Articles remembering and praising Chuck Jonkel continue to roll in, including the below column by Larry Wilson and nice pieces by Rob Breeding and Chris Peterson . . .
Dr. Charles ‘Chuck’ Jonkel passed over The Great Divide this week. He never owned property on the North Fork, but spent so many years here researching bears that I feel he was an actual North Forker.
My first memories of Chuck came in the late 1950s or early 1960s when he was on the North Fork doing research on black bears. Mel Ruder did an extensive article in the HHN with pictures of Chuck going into the den of a hibernating black bear to work on the sleeping bear.
Trail 2, mile 2, Flathead NF, July 10, 2014 – by W. K. Walker
In the face of some angry senatorial blow-back, the Forest Service has restored full trail maintenance funding in Region 1. For now . . .
The U.S. Forest Service has dropped its proposal to reduce funding for trail maintenance in Montana. The agency originally planned to reduce appropriations for Region One, which includes Montana, by 30 percent over the next three years. This included a potential loss of $1 million to Montana’s federal trail budget this year.
U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester criticized Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell last week for failing to prioritize trail maintenance in Montana. The agency proposed revising its formula for funding trail maintenance across the U.S. with an added emphasis on higher population centers. In Region One, there are 28,000 miles of federally managed trails.
The agency on Friday said it would reconsider the formula change and withdrew the proposal.
Here’s a strong editorial by Todd Wilkinson, Environmental Columnist for Explore Big Sky, making the case for disallowing trophy hunting of grizzly bears, even after they are delisted . . .
Nowhere in the legal framework of the federal Endangered Species Act does it mandate that animals removed from federal protection be subjected to trophy sport hunting.
America spent millions of dollars reversing the downward spiral of bald eagles. Indeed, someone today could argue that the majestic white-crowned raptors would be fun to shoot and look stunningly beautiful as dead stuffed prizes of avian taxidermy.
Yet when the great birds were finally declared biologically recovered in 2007, society didn’t celebrate by turning around and initiating sport seasons on eagles, selling licenses to generate revenue for the coffers of state wildlife agencies. Why not?
As expected, Solonex has challenged the cancellation of their oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine. The paperwork was filed last Friday . . .
A Louisiana company challenged the cancellation of an oil and gas lease in northwest Montana on Friday, after federal officials said drilling would disturb an area sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.
The 6,200-acre lease owned by Solenex LLC of Baton Rouge is in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. It’s just outside Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Attorneys for the company want U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., to reject the Interior Department’s March 17 cancellation of the lease.
Fire engines at Elk Hill Fire, April 13, 2016 – USFS photo
Stick a fork in it. It’s done. Some 10 inches of snow last Thursday night and Friday helped finish off the 1086-acre Elk Hill Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
As of Friday afternoon, there were 20 people still assigned to the blaze, down from a peak of 50. The fire is 100% contained. All area trails are reopened.
The total cost for putting out someone’s neglected campfire was around $575,000.
This is truly the end of an era. Chuck Jonkel passed away Tuesday at age 85.
Rob Chaney of the Missoulian wrote a first-rate obituary. Recommended reading . . .
Grizzly bears emerging from their winter dens will encounter a changed landscape: Longtime grizzly advocate Chuck Jonkel has died.
“Mr. Jonkel was truly a pioneer in grizzly bear science,” said Leanne Marten, Regional Forester for the Forest Service’s Northern Region. “Montana will miss him greatly. Everything we know about grizzly bears is due to Mr. Jonkel’s expertise.”
Jonkel died Tuesday evening at his home in Missoula. He was 85.
“Tim Ryan from the Flathead Reservation came down on Monday and did a Salish smoke ceremony for Dad, and then (Blackfeet singer) Jack Gladstone and Patty Bartlett sang him off on Tuesday morning,” son Jamie Jonkel said. “We took him down by the river for the ceremony, and he really liked that.”
Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines are not happy about the state of Forest Service funding for fighting wildfires and maintaining trails . . .
As the U.S. Forest Service prepares for the looming wildfire season, Montana’s senators are calling for reforms to the agency’s forest and trail management.
U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines questioned Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell last week during a Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee hearing focused on the agency’s $4.8 billion budget request for the next fiscal year.
Tester and Daines criticized Tidwell for failing to prioritize trail maintenance in Montana. The agency has revised its formula for funding trail maintenance across the U.S. with an added emphasis on higher population centers. In Region One, which encompasses all of Montana and has 28,000 miles of federally managed trails, the agency plans to reduce appropriations by 30 percent over the next three years. There is an estimated $25 million in deferred trail maintenance in Region One, according to a Forest Service report.
From a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks press release . . .
A 3 year old male grizzly bear was captured April 10th at a private residence along Tamarack Road northwest of Columbia Falls. The 211 pound bear was captured by FWP Bear and Lion Specialist Erik Wenum after the resident reported a bear had killed some of his young chickens.
The young bear was anesthetized, radio-collared, and released by Grizzly Bear Management Specialist Tim Manley. The Interagency decision was made to release the bear back into the wild since it had no previous known conflicts. The grizzly bear was released on the afternoon of April 11th in the Whale Creek drainage of the North Fork of the Flathead, 34 straight line miles from where it was caught.
Black bear activity has picked up as well. FWP Bear and Lion Specialist Erik Wenum reports that he has handled two problem bears in the last two days and is attempting to trap four other black bears that have ranged close to residences. Wenum reminds
residents to take down bird feeders, secure garbage, feed pets inside, clean up chicken and livestock feed, and in general remove all odorous substances that can draw bears.
On Monday morning, a radio tracking flight was conducted to locate radio-collared grizzly bears in the Swan and Mission mountains. A total of 8 radio-collared grizzly bears were located. Seven of the bears were out of their dens, but still in the upper elevations in the snow. A total of 16 grizzly bears were observed which included cubs, yearlings, and two-year-olds that were with their mothers.
Additional flights are planned during the month of April to locate radio-collared grizzly bears in the Whitefish Range and the Middle Fork of the Flathead. One of the main objectives of the flights is to get visuals on adult females and the number of young they have when they first emerge from their dens. This allows biologists to track cub reproduction and cub survival throughout the year.
Another sign of spring: Glacier Park announces a couple of prescribed burns in the North Fork . . .
If you see smoke emanating from the North Fork in Glacier National Park in the next few weeks, there’s a good chance it’s part of a couple of planned burns for the area.
Two prescribed fire projects are planned along the Inside North Fork Road area of Glacier National Park in the next month, depending on weather and fuel conditions, according to a press release.
National Park Service (NPS) fire crews plan to burn 100 acres in the vicinity of Sullivan Meadow, approximately two miles east of Logging Ranger Station. The primary objectives of the burn are to reduce the number of understory trees serving as “ladders for fire” underneath mature ponderosa pine; to thin out trees that established after the 1999 Anaconda Fire and the 2001 Moose Fire; and to expose mineral soil to provide a seed bed for natural ponderosa pine regeneration.
Fire engines at Elk Hill Fire, April 13, 2016 – USFS photo
Firefighting personnel continue dealing with the Elk Hill Fire, a 1068-acre blaze burning in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The fire is 60% contained and continues to burn with its existing perimeter. According to the InciWeb site, “Suppression efforts will continue on the north and east edges of the fire.”
