News that matters to hunters and anglers
The latest hunting and fishing news in Montana
Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson on public lands, and their case led to the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon for 41 days in 2016.
Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte has said he is "grateful" for President Trump's pardon of the two men.
Still, a gate on Hughes Creek Road, which was declared a public highway in 1900, remains. The controversial locked gate blocks access to public lands beyond, and has been up since 1978.
Bear suffered significant traumatic injury and was partially paralyzed
Glacier National Park press release
West Glacier – On July 15 at approximately 11:30 p.m., rangers discovered a partially paralyzed grizzly bear that had apparently fallen about 20 feet onto the road near Rim Rock, one mile west of Logan Pass.
The bear had sustained severe traumatic injuries. Rangers, after consulting with the park’s wildlife biologist, euthanized the bear.
On Sunday, July 15, the National Park Service conducted a necropsy and found significant trauma to its thoracic vertebrae, broken ribs, and a dislocated hip. The non-lactating female bear was estimated to be 5-7 years old and appeared to be in otherwise good health. Rangers initially thought the bear had been hit by a car, but evidence at the scene showed that the bear had slipped off an overhanging precipice and landed on its back in the road.
Park officials notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as required since the grizzly bear is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and informed Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks of the incident.
There are an estimated 300 grizzly bears in Glacier National Park. Numerous state and federal agencies have worked together to manage and recover the grizzly bear population in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, including Glacier National Park.
The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem encompasses about 9,600 square miles of northwestern Montana, and includes Glacier National Park, parts of the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations, parts of five national forests (Flathead, Helena, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark and Lolo), Bureau of Land Management lands, and a significant amount of state and private lands.
Among other things, apparently.
In addition to setting the standard on hunting ethics, it turns out Montana author Jim Posewitz had a hand in protecting the St. Regis River where it flows alongside I-90. This nice piece from Missoulian reporter Rob Chaney explains how Posewitz worked to keep the highway out of the river bottom as much as possible. The asphalt winds so the river could remain free, or at least freer than it might have been.
A fisheries biologist has suggested that lake trout may have migrated to Yellowstone Lake on their own. There is a long established population of the fish in Jackson Lake, and those fish occasionally pass through the dam into the Snake River below.
Yellowstone National Park chief fisheries biologist, Todd Koel, said that from the Snake, the lake trout could have entered Pacific Creek. After a 40-mile swim upstream, the fish would have reached North Two Ocean Creek. That's where the creek parts, forming Pacific and Atlantic creeks. Atlantic Creek flows into Yellowstone Lake.
That's 80 miles, lake to lake. It's a long journey for lake trout, especially in small, high-elevation streams. But work in the Flathead system has shown lake trout are capable of long migrations. Some have travelled from Flathead Lake up the North Fork all the way to Canada. Others broke off the full migration to the land of politeness and hockey, following smaller streams flowing from Glacier National Park. This allowed the invading lake trout to displace the native, but less adaptable apex piscine predator, bull trout.
Research on the Flathead, Glacier lake trout invasion gives credence to the theory. Because of the work on the Flathead, we know lake trout are capable of making such long, exploratory forays into new habitat. We also know they are capable of making significant journeys up smaller, headwater type streams such as the ones that connect Glacier's lakes with the North Fork.
What's different about the migration theory for Yellowstone Lake's invasion is that most of the 80-mile journey is in the smaller waters of Pacific and Atlantic creeks. In the Flathead the bulk of the migration is in the larger North Fork, a waterway that is likely more appealing to lake dwelling lake trout.
Still, there's an unimpeded waterway from the Snake to the Yellowstone. In fact, it's the path the cutthroat trout likely followed during their ice age invasion from the Pacific watershed to the Atlantic.
The prevailing theory is lake trout were introduced to Yellowstone Lake by bucket biologists, ie. anglers who caught lake trout in nearby Lewis Lake, then dumped them into Yellowstone Lake. Lewis Lake is also the source of the lake trout population in Jackson Lake.
The website Montana Untamed has a statewide fishing report with current info. It's worth a look if your regular haunts are blown out by high water.
Mountain lion attacks are rare, but the recent attack and death Washington reminds how dangerous these predators can be.
A new survey by UM's Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative shows strong, and even increasing support for public lands in Montana, said a Crown spokesman.
"Some of the results over the years have been very consistent, in fact, if anything, they’ve been going up in favor of public lands," said Rick Graetz, a UM geology lecturer, in a Montana Public Radio interview. "And we’ve had some surprises since 2014, and we’ve seen a huge number of people who recognize the economic benefits of public lands."
Five hundred registered voters were surveyed, and 90 percent said public lands have a positive impact on maintaining what is best about Montana, up from 83 percent when the survey was last conducted in 2016.
Respondents also recognized the important of sportsmen in driving awareness of public officials and their positions on conservation issues. It's no surprise, but the survey shows that Montanans are far more likely to fish and hunt than the average American. A majority of Montanans participate in both: 52 percent hunt compared to a national average of 28 percent, and 55 percent fish compared to 29 percent nationally.
The survey also indicated Montanan's oppose efforts by Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte to remove Wilderness Study Area protection for 29 sites in the state. Fifty-seven percent said they supported maintaining the current status for the study areas.
The pair challenged the conclusions of the study, saying the survey question failed to describe current management on the lands, as well as how it would change if their legislation was approved.
In 2009 Gianforte sued Montana to close a public access site on the East Gallatin River, claiming users were damaging his adjacent property. Gianforte dropped the suit after FWP upgraded trails and fencing at the site.
Treasure State Gov. Steve Bullock declared a statewide flooding emergency Wednesday. With the state setting winter snow records, snowpack well above historic averages in every major Montana watershed, and spring temperatures climbing into the 70s, this can't come as a surprise to anyone.
Hopefully it won't get too warm too fast, and flooding won't be as severe as conditions suggest it could be.
FWP will hold a meeting on the Chronic Wasting Disease outbreak in south-central Montana in Bridger. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 9, at the Bridger Civic Center.
Testing showed 10 of 400 deer killed in the Bridger area during a special winter hunt were infected with the fatal disease. CWD has spread to states and Canadian provinces on three sides of Montana.