Independently reported news stories of Montana's people, land, water and wildlife.
The Department of the Interior would ban new mining operations to save the sage grouse on public land, but the public will be allowed to weigh in.
On Sept. 24, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service announced the temporary ban on new mining claims on lands critical to sage grouse survival in six Western states.
Read MoreMontana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has stepped back a decade in its management of elk populations.
On Thursday, the FWP commission reluctantly voted to approve FWP’s plan to reinstate shoulder seasons for elk. Then FWP sidestepped some of the new guidelines when it proposed pilot shoulder seasons to begin in December.
Read MoreAt the urging of both trappers and wolf advocates, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks commission has killed a proposal to allow FWP to put its wolf-trapping course online.
FWP Big Game chief John Vore asked the commissioners to approve the online course Thursday mainly to save FWP time and effort.
Read MoreThursday’s Fish, Wildlife & Parks commission meeting promises to be lively as commissioners take up the elk-shoulder season proposal among other things, and FWP may reveal its final decision on the game-damage rule.
Sportsmen are anticipating a struggle with a few landowners who are pushing FWP to give landowners more control over hunts on their land. Even though sportsmen fund most of FWP's budget, a few state legislators have tried to manipulate FWP rules in landowners' favor.
Read MoreThe Republican members of a Senate subcommittee are looking to Western governors to give them fodder to limit the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
On Tuesday, three Republican members of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works held a hearing that they titled “Improving the Endangered Species Act.”
The hearing coincided with a Washington, D.C., meeting of the Western Governor’s Association, and WGA chairman Gov. Matt Mead, Wyo., has made the ESA the focus of this year’s WGA initiative.
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Dear readers,
Please forgive the somewhat spotty news postings of late. I have been working on other stories to sell so I can support my news habit. Unfortunately, it takes away from Montana On The Ground.
Now I am headed out to help scientists collect data on the Wilderness Study Areas in the Upper Missouri Breaks Monument and won't return until Sept. 26. I won't be far from the Bullwacker area so I wouldn't be surprised if we see some bow hunters.
Once I return, I should be able to support myself long enough to keep you reading steadily for a while. In the meantime, please be patient and thanks for reading.
Home to diverse groups of people and wildlife, Montana's mountains must be conserved carefully. But the mountains don’t stop at the Canadian border, and one country's actions can affect the other. So a growing collective of conservation, industry, education and cultural leaders are working together to preserve the land and lifestyles on both sides of the border.
Now in its sixth year, the Roundtable On the Crown of the Continent met this week in Missoula, bringing together about 200 people who live and work in the northern Rocky Mountains to identify challenges and celebrate a few successes.
Read MoreA legislative committee may have the final say on whether Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks changes its rule related to game damage hunts.
After hearing an hour’s worth of public comment during Thursday’s Environmental Quality Council hearing, legislators decided to schedule a committee conference call before FWP publishes any changes to the game-damage hunt rule. If the committee decides to object to the final rule, it would postpone implementation of the rule for six months.
Read MoreMontana is following Wyoming’s lead when it comes to sage grouse conservation, as evidenced by a new executive order from Gov. Steve Bullock.
At Wednesday’s Environmental Quality Council meeting, legislative research analyst Hope Stockwell explained to legislators the various amendments that the governor signed Tuesday night to bolster Montana’s sage grouse conservation strategy.
Read MoreThe debate that occurred during a Legislative hearing is probably a microcosm of the Congressional struggle taking place over the re-authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
On Thursday, the members of the Water Policy Interim Committee argued about whether they should send a letter supporting Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-N.C,) bill to permanently reauthorize the 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Read More“The places that matter are not always made of brick and mortar.”
Amy Sakariassen’s comment was the essence of the testimony heard by a federal advisory council that is deciding whether drilling for oil and gas would degrade historic sites in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountain Front.
Read MoreFollowing the 2015 Legislature, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hurried to launch some big projects. But a few proposals are similar enough that they have caused confusion for sportsmen, and that’s bred distrust.
The two most contentious proposals deal with Montana’s elk season, or rather the hunts that can be allowed outside the normal five-week season. For the past two months, FWP commissioners have received lots of calls about proposals dealing with shoulder seasons and game damage hunts.
Read MoreLOLO – Clark Fork Coalition project manager Jed Whiteley lives a mile away from Lolo Creek and has seen the lower stretch dry up before. The flows can vary from year to year, but this summer is like nothing he’s seen before.
“This year, it bottomed out earlier than it has since we started monitoring. It bottomed out way back in July,” Whiteley said. “We’re looking at a historic low year, and I think the smoke and everything else proves that.”
Read MoreA landowner who regularly interferes with the public's access to one of Montana’s streams has the notoriety of being a point of concern at two Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission meetings.
Landowner Sean Tetica has repeatedly threatened recreationalists trying to use the Boulder Forks Fishing Access Site to launch their boats onto the Boulder River south of Big Timber.
Read MoreThe 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund will sunset in September unless Congress renews it. If Congress supports it, Montanans will be able to continue creating more parks, preserving more hunting spots and saving working ranches and timber sources. But with just about a month to go until it expires, the fund needs a big show of support.
Missoula residents don’t need to look far to find areas where LWCF money has already been put to work.
Read MorePopular boating areas always suffer from over-use and degradation, so the Bureau of Land Management is considering charging fees for float trips through Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument.
Friday is the start of a 30-day comment period to allow the public to weigh in on proposed user fees for camping and floating through the National Wild and Scenic portion of the Missouri River.
Read MoreA $2 million federal grant will help preserve logging and habitat in northwestern Montana, but it may be one of the last to do so if Congress doesn’t renew the Land and Water Conservation Fund by Sept. 30.
Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $2 million to the Trust for Public Land to help with the purchase of a conservation easement of almost 7,200 acres in the Trumbull Creek watershed near Columbia Falls.
Read MoreUp to now, Montana has remained a state where many voters still pay attention to candidates' stands on issues rather than the letter behind their name. So with the first Republican considering a run for the governor’s office, sportsmen should consider how he might respond to wildlife and public-land issues.
On Monday, Montanans learned that billionaire Greg Gianforte had filed papers with the Secretary of State’s office to begin raising money for a possible gubernatorial run on the GOP ticket.
Read MoreMontana Fish, Wildlife & Parks managers say they want public input on some elk-hunting rule changes, but they held comments to a minimum at two poorly advertised meetings.
During a Wednesday night videoconference, FWP landowner/sportsmen coordinator Alan Charles explained a number of changes that FWP managers want to make to administrative rules pertaining to game damage hunts. A similar videoconference was held Tuesday night for different FWP regions.
The changes were prompted by a June Legislative audit of FWP’s game damage hunt program, which found 11 deficiencies.
Read MoreAfter a Yellowstone National Park seasonal employee recently died after being attacked by a grizzly bear, some are rallying against a park decision to euthanize the bear.
On Friday, Lance Crosby, 63, of Billings was found dead a half-mile off the Elephant Back Loop trail near Lake Village on the northwest shore of Yellowstone Lake.
On Wednesday afternoon, an autopsy confirmed that Crosby hadn't died of any other medical condition, so it's likely he was killed by a bear, according to the Associated Press. An earlier National Park Service statement said wounds on Crosby’s arms appeared to be defensive.
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