A trio of thoughts

Wow!  It’s hard to believe hunting season is almost over already!

This week, a few weeks before ice fishing, is a good time to sit back and give thanks for the enviable lifestyle we enjoy in northwest Montana.

Ban smartphones from the dinner table, but while you’re trying to stay awake after eating all that turkey, here’s some outdoor topics to talk about:

Ban wildlife feeding?  The 2016 Wyoming state legislature will consider a bill to allow counties to ban wildlife feeding according to a story that recently appeared on www.northernag.net.

Currently, a dozen Wyoming cities have legally banned the feeding of wildlife. 

Montana wildlife officials are constantly reminding us that bird feeders and leaving apples for deer often attract larger predators, sometimes with dreadful results.

And, of course, “A fed bear is a dead bear.”

Should Montana strengthen and expand its Do Not Feed Wildlife feeding laws?

Access after Plum Creek buyout?  At this time we don’t know, for sure, how Weyerhaeuser’s purchase of Plum Creek will affect public access to over 700,000 acres of private timber lands.

We are hearing, however, that Weyerhaeuser has a history of “wanting to maximize profits from its lands”, including, but not limited to, charging fees for access.

So how much are you willing to pay?

And what happens when the numbers of sportsmen who now access Plum Creek land move to state lands, USFS lands and other private timber company lands?          

Bull trout rebound?  The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have supported the removal of lake trout from Flathead Lake.

Spring and Fall Mac Days and selective gill-netting have removed hundreds of thousands of lake trout in the last several years.

Non-native lake trout, according to these agencies, are, in part, responsible for the decline of native westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout.

Do you think competitive sportsfishing and gill-netting will ever bring back the bull trout?