“Woefully Unprepared”
The Natural Resources Defense Council has released a report on how well states are preparing to meet the challenges of how climate change will affect their water resources. Ready or Not: How Water-Ready is Your State? So how ready is Montana? Unfortunately, we rank in the bottom of the...
Genetic vulnerability to downriggers
I was intrigued by this blog post by Singlebarbed on a paper studying the heritability of susceptibility to angling by fish populations. It sounded interesting, so I looked up the paper. http://tinyurl.com/7b9lkpt The study was done on largemouth bass, but there is no reason to suspect that it could...
Fact Sheet on the Flathead Lake Fishery
The following is a fact sheet concerning the current state of the Flathead fishery compiled by Flathead Valley TU and Montana TU to answer questions and misinformation about the system. What is the problem with the fishery at Flathead Lake and the upper Flathead River system? Non-native and highly...
Outfitter & guide insurance seminar
Mike Howe of AAble Charters wanted us to remind you that Art Hoffart of F.O.A.M (Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana) will be at Snappys Sport Senter in Kalispell at 5:30pm on April 9th to explain insurance requirements for Montana guides and outfitters. If you are a guide One should...
Non-native trout continue to threaten Flathead Lake
(The following is an editorial printed in the Missoulian on March 23 by FVTU President Chris Schustrom and MTU Executive Director Bruce Farling.) By Chris Schustrom and Bruce Farling This spring native westslope cutthroat and bull trout will stage for their epic journeys from Flathead Lake to spawning streams...
Montana FWP abandons native fish
The primary culprit in unleashing a hungry hoard of invasive lake trout on native fish populations of the Flathead has decided to step away from the table and give up the fight to save our remnant populations of native fish in favor of protecting an exclusive and declining lake...
Sam’s farewell to bull trout
The Spring 2012 issue of Back Porch View, a self-published Bigfork quarterly, came out this week. On page 24 there is a good article by Sam Stone, owner of Valley Wide Seakayaking Adventures and native Montanan. The article is titled Farewell to an old friend: The end to fishing...
Quartz Creek Barrier
The National Park Service needs your help. They recently released the environmental analysis for modification and improvement of the fish barrier on Quartz Creek in Glacier National Park. In 2005, Quartz Lake was believed to be the largest water body in the park that had not been invaded by...
Stream Access and PPL vs. Montana
Since this has been bouncing around since the PPL Montana LLC v. Montana decision, I thought this might add a bit of clarification. This is a statement by Bruce Farling of Montana TU regarding effects of the Supreme Court Decision. _________________________________________________ “About: Supreme Court decision on PPL v. Montana...
Another big win for corporate interests in Montana
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hand over ownership and control of your riverbeds to private, for-profit corporations. After all, “Corporations are people, my friend,” just like you and me. In PPL Montana v. Montana, 10-218 the court decided that there is no longer any such thing...