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Montana News
Montana News
Anaconda-area sportsmen stage demonstration over whether road is public
ANACONDA -- While Anaconda-Deer Lodge County continues its research into what is allegedly a county road northeast of town, local sportsmen are uniting to press the issue.
About 75 people staged a peaceful (if at times heated) demonstration on Sunday afternoon on Modesty Creek Road, opening a pair of landowner gates to what they believe should be public access.
A line of more than 20 trucks rumbled over snow and ice on a stretch of the road running east to Dry Gulch through private land. There, they reviewed maps from as far back as 1889 that label the road as a county road.
One Anaconda police officer responded to the scene, but only to keep the peace. No arrests or citations were issued.
Read full text: Billings Gazette
State wants hunters to be enforcers; some question ethics
HELENA - Montana is looking to recreational hunters for help in enforcing more of its wildlife management policies, but one regulator worries they are being asked to cross an ethical line in doing so.
The question is whether the state is unwittingly putting those hunters in a fix: Does their new role fall within ethical hunting guidelines or does it reduce them to wildlife management mercenaries whose actions could give hunting a black eye?
That's the concern of Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioner Ron Moody, who recently questioned whether the agency's policies and proposals are asking hunters disregard what it means to be an ethical hunter.
"I think we're either at those limits, or what I really think is we've gone past them," Moody said.
Eastern Montana, several states hit hard by deer-killing disease
White-tailed deer populations in parts of Eastern Montana and elsewhere in the Northern Plains could take years to recover from a devastating disease that killed thousands of the animals in recent months, wildlife officials and hunting outfitters said.
In northeast Montana, officials said 90 percent or more of whitetail have been killed along a 100-mile stretch of the Milk River from Malta to east of Glasgow. Whitetail deaths also have been reported along the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in western North Dakota and Eastern Montana and scattered sites in Wyoming, South Dakota and eastern Kansas.
The deaths are being attributed to an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. Transmitted by biting midges, EHD causes internal bleeding that can kill infected animals within just a few days.
Preserving the Hunt
The final numbers reported at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks check stations support a widespread perception that the big game population, specifically deer, is hurting in most areas of the state. And as a result so is the tradition of hunting.
Of the state’s seven regions, only one showed above average harvest numbers for both whitetail and mule deer — Region 3 in the southwest. Nearly everywhere else saw significant declines in both animals harvested and hunters in the field, especially in eastern Montana. In fact, all but two regions reported a below average number of hunters this season.
No bison on Spotted Dog, says FWP
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is shelving the idea for placing quarantined bison on the Spotted Dog and Marias River wildlife management areas, but is recommending that 68 quarantined bison be relocated to two northern Montana Indian reservations.
The final decision about the relocation of the bison — which migrated out of Yellowstone National Park, and were rounded up, quarantined and tested since 2004 as part of a brucellosis study — is expected to be made by the FWP Commission at its Dec. 9 meeting in Helena. However, the recommendation was part of a Record of Decision signed Wednesday by FWP Director Joe Maurier.
If the commission approves the recommendation, the 68 bison could be moved as early as this winter to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation near Harlem and the Fort Peck Indian Reservation near Wolf Point.
Click here to read the full story on the Helena Independent Record
In Yellowstone National Park: Plan could cut 360 bison
Park biologists wrote in the proposal that reducing the population could avoid the need for the large-scale slaughters — more than 1,700 were killed or removed in 2008 — seen during past migrations. In harsh winters, bison leave the park in large numbers seeking food at lower elevations in Montana.
State officials said hunting was their top choice for population control. However, Schweitzer said in an interview that for the strategy to work, the park must open its borders to hunting inside portions of Yellowstone where bison often congregate in winter. Past hunts yielded few bison during mild winters when the animals did not cross out of the park.
Sheep station scrutinized
Federal and state agencies, sportsmen groups and environmentalists are calling for an end to sheep grazing on a federal research ranch in the Centennial Mountains, saying the decades-long practice is coming at the expense of grizzly bears and other wildlife.
