Montana On The Ground

Independently reported news stories of Montana's people, land, water and wildlife.

New blood, ideas needed for Private Lands/Public Wildlife Council

July 07, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Managing wildlife is challenging when animals roam onto land where biologists cannot follow. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks increasingly finds itself in that situation when dealing with wildlife and private property.

Often, the best way to find workable solutions is to bring the interested parties to the table. So Gov. Steve Bullock is seeking landowners, hunters, anglers, outfitters and others interested in wildlife issues who are interested in a 2-year appointment to the Private Lands/Public Wildlife Council.

Lead-laced silt is revealed at the back of the Mike Horse Mine impoundment as DEQ crews work to remove the 1940s-era structure.                             Photo by Laur… — Lead-laced silt is revealed at the back of the Mike Horse Mine impoundment as DEQ crews work to remove the 1940s-era structure. Photo by Laura Lundquist

DEQ removes faulty Mike Horse Mine impoundment

July 07, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Montana is loaded with mining operations that have gone awry, leaving the state to deal with toxic waste and contaminated water. The copper mines of Butte and the Zortman-Landusky Mine near the Fort Belknap Reservation are two of the more egregious cases. But a small 1940s-era lead mine near Rogers Pass has its own notoriety.

In 1975, the Mike Horse Mine impoundment failed in the headwaters above Lincoln, causing 200,000 cubic yards of toxic waste to slide down the canyon and into the upper reach of the Blackfoot River. Four decades on, scientists still find traces of lead and zinc from the mine in the river, and fishermen complain that trout populations have not fully recovered.

For about the past decade, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Forest Service have worked in fits and starts to reclaim the Mike Horse Mine and the spill area below. This summer, the derelict impoundment is being demolished.

Read more in my story on the DEQ reclamation and the mine's history here.

Bighorn lambs die along popular fishing stream

July 06, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has a goal of establishing five new wild sheep herds by 2022. But it's struggling to maintain the herds it has in the face of disease carried by domestic sheep.

In recent years, a number of wild herds have suffered major die-offs over the course of a single year, as sheep succumb to pneumonia. Those that survive may have a certain level of immunity, but their lambs often die, possibly infected by their own parents. As a result, the herd slowly dwindles.

How useless a death then, when a healthy lamb is killed by a careless driver. That's happened repeatedly in the Rock Creek Canyon east of Missoula, where some homeowners and an increasing number of anglers and visitors - many from out of state - escape to the woods and the river.

It's a challenge for a wildlife agency that can do little more than put up caution signs.

Heat wave increases threats of wildfire, fish kills

July 02, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

For the past week, the jet stream has forced Montana to resemble Arizona, prompting several fireworks and fishing restrictions.

High temperature records for the end of June have been blown out of the water in Montana, especially in the western part of the state. The heat settled over Washington, Idaho and Montana over the weekend, and temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal should last at least until Sunday.

Bison manager ends 40-year career with FWP

July 01, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

The Dood abides but no longer within Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

Tuesday was the last day of a 40-year career in FWP for threatened and endangered species coordinator Arne Dood.

Trumpeter swan populations inch toward recovery

June 25, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Two more trumpeter swans grace the waters of the Blackfoot Valley, although they were a little hesitant to dive into freedom, maybe sensing the responsibility they carry.

Honking like Ford Model T’s and waving their splayed black feet, two yearling trumpeter swans were carried to the edge of Jones Lake, where volunteers gently placed them in the water on Saturday.

But rather than swimming away as their predecessors have done, the birds started waddling back toward their cages and the crowd of a dozen or so onlookers.

Finally encouraged to return to the water, they swam out to follow more than 165 other swans that have been released on the lake over the past decade, thanks to a partnership led by the Blackfoot Challenge.

Heat wave spells early trouble for Montana trout

June 24, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

River levels are dropping rapidly as summer temperatures continue to climb, and both trends spell trouble for Montana’s trout. As Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks prepares for fishing closures, anglers can do some things to help fish out.

