Merry Christmas

We would have offered a non-denominational salutation, but fear drawing the wrath of Bill O'Reilly. We're signing off for the year. But don't worry, we'll be back stronger than ever in 2009.

Cheers,
Rob

More wolf news

More from Kalispell on the ever-expanding wolf population in northwest Montana. There's so many wolves FWP is having a hard time counting them all here, and the ongoing battle for delisting here.

Booming wolf populations anger hunters

It's well past time wolves were delisted and management of this successfully recovered, formerly endangered species was given to states with responsible management plans — Montana and Idaho. A story in Sunday's Daily Inter Lake examines the growing anger among hunters who are encountering a growing wolf population in the wild. With the population booming and wolf encounters growing exponentially, frustration, and more importantly, opposition to wolves in the wild will grow.

What wolf advocates need to understand is that their knee-jerk opposition to wolf management — including the responsible action taken by FWP to kill an entire pack in the Kalispell region with a chronic taste for cattle — is doing more harm than good for the species. Wolf fans need to come to terms with the fact that wolf recovery will include wolves being killed. Wolves will be killed by hunters and game managers as we work to keep the population at a manageable level.

One of the lessons we're learning with wolf reintroduction is that recovery was the easy part. Management of recovered wolves, now that's another story.

Slough still closed?

I doubt there is a court in Montana that would find you guilty if someone pressed "No Trespassing" charges against you for fishing Mitchell Slough. But really, if you can't wait for the final phase of the legal process to unfold, and have to fish there right not, as winter finally arrives in Montana, I'd say you've got a little too much time on your hands.

Stream access wins big

Here's a column I wrote for Writers on the Range about the recent court decision on Mitchell Slough.

Nice weather, slow season

It's been a mild fall in Montana. That's great if you don't like shoveling snow or skiing, but lousy for hunting.

Another reason for delisting

Wolves are hitting one Big Hole rancher particularly hard. This is just another reason why it is important to get wolves delisted. Each example similar to this becomes more ammo for the anti-wolf crowd. Delisting and a wolf hunting season would get wolf supporters an effective rejoinder.

And more debate about the number of livestock kills by wolves.

Tester keeps the heat on Plum Creek give away

Sen. John Tester is seeking an investigation into the Plum Creek easement deal.

Farm Bureau not pleased with Slough ruling

Landowners along Mitchell Slough aren't talking about the Supreme Court ruling yet. But the Montana Farm Bureau made it clear it was not pleased with the ruling in this press release.

Good news in the Bitterroot

The Montana Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, overturned a lower court decision that blocked access to Mitchell Slough, a side channel of the Bitterroot River. This ends the latest chapter in the long-running debate at Mitchell Slough regarding its status under the Montana Stream Access Law. Hunters and anglers have long argued that the Slough is governed by the SAL. Landowners along the Slough, most notably rocker Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News fame, have in recent decades tried to prevent public access.

The lower court ruled that the Slough was no longer a "natural" waterway as it has been altered by irrigators in the Bitterroot for more than a century. But the Supreme Court shot down that "logic" as it would have meant every river or stream in Montana that has been altered by man (ie. all of them) might no longer be covered by the law.

Flathead Open Space going fast

Flathead County residents will vote on a $10 million open space bond on Nov. 4.

The bad news is that the Flathead is one of Montana's most conservative counties, with a definite hostility toward government taking ownership of private land or private development rights — even when that exchange involves willing sellers.

The good news is despite that anti-government bias, polls show two-thirds of county residents support the idea.

Let's hope the polls are right.

Mack Days is on

Here are the early results from the fall Mack Days at Flathead Lake.

The kill-em-all fishing contest is geared toward reducing the number of highly predatory, non-native lake trout, which are taking a major toll on the lake's dwindling populations of native bull and westslope cutthroat trout.

Forest Service, counties at odds over Plum Creek easements

The Forest Service continues to push its liberal interpretation of Plum Creek road easements on public land in western Montana. Sen. Jon Tester has stood with the counties against what amounts to a huge give away to Plum Creek, the former timber company that has morphed into one of the West's largest real estate companies.

