Updates

February 22, 2010    By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press | Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:00 am BILLINGS — Conservationists and backcountry horse riders headed to federal court Friday, seeking to stop motorized vehicle use in much of southern Montana’s Pryor Mountains, a popular destination for off-road vehicle users. Several groups, acting jointly as the Pryors Coalition, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula, challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s 2008 travel plan for the 125-square-mile mountain range.

April 29, 2009    Wildlands CPR board member Cara Nelson is a professor of restoration ecology at the University of Montana in Missoula.  The attached article from Universtiy of Montana newspaper, The Kaiman, highlights some of her and her students' successes in UM’s wildland restoration program - which Cara coordinates. Restoration ecology is a growing activity in the west.  Wildlands CPR works with Cara and her graduate students on restoration research projects.

April 27, 2009    On Sunday, April 26, and again on Thursday night, April 30, Wildlands CPR's Development Director Tom Petersen was featured on the Montana Public Radio program, The Write Question, which "explores the world of writing and publishing in the western United States."

January 27, 2009   by Erik Hoffne, guest contributor in The Grist The Paiute ATV Trail, in central Utah's Fishlake National Forest, and adjacent BLM land comprise a network of roads and "motorized trails" that have been linked and promoted for off-road vehicle recreation by public lands agencies. The routes range from custom-designed ATV-only tracks to paved roads through small towns. The majority of the trail uses ordinary dirt roads on federal public lands, sharing them with general traffic.

November 18, 2008   Uproar over federal drilling leases next to parks Park Service, BLM fight over drilling leases next to iconic parks in Uta Newsweek Paul Foy, AP Nov. 16, 2008

August 29, 2008   The Dangers of Playing with Fire The Bush Administration played with fire last year when it cut the Forest Service’s 2008 fire-fighting budget from $1.6 billion to $1.2 billion. In early August, with nearly 2 hot, dry months still remaining in the agency’s fiscal year, the Forest Service had already overdrawn its fire account.  

August 12, 2008    Details on criticized Plum Creek land deal emerge In addition to the extremely controversial right-of-way renegotiations that Plum Creek has been undertaking with the federal government, we recently learned that they have already renegotiated many of the state land easements. Check out this fascinating story from the Great Falls Tribune.

August 12, 2008    'Off-Road Rage' Climbs as Trails Get More Crowded

July 3, 2008   The "spaghetti" network of proposed motorized route designations pictured here is the result of a years-long process. (The image was created in Google Earth using the BLM's data layer. You may also view it in your own Google Earth browser using this file where you'll be able to zoom in close and fly around the mesas and canyons on your own.) It represents the BLM's "preferred alternative" in their new proposed management plan for the Moab area's famous landscape of red canyons, mesas and arches.

May 22, 2008   Since 1996, a Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forest partnership has removed more than 600 miles of decommissioned logging roads, using heavy equipment and hand tools. They have recontoured hillsides, restored streambanks, removed culverts and replanted native vegetation in an effort to help the salmon that are a key part of the tribe's culture. Many studies have been conducted on logging roads' negative impacts, but no long-term scientific studies have been completed on what happens when they are removed. Wildlands CPR has begun a pilot project study to begin to answer that question.