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Photo courtesy of Rick and Susie Graetz
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
produced daily by Shellie Nelson
Editor's Notes...

West map In the Rockies today, wildfires and their aftermath are again in the news.

Lightning-packed storms have ignited new wildfires in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, while some of the largest wildfires in Wyoming and Montana are entering the mop-up stage.

In Colorado, a damage assessment team is surveying the area burned by the Waldo Canyon Fire and the emergency alert system used to warn residents of the approaching wildfire is also being evaluated.

In British Columbia, the opposition to Enbridge Inc.'s proposal to build the Northern Gateway pipeline to carry oil from Alberta to B.C. ports got some help from NDP leader Tom Mulcair and the U.S. government.

At a speech in Victoria on Tuesday, Mulcair said the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's criticism of Enbridge's response to the 2010 oil spill in Michigan provided ample reason to block the construction of the Alberta-B.C. pipeline.

Also in the news, Wyoming sets new mountain lion hunt quotas, a proposed coal-mine expansion in Utah will get further review, and the U.S. House began debate today on a measure to classify hardrock mines as "infrastructure," a move that would streamline permitting processes.

Today on Mountain West Voices, Clay Scott begins a series that will air periodically over the coming months that will explore Montana's legacy of homesteading.

Today, Scott talks with two people who still live on land their families homesteaded near Big Arm, Montana.

Montana Public Radio will broadcast the program at 8:25 p.m. and, if you miss that broadcast, you can listen online via the Mountain West Voices website.

Rockies today

 U.S. House to take up bill to reduce review time for mine permits
Montana U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is a cosponsor of the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012, legislation that would classify hardrock mining operations as "infrastructure" projects, which would then put them under an executive order issued by President Obama to expedite permitting and review processes for such projects as roads, bridges and transmission lines, and the U.S. House will begin debate on the bill today.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle; July 11

Smoke from wildfires in Siberia drive B.C. ozone levels to record highs
Ozone levels in Interior British Columbia rose to 84 parts per billion on Monday, a record level three times higher than the average for July, and smoke from wildfires in Siberia was cited by the province's environment minister as the cause for the record-high levels.
Vancouver Sun (Canada Press); July 11

Another day of triple-digit heat bedevils crews on Idaho wildfires
For a fourth day in a row, triple-digit temperatures hovered over Southwest Idaho, where lightning sparked a dozen fires in the Payette National Forest, and five wildfires in the Boise National Forest.
Idaho Statesman; July 11

Reverse call system in Colorado reached just one in 13 evacuees
When the Waldo Canyon Wildfire roared down into Colorado Springs, the El Paso-Teller County's emergency alert system called 118,000 telephone numbers, but only 1 in 13 calls were actually answered by people, with the majority of the calls going to answering or fax machines or no one at all, as about 20,000 of the calls were simply dropped by the system.
Denver Post; July 11

Response team begins assessing damage caused by Colorado wildfire
A Burned Area Emergency Response, made up of 25 experts in a variety of fields including archaeology, biology and engineering, began moving through the area burned by the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado, where they'll spend a week assessing the damage done by the 18,000-acre wildfire.
Denver Post; July 11

NDP leader says report on Enbridge should stop Alberta-B.C. pipeline
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board released its report on Tuesday on Enbridge's handling of the massive oil spill from one of its pipeline's in Michigan in 2010, which said the Alberta company's response to the spill was similar to the "Keystone Kops," and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair cited that report at an event in Victoria, B.C., and said the report should put an end to Enbridge's proposal to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline to carry Alberta oil to B.C. ports.
Calgary Herald (Times Colonist); July 11

Wyoming Game and Fish Commission rejects unlimited mountain lion hunt
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission set a hunting quota of 25 mountain lions in the state's Black Hills district, and raised quotas in the Platte Valley area in southeast Wyoming in Hunt Area 9 and in Hunt Area 31.
Casper Star-Tribune; July 11

BLM extends review, public comment period of Utah coal mine expansion
The Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday that it would extend its review of Alton Coal Development's proposal to extend its Kane County coal mine in Utah.
Deseret News; July 11

Opinion

 Montana wildlife commission should release trapping option from wolf hunt
On Thursday, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission will vote on changes to the state's wolf hunting season that include adding a trapping option to the season, which appears to have been added to allow the taking of more wolves, as the Commission must go to the Legislature to raise wolf kill limits for hunters, and a wiser route for the panel would be to simply jettison the trapping option and allow the 2013 Legislature to address it.
Missoulian; July 11

U.S. Senate handcuffed by 60-vote rule to open debate
The U.S. Senate's absurd rule that 60 senators must agree to open debate on legislation has turned the nation's most deliberative body into a do-nothing body, and if Montanans are looking for an issue on which to assess Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and his Republican challenger U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, perhaps they should ask the two contenders if they'd be willing to get rid of the nonsensical 60-vote rule, which stands in the way of acting on the national deficit. A guest column by Bob Brown, a former Montana Secretary of State and Montana Senate President.
Helena Independent Record; July 11

Beyond the region

 Drought withers corn harvest predictions
Last spring, farmers in the United States planted more acres to corn than had been planted since 1937, but in the past weeks, drought has wreaked havoc with what had been forecast as a record year for production, and in some Midwest states, farmers are mowing their cornfields where husks wrap empty cobs.
Idaho Statesman (AP); July 11
Mountain West News is a program of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West
at The University of Montana.
"B y no means, don't risk your safety waiting for a telephone call. What this emergency should drive home for people is they should have a plan."

Ben Bills, public information officer for El Paso-Teller County E911, after a report that said just 1 in 13 of the 118,000 warning calls on the Waldo Canyon Wildfire in Colorado actually connected to a person.
- Denver Post
On The Bookshelf
Barbara Theroux of Fact & Fiction reviews Christine Byl's "Dirt Work: An education in the woods

5/15/2013
Mountain West Perspectives
Study uncovers the restoration realities in Montana


4/15/2013
A Look Ahead
July 21: Montana Renewable Energy Fair, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Butte
Mountain West Voices
Hear weekly stories from the Rocky Mountain West as gathered by Clay Scott

5/15/2013:  A Long Way
5/8/2013:  Making Roots
5/1/2013:  Cancer in the Real World
4/24/2013:  Sheep Country
4/10/2013:  Shearing Sheep

Mountain West News is a program of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West



at the

The University of Montana