination signs are only now getting underway.
But with trails marked only by a number, and without topographic lines and names of lakes, streams, roads, highways, mountain ranges or some towns like Livingston and Cook City, deciphering these maps is a challenge.
Some organizations are already calling for a redo.
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Celebrating National Public Lands Day
Free Admission at Yellowstone and Glacier National ParksThe endless RV brigades of the summer tourist season have slowly made their departures from our national parks and autumn, a thankful reprieve from the scorching heat and smoky air, has finally arrived - the ideal time to get out and enjoy our public lands. And for the penny-pinching, ramen noodle eating, debt ridden among us, we won’t even have to worry about an admission fee for one day.
In celebration of the 14th Annual National Public Lands Day, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks are opening their gates and waiving all entrance fees on Sept. 29. That’s $25 for a private, non-commercial rig. In my world, that’s enough savings to justify splurging on a burger and a beer on the way home.
And that’s not all folks!
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Non-profits of the Gallatin Valley
Greater Yellowstone Coalition: Striving to Keep an Ecosystem Whole
The Gallatin Valley is home to over 200 non-profits. These organizations do not hinge on metropolitan amenities, and are often created to preserve the intact rural and wild places of the West. As part of our New West economy, NewWest/Bozeman is highlighting an organization as a weekly series.
Encompassing two national parks and six national forests, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the largest, relatively intact temperate zone ecosystems in North America. This unique patchwork of public and private lands spans three states and continues to house nearly all of its original native species.
Created under the notion that an ecosystem will only remain healthy and wild if it is kept whole, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition has been a leading voice in ecosystem management and strives to fulfill their mission statement: “People protecting the lands, waters and wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem now and for future generations”
Today, this non-profit has 20 board members, 25 staff members and more than 10,000 members from all 50 states, with approximately one-third of those members residing in the three states that comprise the ecosystem, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Rivers Conservation Coordinator, Scott Bosse, expands on GYC and their efforts.
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COUNTY QUALMS
Bill to Aid Struggling Rural Timber Counties Moves Forward
A plan to continue payments to rural counties hit by the loss of timber revenues has been nudged forward after winning approval from a House committee.
The so-called “county payments” program would continue for another four years under the bill, helping rural counties and school systems that have struggled since the decline of the timber industry.
“The county payments program is the lifeblood of rural counties across America who serve as stewards of our federal lands,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who sponsored the bill. “These rural counties cannot continue to survive indefinitely in crisis mode. They need certainty, and they need time to transition and plan how they're going to operate with reduced federal assistance.”
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NEWWESTERNERS: INTERVIEW WITH BOB 'ACTION' JACKSON, PART V
A Bare-Knuckled Poke At Public Bison Herds In the West
As NewWest.Net's conversation with Bob 'Action' Jackson continues, the former Yellowstone Park backcountry ranger-turned-bison-rancher ignites rhetorical fireworks by offering a blunt assessment of public land management agencies overseeing bison populations across the West. He also takes aim at academics conducting research and teaching students in land grant universities. Jackson's scathing critique reminds many why he was such a divisive figure while working for the National Park Service. But does challenging the status quo make him wrong? [more]
Guest Column
Getting Out of the Way: Respecting Ranchers, Habitat and Bison
Recently the Gallatin Wildlife Association was allowed to present our bison management suggestions to the Montana Board of Livestock, an opportunity for which we are immensely grateful.
We’ve long felt we have a unique opportunity for a true win-win when it comes to wild bison in Montana. Our suggestions completely support private property rights, protect our brucellosis-free status, embrace the situation as an asset, harvest a whole lot more buffalo, and require very little to no change in current livestock practices in areas adjacent to Yellowstone.
The adjacent map of the Montana portion of the Greater Yellowstone area demonstrates yet again how lucky we are to live in Montana! We have a landscape that lends itself perfectly to a common-sense solution. Although, after reading Bob Jackson's viewpoints on social structures in bison herds, I’m going to have a harder time using the word “management,” and may try to avoid it. All we really have to do is get out of the way.
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Motorized Travel Continues
Final Winter Plan Reduces Snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park
The National Park Service released the final Winter-Use Environmental Impact Statement for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks — the fourth such study in less than 10 years with a total price tag of $10 million. Not to mention, a long-running controversy.
Under the new plan, 540 snowmobiles and 83 snowcoaches would be allowed a day into Yellowstone National Park. Snowmobiles still requiring the use a commercial guide and quiet, cleaner engine technology.
The plan will be implemented in the 2008-2009 season, therefore still allowing 720 snowmobiles a day for the upcoming season.
But the numbers of visitors using snowmobiles — historically in the thousands — has steadily held to an average of 250-290 snowmobiles a day over the past four years.
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NEWWESTERNERS: INTERVIEW WITH BOB 'ACTION' JACKSON, PART IV
What Does Bison Restoration Look Like? One Rancher’s View
In autumn 2006, the Wildlife Conservation Society held a landmark conference in Denver on the future of North American bison. Among the questions being pondered was this: Should bison be listed as a federally-protected species in the U.S. and moreover, do they warrant placement on the IUCN's Red List as an imperiled animal in need of global focus?
While no one in attendance disagreed with the fact that bison, when numbering in the tens of millions, were once keystone species on the Great Plains, shaping the health and structure of plant, animal, and human communities, there is a divergence of opinion about whether buffalo can ever be restored to such large numbers that they again fulfill their historic role.
In part four of NewWest.Net's ongoing conversation with bison rancher Bob "Action" Jackson, the former Yellowstone Park ranger says bison recovery is less about numbers, pure genetics or legal classification and more about examining their functional role on the landscape which stems from understanding the nature of the beast.
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