Page 7 - Bitterroot Citizen Task News Today

Conservationists are asking Montana's governor to veto a bill expanding ranchers' opportunities to kill grizzly bears once the species is removed from the Endangered Species List.

Conservationists are asking Montana's governor to veto a bill expanding ranchers' opportunities to kill grizzly bears once the species is removed from the Endangered Species List.

More than two dozen organizations and scientists have submitted criticisms of Montana’s proposed grizzly bear management plan, hinting at the hurdles that might hamper delisting.

The project is a mix of commercial logging, thinning and prescribed burning in the Kootenai National Forest.

The majority of the work in the project is proposed for areas in far-northern Granite County, near the Garnet Ghost Town northwest of Drummond.

After originally allowing only 11 days for public comment, the Missoula office of the BLM has extended the public comment period of its Clark Fork Face environmental assessment until Jan. 15, 2023, instead of end-of-business on Dec. 16.

Environmental groups are asking the U.S. Forest Service to stop diminishing one of the few ready-made tools mankind has to slow climate change: mature and old-growth forests.

Advocates write, The Lolo-Bitterroot Partnership citizen plan is based on the best available science and will protect our most valuable economic asset.

The Lolo National Forest has dropped plans to defend logging and thinning the Soldier-Butler project in the Ninemile Ranger District west of Missoula after two federal court defeats.

Gov. Greg Gianforte has announced the state of Montana is petitioning federal officials to delist the grizzly population in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.