A fascinating Michael Jamison article about wolverines in Glacier National Park and two significant stories about the local grizzly bear population were published this weekend. Click the story titles for the full text.
From the Saturday, 28 January, 2006 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Just more than half the results are in, but they are revealing a remarkable picture of the Northern Continental Divide grizzly bear population.
The results are being gleaned from genetic analyses of 33,739 hair samples that were collected from rub trees and scent-baited snare sites that were spread over 8 million acres in summer 2004 . . .
And also in Saturday's Daily Inter Lake . . .
Agency: No delisting of grizzlies in Glacier area anytime soon
Although a formal effort is under way to delist the Yellowstone grizzly bear population, the Northern Continental Divide grizzly bear population is years from any possibility of delisting, said Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator.
The recovery plan for the larger Northern Continental Divide population will have to be revised to account for new research that is expected to provide a vastly improved assessment of the population’s status, Servheen said . . .
From the Sunday, January 29, 2006 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Wolverines: Mystery wrapped in muscle
The slow and steady ring of steel on steel cracked winter's silence, hammer rising and falling with measured cadence as Rick Yates drove the great spike straight through a frozen beaver.
“Beaver's best,” he said between blows. “Lot's of fat and stink. They come with the tails on, usually.”
Yates is the lead field biologist on a project to study wolverines, and the beaver is his bait. He skied into this remote corner of Glacier National Park with carcass in tow, rattling along behind in a makeshift plastic sled . . .
(Late Sunday edit: The Wolverine Foundation website has reports, including photos, on the Wolverine study in Glacier National Park.)
(Tuesday edit: The Daily Inter Lake also posted coverage of the Wolverine study here and here.)
According to an article in the Thursday, January 26, 2006 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake, the Flathead National Forest is changing the way it rents cabins . . .
The Flathead National Forest is transitioning its cabin-rental program to a national reservation system at the beginning of February.
The program, which has been expanded in recent years, has long been managed by the local ranger stations. The decision to switch to the National Recreation Reservations Service came from the Region One headquarters in Missoula, and applies to several national forests in Montana.
Read the entire article . . .
The Wednesday, January 25, 2006 online edition of the Vancouver Sun carried an article addressing the newly elected Canadian government's stance on resource-based industry. Note that the article is rather speculative and quite short on specifics. The impact, if any, on development of extractive industry in the Canadian section of the North Fork drainage is not clear . . .
The new Conservative government's strong rural base in Western Canada is good news for British Columbia's resource industry, B.C. Business Council executive vice-president Jock Finlayson said Tuesday.
"A lot of the Members of Parliament, particularly from Western Canada, who will sit as Conservatives are from constituencies where resource industries are the big driver of economic activity," Finlayson said.
"I think they are going to be quite sensitive to how federal policy affects the competitive position of resource industries."
Read the entire article . . .
Cline Mining announced today the completion of a feasibility study on the Lodgepole Coal Mine Project. The announcement includes material on production estimates (and wastage!), scheduling and costs.
Read the full press release for details . . .
An article by Michael Jamison from the Thursday, January 19, 2006 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
With Canadian federal elections less than a week away, folks on both sides of the border are watching closely the race to represent Montana's neighbor, southeastern British Columbia.
That's because the winner in that three-way campaign likely will be enlisted to help hammer out a solution to a decades-long international dispute over how best to manage wildlands immediately north of Glacier National Park.
For years, there has been talk from the north about developing energy reserves in the Canadian Flathead, a wild river drainage that flows south across the border to form the western edge of Glacier Park before spilling into Flathead Lake.
Downstream residents - and not a few local Canadians - have fought those proposals, however, arguing coal and coalbed methane projects could taint transboundary waters and impact sensitive fisheries and cross-border wildlife populations.
Read the entire article . . .
The Thursday, January 19, 2006 online edition of the Vancouver Sun included an article on the mining boom in British Columbia. Although it doesn't mention boundary waters threats such as the Lodgepole and Lillyburt mines specifically, it does provide a great deal of economic and political context for these activities . . .
British Columbia's mining sector crossed a crucial threshold in 2005, attracting $220 million for mineral exploration and virtually guaranteeing the industry's future in this province.
That's the third-highest total in the past 60 years, and the largest amount since 1990, Minister of State for Mining Bill Bennett noted in an announcement Wednesday at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Bennett said when he was first elected in 2001, exploration investment stood at $29 million.
The industry was at risk of collapse because there wasn't enough money coming in to find and develop new properties to replace existing mines as they became exhausted, he said . . .
Bennett noted that there are now 18 projects undergoing environmental review compared to just one in 2001.
"At $220 million, mining in B.C. once again becomes a sustainable, long-term industry with enough exploration happening to find the new deposits that eventually will turn into new mines," Bennett said.
Read the entire article . . .
On Monday, January 9, Cline Mining submitted their application to the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office for the Lodgepole Coal Mine.
The application is available online at the EAO website.
In a January 11 email, Steve Thompson of the National Parks Conservation Association pointed out that there are some contradictions in the document. . .
"The application says that Cline is applying for a small mine permit (section 8.9 of the 1/6/06 project description), but it also says in the introduction that production will commence at 2 million tonnes per year."
"Cline's timeline has them receiving all permits this year, and CEO Ken Bates was on the radio [January 10] in B.C. saying production will begin in 2006. Despite the language in Cline's application, the EAO appears to be calling this a major mine, not a small mine, which is consistent with what we learned from Kathy Eichenberger in December." [See articles posted here on December 8, 9 and 15 for background.]
Use this link to dump all our Cline-related posts.