Baucus to introduce Front wilderness bill
HELENA — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced Friday that he will sponsor the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act in Congress.
The long-anticipated bill, which Baucus said he plans to introduce this session, would add 67,000 acres of new wilderness to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. The measure also would designate another 208,000 acres as conservation management areas, which would limit road building but allow current motorized recreation and public access for hunting, biking, timber thinning and grazing.
Click here to read the full article on the Great Falls Tribune
Roaming Yellowstone bison prompt lawsuits from stockgrowers
BILLINGS — Montana's newfound tolerance toward wild bison is heading to trial as cattle ranchers and county officials seek to prevent a repeat of last year's mass migration of hundreds of the animals out of Yellowstone National Park.
State District Judge Wayne Phillips has been asked to settle a fundamental question: Are bison in Montana free-roaming wildlife, or should they be kept in the park to protect private property and public safety?
Click here to read the full story on the Great Falls Tribune
Western Montana hunters see mixed bag on big-game season opening weekend
HAMILTON - For the second year in a row, hunters found plenty of opportunity to fill their freezers with elk meat in the Big Hole Valley, but elsewhere in western Montana most critters stayed clear of the bull's-eye on opening weekend of big-game season.
FWP accepting campsite reservations at Montana State Parks
Never mind your Thanksgiving or Christmas plans. Think ahead.
If you know what you're up to over Memorial Day or the Fourth of July in 2012 - and it involves camping at a Montana State Park - you can reserve your campsite now.
Roundup coal mine seeks to expand exports to Asia, South America
"BILLINGS - An international commodity company has bought into a major central Montana coal mine in a $400 million deal designed to ramp up exports of the fuel to markets in Asia and South America.
FirstEnergy Corp. and Boich Companies, Ohio-based owners of the underground Signal Peak Energy mine near Roundup, announced the deal with Cyprus-registered Gunvor Group, Ltd., on Tuesday.
The companies say they plan to ship less coal in future years to FirstEnergy's Midwestern power plants and instead route the fuel to potential markets in Japan, China, Korea and Chile.
Production at the Montana mine would increase to about 15 million tons per year. That's more than triple the volume extracted from Signal Peak's Bull Mountain mine last year and would entail surface mining in addition to the current underground operations."
Bringing back the bison: Group pushes reintroduction to Montana public lands
"A Montana conservationist, hunter, author and promoter of hunter ethics, Posewitz has lent his voice to the National Wildlife Federation's push to have bison restored to the 1.1-million-acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Montana.
'What better place, what better species and what better time?' he said."
Yellowstone hits 3 million summer visitors for 3rd year
"BILLINGS, Mont. — Yellowstone National Park administrators are reporting that more than 3 million people visited the park over the summer."
Judge's Sage Grouse Ruling Could Stall BLM Plans in Wyo., Idaho
A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that the Interior Department has failed to adequately address sage grouse impacts from energy development in southwest Wyoming, and grazing areas around the Idaho national monument. This case has far reaching impacts as it challenged 18 land management plans across six western states.
Delegation Divided on Roadless Area Act
"A group of 26 Montana hunting and fishing groups recently sent a letter to Montana’s federal delegation urging the lawmakers to oppose legislation that would remove protections on nearly 43 million acres of backcountry wilderness and roadless areas nationwide."
Eastern MT ranchers threaten to sue DEQ
New wildlife management area proposed
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks is seeking comments on a new Wildlife Management Area north of Drummond, and an adjacent conservation easement.
Green groups call Montana fracking rules inadequate
Montana recently joined an increasing number of states in regulating the practice of hydrofracking by requiring disclosure of the chemical used the process, but environmentalists say the rules don’t provide enough protection.
Some question if Montana brucellosis plan worth the cost to bison
Many people involved in the effort say that’s proof the Interagency Bison Management Plan, or IBMP, is a success.
However, that success has come at a cost. Since the agreement was signed in 2000, more than 3,500 bison have been killed to stop the potential transmission of the disease.
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