EMWH Newsletter

Putting the "Public" Back In "Public Trust"

"Therefore, more than ever, it comes down to you and I, to us."

Public Trust Dinner Pre-dinner, Jim Posewitz will be sharing on the Public Trust, followed by Gayle Joslin on Wilderness.
Sat., September 27, 6-9, The Lindley Center in Bozeman

Good news, after fighting with the spam listing attack, thanks to subscribers contacting their service providers, persistence and fighting back, we have been removed from the spam blacklists/block lists. The last newsletter was not blocked. Thank you to those who helped fight this.

Broadwalk - On August 17th, EMWH was honored to lead one of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness hikes. We drove on the Spanish Creek road, through Turner's Flying D Ranch, passing one of his bison herds, to the Spanish Creek Trailhead, hiking into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. I shared with 8 Broads from a variety of states including MT, CO, UT, KS, AZ, WA about the threats to our Public Trust, including special interest attempts to transfer our Federal Public Lands to the states, which a number of their states are also confronted with. I also shared about disease politics - brucellosis in cattle, bison and elk, as well as pneumonia in Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats; the effects of roads and vehicles on habitat, wildlife and their habitat security. It was great to network with these awesome Broads.
Great Old Broads hike with a purpose by Brett French

Nature Connection Will Be the Next Big Human Trend
"As Gus Speth, a US Advisor on climate change (must be a harrowing job) said: 'I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don't know how to do that.' Therefore, more than ever, it comes down to you and I, to us."

FWP supervisor counts bison among career successes
" 'It's been the most challenging, and it's been the most glacial in terms of progress,' Flowers said. 'But it's been important progress, and we're beginning to manage bison more as wildlife in Montana. To me, that's a big accomplishment.' " Thank you Pat Flowers for all your work.

Thank you to Lloyd Dorsey for all your work for wildlife and conservation.
Lloyd was with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Wyoming, being a great watchdog on brucellosis and Chronic Wasting Disease issues concerning the Wyoming feedgrounds. Recently the GYC terminated Lloyd and dropped the position altogether. We have lost a key activist at a crucial location, just as CWD is knocking at the feedgrounds door.

Public Wildlife
BHA (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers) - Snowmobile Proposal in Great Burn Threatens Stateline Mountain Goats "Even though the Lolo National Forest has closed the Montana side of the Stateline in the proposed Great Burn Wilderness to snowmobiles, the Nez Perce Clearwater Forest in Idaho is now proposing 3 new snowmobile areas in the Idaho side of the Great Burn, despite knowing mountain goats have historically occupied these areas."

Research helps move discussion of energy impacts on wildlife, scientist says
"Studying impacts of energy development on wildlife isn’t necessarily a new thing. Research on how deer and pronghorn respond to coal mine reclamation dates to the 1980s. But application of the research has been more recent, said Scott Gamo, a staff terrestrial biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. He credits the increase in awareness with a potential listing of sage grouse on the endangered species list, something that could dramatically change industry across the state."

Imagine what this could bring to Montana instead of bad publicity for bison slaughters and hazing.
First-ever Bison Festival a success
“We don’t want to keep it a secret. We’ve been doing this for 100 years — a species that went from 16 million animals to fewer than a couple of thousand — and bringing them back,” Fleming said. "One of the key populations for preservation of bison in North America is here and that’s something to celebrate...In 1907, approximately 400 plains bison from Montana were shipped up via rail to Lamont and because of the park’s commitment to act as a wildlife sanctuary, the Canadian government designated Elk Island as a national park in 1930.

Celebrating bison
" 'It’s a complete celebration of everything bison from culture to conservation to cuisine.'
By inviting people to learn more about bison, he hopes more people will become bison stewards."

Bobcat fur farm moving from N.D. to Montana
"Noise and dust from activity associated with oil drilling is causing the bobcats to kill their babies, Schultz said. Arnegard is located within the Bakken oil fields. 'We can’t survive here,' Schultz said. 'They are solitary animals, and they need peace and quiet,' he added.
Schultz said he’s received some calls from critics of the industry since FWP released the environmental assessment for public comment, but he argues that raising bobcats is no different than raising cattle or growing wheat."

A few concerns: I dont agree with cramming domesticated animals into limited, confined commercial processing facilities (4/5th of all antibiotic use in the US is by the livestock industry), which is one of the reasons why I hunt, for the health of the wildlife, unless I raise the stock myself in free range conditions. 1. The EA states that the owner will be disposing of the bobcat manure and urine on their hay field, but does not mention what will happen to the carcasses after skinning. Are they going to be thrown out, attracting predators/scavengers, causing a wildlife social conflict (Cone Butte Ranch which just sold, north of Schultz property, is home to a plethora of wildlife year round, which includes mountain lions and occasional black bear)? 2. Another concern is farming of a species that is wildlife here in Montana and there are bobcat populations in Fergus County. Montana has a number of other bobcat fur farms. Currently, there are no US federal regulations concerning fur farms, which means no one is going to be monitoring the fur farm and therefore no opportunity to see if the fur farm is capturing and breeding our wildlife. Are breeding female bobcats at a fur farm going to be an attractant to wild male bobcats? While the owner states they would not be taking any animals from the wild, there have been other cases of game farmers here in Montana doing just that, prior to the elk/deer ranching becoming illegal. 3. I have tanned hides of the ungulates I hunted or the sheep and goats raised, so I know the chemicals used in commercial fur tanning and leather making processes (most commercial do not use brain tanning or organic methods). The FWP EA does not mention anything about these chemicals and Box Elder Creek is less than a mile to the west of Schultz' land. These are just the tip of the iceberg of questions that my mind asks, which I feel the FWP EA fails to address.

