wilderness

More than two dozen organizations and scientists have submitted criticisms of Montana’s proposed grizzly bear management plan, hinting at the hurdles that might hamper delisting.

Experts say bear baiting will increase the likelihood of defense of life and property kills of bears, and will alter the natural processes and behaviors of bears and other wildlife.

Vital Ground, a land trust that prioritizes grizzly bear habitat, announced that a conservation easement had been placed on 30 acres of forested wetland surrounding Condon Creek along Highway 83 in the Swan Valley.

Colorado could be less than a year away from the state’s first relocation of gray wolves to parts of the Western Slope, as required by a ballot initiative passed by voters in 2020.

Thousands of whitebark pine stands have been decimated by climate change, pine beetles and white pine blister rust, an exotic fungus.

The gray wolf, Canis lupus, was endemic to Colorado until it was hunted to extinction in the middle of the 20th century.

Taylor Orr, a former Forest Service employee of 15 years, was stunned to find a new Forest Service repeater antenna installed on Odell Mountain, because he knew that’s prohibited within a wilderness study area.

Bill Lombardi writes, "Policymakers now must figure out a way to throttle the push on the gas to peddle industrial tourism and commercial recreation on or near our public lands."

The city of Missoula and the nonprofit Trout Unlimited need several hundred thousand dollars to meet their fundraising goals in order to begin removing the McKinley Lake dam in the summer of 2024.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has completed a draft plan for managing grizzly bears once the bear is no longer a threatened species. But delisting may be a long way off if land agencies allow more projects that threaten the bear’s secure habitat.