wildlife

A transportation study on US Highway 93 between Lolo and Florence is entering its final stage and is expected to produce a number of recommendations to improve safety and reduce the number of wildlife collisions within the corridor.

Marty Petritz of Butte writes, "Those bills that failed to become law, did so because individual hunters expressed their opposition through the public comment process. Legislators heard that collective hunter voice."

Wildlife advocates opposed a bill regarding the management of grizzly bears partly because there was no mention of nonlethal control or improving connectivity between populations.

To truck the commercial logs out, FWP would build a third of a mile of new road and reconstruct 21 miles of out-of-commission roads. It would also maintain 14 miles of road by clearing all trees to a distance of 10 feet on both sides of the road.

The bill on drones also ran into immediate concerns at its first hearing Thursday over questions on whether it would allow people to hunt wolves from the air and when drones could be used.

Steve Kelly writes, "Logging always sounds and looks better when shrouded in a disingenuous, prepackaged timber-industry narrative that creates confusion and indifference in the hunting community, and a real sense of pride and manliness in the governor’s office."

The foundations of Montana’s existing wolf plan recognize that gray wolves are a native species and a part of Montana’s wildlife heritage, and that wolf management should be similar to that of other wildlife species.

The results showed that the groups of species in Montana survived more than three times as long if they had migration corridors than if they were limited to just one set of parks or the other.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday it will move the Fender’s blue butterfly from endangered to threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act after “improved” species recovery in its endemic Willamette Valley region.

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.