Public comments on the EA must be made by Aug. 29. Comments also can be emailed to Shawn Briggs at sbriggs@mt.gov or mailed to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, PO Box 938, 215 Aztec Drive, Lewistown, MT 59457.
Schultz Fur Farm EA

Public Lands
The Wildfire Burden Report 2014
"Since many Western states - including Utah, Idaho, Montana and Nevada - are spending taxpayer money to study and promote public land seizure efforts, it is important for taxpayers to understand the significant impacts these proposals would have on state budgets. One of the biggest is the cost of fighting wildfire."

Custer-Gallatin National Forest Working Group - I attended one of the recent meetings in Aug., begun by a group of county commissioners (their 5th meeting) from 7 counties to address Forest Service management. I took audio of the meeting and notes, which are on the page. While I heard some of the familiar statements about logging, fuel load, mill jobs, etc., I was concerned by a statement from one of Sen. Testers staff, Erik Nylund. "Senator Tester is a big fan of collaboratives. The best ideas are going to come from the ground in Montana, they are not going to come from Washington DC with mandates and things like that. That's where a lot of things with FS or any other agency for that matter, go awry. We have some very well functioning collaboratives in Montana that have done some great things...You guys can really do a lot here, bring some people in, hopefully avoid some of the litigation. I think you said it best, put your collective weight behind it, those are the sort of things that a federal judge is going to notice when you guys come to an agreement, FS part of it, pretty diverse crowd, and one or two people sitting on the other side of the courtroom. That's the future of land management. And the tourism issue, 6 billion dollars alone, Montana's economy, public lands generate. That's not counting the grazing, the timber, the mining. These public lands are definitely some of our most important treasures. So your work here is very important work for the whole states economy." There is a reason for litigation if NEPA and MEPA are bypassed for politics and special interest.

2013 MEPA (Montana Environmental Policy Act) Handbook
For those of you that would like to see what Montana's regulations concerning MEPA are, how it is applied to habitat and wildlife, here is a copy of the newest version of the handbook. We, as the public, need to educate ourselves, arm ourselves with the laws and regulations to hold our public trust managers/trustees accountable. Otherwise, special interest groups and these working groups/collaboratives will continue to be utilized to subvert the Public Trust.

The Problem With National Forest Collaboratives–Why They Don’t Serve The Public Interest.
"Given the membership of the typical collaborative it is hardly surprising that most support greater logging/grazing of our public lands." "Beyond these obvious conflicts of interest, there are starting assumptions that serve to limit participation as well. Basically those who agree with the basic premise that our forests need to be “managed” and are “improved” by logging are those who self-select to be on collaboratives. Those who may question such starting assumptions have limited opportunities to voice their objections and disagreements and if they attend at all, often become frustrated and leave. This self selection process guarantees certain outcomes and recommendations."

Wilks brothers take land exchange offer public on website
"The Wilkses had met considerable opposition, especially in Lewistown, to their initial proposal, which would have included 2,700 acres of BLM land known as the Durfee Hills. The Durfee Hills are surrounded by the Wilkses’ N Bar Ranch, headquartered along Flatwillow Creek, but some hunters have been flying in via planes and helicopters to pursue elk on the public acreage." Previous news on the BLM land trade, the Central Montana Hunters petition.
Here is the BLM notice - BLM no longer considering land exchange to restore Bullwhacker access

Keeping an eye on Sen. Jennifer Fielders agenda of transfer of Federal Public Lands to the states
"Early next month I have been invited to Denver, CO to debate the pros and cons of state versus federal land management with President Obama’s former Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar."

Multiple use and federal land transfer
"Take the group Montanans for Multiple Use. They now seem adrift both from their mission of “multiple use” of public lands and their populist founding roots. They seem to want Montana to become more like Texas...But new this year was a flyer they handed out from the American Lands Council advocating the 'transfer' of public lands. The Lands Council is operated by a Salt Lake City -based legal shop that advocates getting rid of national forests and other public lands."

Skyline/Anaconda Elk Litigation Fund
PO Box 173, Butte, MT 59701
Skyline Sportsmen and Anaconda Sportsmens Associations lawsuit against FWP & the FWP Commission

Thank you,
Kathryn QannaYahu
406-579-7748
www.emwh.org