If we can fight this one off until the Obama administration takes office, we'll be in much better shape.

Can't tell which side is worse

It looks as though the Fish and Wildlife Service is headed back to the drawing board with wolf delisting in the Northern Rockies.

I don't know which side annoys us more, the livestock groups that oppose wolf reintroduction, or the enviro groups which oppose any sort of delisting.

The reintroduction of wolves in Montana/Idaho/Wyoming has been a smashing success. It's time to delist and get on with state management of the species. Montana and Idaho are ready. Wyoming needs to get its act together.

Bridges of Butte-Silver Bow County

Landowners eye bridges across the Big Hole River, with new development the goal.

Good news on griz

A study of grizzly bear DNA in and around Glacier National Park pegs the population at more than 750 animals. That number is higher than previous estimates, and generally reveals good news about griz populations in and around the Park.

Check that sweet griz photo by the Daily Inter Lake's Karen Nichols.

Back to the drawing board on wolf delisting

The Feds will scrap their previous plan for delisting wolves in the Northern Rockies, and hopefully come up with a plan that will hold up in court. Seriously — wolf populations are healthy. Maybe too healthy in the Idaho panhandle. This success story of the most important environmental law in the history of the planet — the Endangered Species Act — won't be complete until we celebrate recovery with a delisting party.

Restoration is messy

It looks as though the restoration of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers through the removal of the Milltown Dam isn't going as well as anticipated. That's not a huge surprise. What the models predict, and what nature actually unleashes in response to change are often two different things. Just as there are unintended consequences to efforts to manipulate or profit from natural resources, there can also be unanticipated consequences to attempts to reverse environmental degradation.

There's another look at the issue here, but you need to be a High Country News subscriber to access the story.

I recall a conversation I once had with an Arizona Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist. We were talking about the trout fishery at Lees Ferry on the Colorado River, and how efforts to change Glen Canyon Dam (which creates Lake Powell) might harm that tailwater fishery, or native fish farther down in the Grand Canyon. The biologist replied to one of my questions by remarking how some seem to believe all you need to do to reverse environmental harm is to remove the offending impact, be it a dam, cattle, logging, etc. But the reality is often far different. Sometimes the changes wrought by those changes make it difficult or impossible for an ecosystem to return to its preimpact conditions. The impact sets the ecosystem on a new trajectory, and it won't return to something resembling its early condition without a lot of hard work and patience.

Bucket biologists at it again

Will anglers ever stop moving their favorite fish around? OK, so I already know the answer to that question. Still, this is the kind of thing that makes native species recovery seem impossible. Bull trout are all but gone from the Flathead River system, thanks to aquatic introductions to the fisheries experiment that is Flathead Lake. Trust me, a serious bull trout fishery in the Middle and North forks would make those Flathead River tribs world class fisheries, which apparently they once was.

Swimmer drowns in South Fork

I'm getting sick of reading about this, but there's just been a drum beat of bad news on Montana rivers this summer. Here's another drowning, this time on the South Fork Flathead River, at a place called Devil's Elbow.

It just seems as though it's been one drowning after another. Maybe it's just because I'm paying closer attention.

Glacier on the brink

Great series from Missoulian reporter Michael Jamison on Glacier National Park and the threats to one of the world's great places. Go here, here and here for the latest on the Crown of the Continent.

Nice break

When was the last time we had a fire season categorized as "less than normal?" Last August the skies over the Flathead Valley were filled with smoke. I remember one afternoon driving down from West Glacier after a day guiding on the Middle Fork, and as I hit the valley floor saw that the smoke plume from the Chippy Creek Fire reached from horizon to horizon.

The cool spring and late runoff may have screwed up the fishing season, but at least we're enjoying an August with breathable air. That's become a rarity.

Connectivity matters

Even in the fast-growing Flathead Valley this is still a wide open place. But if we don't take steps now to preserve important wildlife corridors, we will lose them to development. This effort to preserve some of the last remaining wild shoreline on Flathead Lake deserves our support.

