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.