By Saturday, high temperatures are predicted to top 100 degrees and stay that way at least through Wednesday for parts of western Montana. That’s 20 to 25 degrees above normal for this time of year and the extended heat wave will break records, according to the National Weather Service. It's a preview of what summers may become due to climate change.

Even worse, the nighttime lows are predicted to barely sink into the 60s, so there won’t be much relief.

While some Montanans can escape to air-conditioned houses, wildlife that aren’t adapted to such hot weather are in for a miserable week.

Audit finds lack of consistency and clarity in game-damage program

June 23, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

A legislative audit has taken Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to task for a lack of consistency and oversight in carrying out a program to reduce game damage to property.

On Tuesday, state auditor Joe Murray explained the 11 problems he and his staff found with FWP’s game-damage program based upon almost 600 landowner requests made over the past five years.

Give a snake a break

June 22, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Missoula is home to Rattlesnake Creek, and now more people are becoming aware that it's also home to a few rattlesnakes.

The Missoula office of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has recently received several calls about rattlesnakes around Missoula.

Some of the callers were obviously concerned, and some have expressed surprise to find rattlesnakes in the area. But southwestern Montana - particularly in the Clark Fork, Bitterroot and lower Flathead river valleys - and the area east of the Continental Divide have always been home to prairie rattlesnakes.

Report recommends more room, flexibility for park bison

June 19, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

On Friday, three national wildlife organizations released their ideas of what should be included in a new Yellowstone bison management plan so that bison have more room to roam.

The National Parks Conservation Association, the National Wildlife Federation and the Wildlife Conservation Society published a 44-page report detailing more than a dozen recommendations as Yellowstone National Park and the State of Montana begins to revise the out-dated 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan.

The 90-day public scoping period closed Monday on proposals for the new IBMP. The recommendations in the report are just some of the more than 3,000 comments received.

Sportsmen and wildlife advocates want Yellowstone bison to be managed as wildlife in larger areas of Montana using more science- and risk-based analysis than was in the previous plan.

Politicians seek to block September sage-grouse decision

June 16, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

When industries could be affected, politicians use legislation to block environmental laws or stall science-based decisions. Such is the case with sage-grouse survival as a Sept. 30 deadline approaches for a U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision.

Members of Congress are proposing amendments to at least two pieces of legislation to prohibit or at least delay a USFWS decision on whether the sage grouse should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Lawsuit challenges sheep grazing in Gravelly Mountains

June 15, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

In a second attempt to eliminate public-land grazing in the Gravelly Range, a Bozeman-based wildlife group is suing the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

On Thursday, the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act and National Forest Management Act by allowing 8,000 domestic sheep to graze in the Gravelly Mountains. The lawsuit was filed in the Missoula federal district court on behalf of the Gallatin Wildlife Association.

The plaintiffs claim that allowing domestic sheep to graze on the national forest, especially in a wild area near Yellowstone National Park like the Gravelly Range, endangers grizzly bears and wild sheep.

FWP considers return of late-season elk hunts, surplus licenses

June 14, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

As Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks tries to control elk numbers, hunters may get a longer rifle season this year. But many question whether a longer season with no additional access can make a dent in the population.

After three hours of debate Thursday, the FWP commission reluctantly voted to send an elk-hunting proposal out to 60 days' of public comment.

As frustration grows over elk management in some areas of the state, the proposal seeks to reduce landowner/hunter tensions by providing elk hunting outside the usual five-week season and surplus or “A7” licenses for antlerless elk in areas where populations are over FWP objectives.

Montana FWP opens comment on state bison plan

June 11, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Montanans have 90 days to weigh in on if and how they'd like Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to proceed with establishing a state bison herd.

At Thursday's FWP commission meeting, Non-game Wildlife Management Chief Lauri Hanauska-Brown announced the release of a draft environmental study for the possible creation of a state bison herd.

"This is a different effort from the (Yellowstone) IBMP or the west-side expansion. The purpose is to determine whether the restoration of bison is appropriate somewhere in Montana," Hanauska-Brown said. "These are not site-specific alternatives - they are broad alternatives."