A few years ago I wrote a story about a statewide effort to preserve wildlife corridors in Arizona, something called the Arizona Linkages Project. Montana has a ways to go before in matches Arizona in terms of sprawl, but it is a lot easier to plan ahead than to try to fix things when the earth movers are rolling as folks in the Grand Canyon State are trying to do.

Wake up call

An interesting way to start the morning. Some folks just have a cup of coffee to perk up.

Put a stake through its heart

This is the project that would not die. How many times do we need to say NO to the disastrous idea of a cyanide heap-leach gold mine at the headwaters of the Blackfoot River?

The notion that the Montana law that bans cyanide heap-leach mining is a "taking" of private-property rights reveals the radical anti-government ideology of some on the right at its most extreme. Arguing that a citizens initiative that bans a mining technique with a well-documented history of environmental disasters and pollution — with downstream neighbors, also known as the citizens of Montana, usually footing the bill for clean up — is actually an argument advancing the political ideology of anarchy.

Access fight continues

The fight regarding bridge access points to rivers in Madison County underscores the reality that access opponents will stop at nothing to overturn Montana's Stream Access Law. That's why the fight regarding access at Mitchell Slough in the Bitterroot Valley is so important. Give access opponents a foot in the door you can expect their legions of attorneys and anti-access sycophants to set up camp in your favorite trout stream.

Let's hope the Montana Supreme Court gets it right on Mitchell Slough. It's the biggest threat to Montana's Stream Access law now before us.

Are talks good news?

It sounds like folks on both sides of the border are putting a friendly spin on recent talks regarding Canadian mining projects proposed in the Flathead River headwaters near Glacier National Park. If it works to stop these projects, great. But I'm not convinced the line-in-the-sand approach suggested by some Montana political leaders should be dropped just yet.

These mines need to be stopped, for good. The North Fork has been held hostage for too long.

Fishing picking up

The North Fork Flathead River is clear and dropping like a rock. Chernobyl ants have been the ticket for westslope cutts, which are hitting dries with abandon. The Middle Fork is also clearing and should start fishing well real soon.

Tony Werner of Chicago nailed this nice cutthroat near Polebridge on a North Fork float last week.

How it's supposed to work

If reintroduction is to be a long-term success, wolf supporters will have to get used to stories like this. Groups fighting proposed hunting seasons for wolves need to set aside their objections, or have their objections overruled in the courts. There are plenty of wolves out there and hunting and other lethal controls measures was always part of the deal. Those working to oppose hunting seasons for wolves are trying to change the rules at halftime.

Tale of two rivers

Here's a look at the confluence of the North and Middle Fork Flathead rivers looking upstream from Blankenship Bridge. That's the Middle Fork, coffee-with-cream colored, on the right. That mud line extends downstream as far as you can see from the bridge.

The North Fork may be fishable soon. The Middle Fork may clear up sometime around the archery hunting opener.

Waiting out high water

My winter project, a 15-foot stitch-and-glue wood drift boat, has yet to be in the water. We almost launched June 15, but that was near the beginning of this second spike of high water. Maybe next week. I'll be scouting the North Fork Flathead River in my raft this week.

I named the boat Zobe after my twin daughters, Zoe and Abbe.

Another death

A western Montana river claimed another life Sunday, as a man is missing and presumed drowned after a rafting accident on the Blackfoot.

Wear a PFD and be safe.

Mine opposition grows

More groups are lining up to fight proposed mining in the Flathead River drainage just across the Canadian border from Glacier National Park. Both mountain-top removal and coalbed methane development has been considered in the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River.

Wolf, griz caught on film

A motion-sensor camera in Glacier National Park caught this amazing video of a wolf interacting with a grizzly bear sow and her cubs over an elk kill. The bluff charging and hind-end nipping looks more like play than a serious dispute. It reminds me a bit of my setter Jack going at it with the house cats.

RIP: David Dedmon

Tetser fighting Plum Creek give away

Here's one reason why we like Sen. Tester so much.

Tester honored or supporting hunting and fishing

Safari Club International named Montana Sen. Jon Tester legislator of the year.

