Flathead Valley Mountain Exposure: Kalispell, Montana News

On Sept. 30, the Conservation Fund and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) announced the protection of 244 acres along the main stem of the Flathead River, just north of Flathead Lake. Bonneville Power Administration provided funding for the transaction.

The transaction preserves nearly two miles of high quality, intact cottonwood/riparian riverbank habitat important for federally-protected bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Combined with adjacent protected lands, this property helps maintain the integrity of this portion of the Flathead River and benefits other wildlife such as migratory birds, pheasants, bald eagles, osprey, black bears and whitetail deer.

Just because the days are growing short doesn't mean you need to stop riding ... Grab your mountain bike, charge up those lights and get ready for some rip-roaring fun that will keep you laughing for days. Come out for the Wednesday Night Lights ride with Great Northern Cycle Club.

State and Tribal officials lauded the cooperative effort to manage Flathead Lake on Tuesday at the 9th annual Flathead Lake Honoring Day. The event, held at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) facilities at Blue Bay along Flathead Lake’s east shore, attracted CSKT Chairman James Steele Jr., Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger, and other leaders of both the state and tribes. The event is designed to educate local high school students about the ecology and management of Flathead Lake.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Park's has created a Web page to track the harvest status of the state's first-ever, fair-chase wolf hunting season, which opened Sept. 15 in some backcountry hunting districts. The general wolf season opener, still about six weeks away, is set for Oct. 25.

The Wolf Hunting Season Status Web page tracks Montana's statewide harvest quota of 75 wolves across three specifically defined wolf management units, each with its own harvest quota. The site will be updated each weekday at 1 p.m. For weekend updates hunters can call 1-800-385-7826 for the latest wolf harvest status and closure information.

Registration is now open for the annual Trapper Education Course in northwest Montana, which will be held Saturday, Oct. 17, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lawrence Park in Kalispell. This course is offered earlier in the fall so outdoor education stations can be incorporated into the course, and so that trappers can prepare for the November 1 opening of trapping season.

This will be the only trapper education course offered this year in northwest Montana, so all interested persons are urged to attend.

To register for the course, stop by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) on North Meridian Road in Kalispell. Registrants will receive pre-course materials and the course schedule.

In the course, Montana Trapper Association (MTA) instructors will emphasize trapper ethics, regulations, trapping heritage, and trap sets.

Understanding and purchasing hunting licenses while understanding and knowing the regulations can be challenging to say the least, let alone hunting and (hopefully) harvesting your animal. It all begins with your desire to hunt, having an idea of where you want to go hunting and the knowing the regulations pertaining to that hunting district for your desired species. And, last but not least, knowing some of the "lingo" when making your purchase doesn't hurt.

Three distinct cultures converged in the Crown of the Continent region long before David Thompson and Meriwether Lewis first tread ancient Indian trails across these mountains, prairies and valleys. With distinct languages and traditions, how did these first peoples relate to each other and to the land? And what is their story today in this place that they still inhabit? Those questions will be the focus of a public conversation between tribal elders of the Ktunaxa/Kootenai, Salish-Pend d’Oreille and Blackfoot Confederacy on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. at Flathead Valley Community College.

Many people enjoy seeing all the wildlife Montana has to offer. And some people think they’re helping out by giving them something to eat. But the fact is feeding wildlife places the animals at risk and puts them on a collision course with humans. The problem of feeding wildlife has become such as issue across the state that the Montana Legislature recently passed a law with penalties for feeding wildlife.

The revised state law passed during the 2009 Montana Legislature, adds ungulates (deer, elk, moose, and antelope) and mountain lions to the list of animals that cannot be attracted to an area with any kind of food.