Montana
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Anti-bison mania seizes legislature, Governor Bullock helps beat off the attack on a national symbol- Helena, MT. Montana’s new legislature, elected in 2012, was a hotbed of anti-bison activity. Ten or so bills to hurt the bison in one way or another were introduced and a number passed and were sent to Montana’s new governor…
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A few incidents and some grizzly expansion onto the Montana plains- Now that the grizzly (and black) bears are mostly out into what has been a generally cold Rocky Mountain spring, there is, as always, grizzly bear news. First a minor mauling. A college student in Pablo, Montana was mauled by a griz during the…
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I attended the Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolverine listing hearings in Helena. Opponents, including a number of Montana state legislators as well as MDFWP, argued that wolverine populations were “stable” or even “increasing” and therefore did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act. While the ill-informed state legislators who testified could be forgiven for…
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By George Wuerthner State Fish and Game agencies are in the midst of a funding and mission crisis. They appear unable to adapt to shifting political and demographic changes much as the Republican Party is failing to adjust to new voter realities. The crisis is nowhere more evident than in their attitudes towards predators like…
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No relief from Montana’s imposition on Park wildlife- Year after year the state of Montana has pummelled Yellowstone Park’s wildlife right at its northern boundary. They have slaughtered thousands of bison that stepped outside the Park and now decimated Yellowstone’s already naturally declining wolf population. Today a Montana state district judge strengthened the earlier ruling (injunction)…
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Due to petitions of a number of environmental groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) appears likely to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once found across much of the West and northern-tier states from Minnesota to Maine, wolverine are now limited to a few isolated populations in the western United…
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Move makes Montana’s wolverine season doubly dead- In a surprise move last Monday (Jan. 7), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that on Jan. 18 it would issue a proposed rule protecting wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. This probably means it will be proposed as a threatened species instead of its current…
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Today Montana Judge E. Wayne Phillips shot down a lawsuit brought by powerful livestock interests to stop the State of Montana from allowing bison to use areas of Montana outside of Yellowstone National Park. In the spring of 2011, after many years of unsuccessfully trying to keep bison from leaving the northern boundary of Yellowstone…