Forests challenged, grizzlies threatened

Flathead County is very unique for many reasons: (1) It is 70 percent registered Republicans; (2) There is a strong migration path history of Deep South Dixie Post-Civil War immigrants settling here; (3) "Outsiders" currently moving here, from all over America, to enjoy and preserve this "last best place", are not welcome to contribute to and participate in local government; (4) The multi-generational native-born "locals" believe that the wildlife is for hunting and their national forest habitat is for logging, coal mining, oil and gas exploration, real estate development, and a personal playground for their motorized recreational vehicle access; and (5) It contains much of Glacier National Park, the Great Bear Wilderness Area, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, and Flathead National Forest.

Left to their own designs, the majority rule of county residents, led by their elected official (Flathead County Commissioner Gary Hall (R) and his gang called Montanans For Multiple Use that deny the existence of global warming), would "de-nationalize" the national forests, national park and designated wilderness areas and "de-list" the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species List in order to achieve personal wealth by "taking over" national public land that lies within the borders of Montana but that belongs to all Americans. The threat of this happening is very real, and the danger of it actually happening can only be mitigated if all Americans act to save these national lands and wildlife.

There are many government agencies tasked with the care of Grizzly Bears and their habitat on national lands: U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S. National Forest Service, USDA Wildlife Services); U.S. Department of the Interior (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey); Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. The employees of these organizations live in Montana, have become Montana residents, send their children to schools matriculating with native-born Montanans' children, have become assimilated into Montana lifestyles and formed lasting friendships, and have monthly bills to pay as they eke out a living on low wages. The idealism of their college education days that called for saving wildlife and conserving wilderness habitat have, in many cases, disappeared over time. The political pressure from local and national Republican politicians, and the lack of protection and support from Democratic politicians, has threatened their jobs and beaten them down. Help must come from the outside, from the rest of America, in order to save what remains, before it is too late.

Our own Montana U.S. Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), Congressman Denny Rehberg (R), and Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) are mostly concerned with counting votes and getting re-elected. Grizzly bears cannot vote, but Realtors, developers, builders, contractors, surveyors, loggers, hunters and snowmobilers can vote. These politicians do participate in some minimal number of environmental issues, like water quality, that are meaningful to local voters, but grizzly bears cannot vote and so they are ignored, despite the pleas to save them by the other 30 percent of residents of Flathead County (belittled as "greenie extremists"). A year ago Yellowstone National Park had its grizzly bears de-listed (thanks to Chris Servheen of U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the University of Montana) and they are now being illegally killed in record numbers, without penalties enforced against poachers. His next target, in concert with Vic Workman, is the de-listing of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bears (Glacier, Great Bear, Bob Marshall). They must be stopped! It looks like it is easterners that will have to do it.

To date, it is easterners in the U. S. Congress that try to pass bills (e.g., Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act — HB 1975) that will add to western wilderness acreage for grizzly bear habitat, with reduced logging and snowmobiling in Montana, in order to save grizzly bears, since it lacks the support of the Montana contingency in Congress. For all you nature lovers who want to continue viewing grizzly bears, you are on "alert", your help is vital and essential. Please help now! Contact our Montana Congressional delegation (and Domenick.Carroll@mail.house.gov) and pressure them to support the HB 1975 legislation. If native-born Montanans cannot be trusted to be good stewards of America's national lands that reside inside the Montana borders, then we can only hope outsiders will do it.

Bill Baum is a retired aerospace engineer and computer scientist who now lives on a small Montana wilderness ranch in Badrock Canyon and works as a K-12 substitute teacher. He is a wildlife advocate, and a Wildlands-Urban Interface land-use advisor.