Working to protect the Jefferson

Angling groups and ranchers have developed a plan to maintain flows in the Jefferson River in times of drought. Not much of an issue this year, but chronic water shortages in the past have depressed fish populations.

Be careful out there

The sad news out of the Bitterroot this weekend is the death of guide Dave Dedmon. Dave was floating the East Fork of the Bitterroot on Sunday with his wife Sharon when their boat hit a sweeper and flipped. Dave suffered a head injury in the accident and drown.

There's more from the Ravalli Republic here.

I first met Dave about 15 years ago when he first came to the Bitterroot to work as a deputy with the Ravalli County Sheriff's department. The hook was that Dave was teamed with Rocky, a drug sniffing German shepherd police dog. Dave and Rocky formed the first K-9 unit in the Bitterroot. Later Dave and Rocky went to work for the Hamilton police department. I was just a cub reporter back then, still new to newspapering at the Ravalli Republic. The feature I wrote about Dave and Rocky was one of the first of my career.

More recently Dave was an unsuccessful candidate for the GOP nomination for county commissioner in Ravalli Country. I spoke to him shortly before the election and we joked a bit about what he was getting himself into, and, of course, if he really want the job. We both knew what a headache that job can be. But for as long as I knew him, Dave was dedicated to public service.

Dave was no doubt scouting the East Fork for the trips he had booked this week and next. I work as a guide and Dave had hired me to help out on those trips. I would have been on the water Sunday myself, but I had my kids with me and decided to wait until conditions improved.

Our condolences to Dave's wife Sharon and his family. Dave was a good man. I was pulling for him on election day.

Rivers on the rise

Warmer weather following a fresh dusting of June snow should send a new slug of runoff down western Montana rivers this weekend. Snowpack is now hovering around 200 percent of average for many western Montana watersheds. Check the USGS stream conditions site here for the latest on river flows in your area.

Get your snow shovel out

So much for this so called spring. Montana rivers should be ready to fish just in time for hunting season if this keeps up.

Obama against Flathead mine

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama opposes plans for a mine in the Canadian headwaters of the Flathead River.

Sweet deal for Plum Creek

Why am I not surprised that the former timber industry lobbyist now under employ in the Bush administration wants to hand Plum Creek a sweetheart deal at the expensive of Montana communities and county governments? Can January 2009 come soon enough?

If Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey gets his wish, the tangled knot of roads and subdivisions in the forest interface of Montana will only get worse. How many firefighters will have to risk their lives to keep Plum Creek's new subdivisions from burning down?

Access deal close?

A deal may be in the works to settle Montana's debate about accessing streams and rivers using highway easements at bridge crossings. Settling this issue once and for all is in the best interests of all concerned. Anglers will benefit from the improvements at crossing that will ease access. And landowners, who are fighting an upriver battle, will benefit by ending their battle against popular access laws. This has been a PR disaster for the folks — such as ranchers — who have hitched their wagon to this unpopular cause mostly promoted by out-of-state, and ridiculously wealthy, landowners.

Setbacks: Montana's new challenge

OK, so this isn't really a new challenge. However, efforts to actually do something about development encroaching on Montana river's is new. Down in Ravalli County folks are grappling with the setback issue. And in the Flathead, groups representing hunters and anglers are pushing the issue to the forefront as well.

Not so fast

At a meeting last week it was announced BP was pulling out of plans to extract coal-bed methane in the Canadian Flathead. Now it looks as though that announcement was premature, and BP may just be playing for more time.

There's a lot more work to be done if we are going to save this pristine watershed.

Here's a link to a Missoula Independent article on the threats mine development poses to the Flathead River.

Back in action

We've been tied up with other commitments the past few months, letting this blog languish. But our schedule has opened up and we're back in business. Check back for regular posts.

Good news for the Flathead

There's good news for the future of the Flathead River Basin. Petroleum giant BP has withdrawn plans for coal-bed methane development in the Canadian Flathead.

But threats linger from an open-pit coal mine proposed for a North Fork Flathead River tributary in Canada, and energy development in the Kootenai River Basin north of the border.