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May 15, 2023 - By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - A federal judge has ruled the U.S. Forest Service did not take into account the impact heavy machinery and other equipment could have on a delicate grizzly bear habitat re-population effort in Montana and ordered workers to stop creating a logging road in the Kootenai (KOOT-nee) National Forest. The ruling could be the end of the Knotty Pine logging project. Comments from Mike Garrity, executive director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Pronouncer: Yaak (YACK)
The ruling stops the construction of a logging road in critical bear habitat
Mark Moran
May 15, 2023 - A U.S. District Court has halted a logging project in the Kootenai National Forest in Montana because of its potential to harm an already imperiled population of grizzly bears.
As part of the Knotty Pine timber project, the U.S. Forest Service would have cut a 45-mile-long logging road through almost 5,000 acres of the national forest, which grizzly bear advocates said would have decimated their decadeslong efforts to restore the animals in their habitat.
Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the Cabinet Yaak grizzly population, which calls this section of the Kootenai home, is among the smallest and most imperiled in the lower 48 states.
"The recovery goal is to have 100 grizzly bears there," Garrity pointed out. "The population has declined to 42 grizzly bears down from 56 only four years earlier."
The judge halted the Knotty Pine project because she said the Forest Service did not adequately measure the impact of the logging roads on the already dwindling grizzly population. Garrity added the highest number of grizzly bear deaths occur along logging roads, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose.
Garrity acknowledged grizzly bear advocates have faced opposition from the Forest Service, timber interests and some ranchers who pushed to have the grizzly bear removed from the Endangered Species List because they can threaten livestock in the springtime.
Garrity contends the efforts to delist the grizzly are driven by commercial profit.
"They were essentially saying, 'We don't care about grizzly bears, we just want to cut down trees,'" Garrity asserted.
The Forest Service could appeal the judge's temporary injunction, but for now the Knotty Pine case remains on hold while she rules on the larger lawsuit. Garrity added meeting the criteria to win the injunction bodes well for the judge to completely end the project when she makes her final ruling.
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PNS - Monday, May 15, 2023 - Residents in Buffalo, New York commemorate the one-year anniversary of a racist shooting, Minnesota lawmakers pass legislation allowing for "extreme risk protections," and North Carolina's governor asks Republicans to protect women's reproductive rights.
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PNS - Monday, May 15, 2023 - Proposed border policing unit gains traction in Texas; Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes 12-week NC abortion ban; Latinos poised to become an economic force; Call To Action for TVA pivot to clean energy.
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May 12, 2023 - By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Advocates say lawmakers made good progress this legislative session addressing many of Montana's critical mental health-care needs, Comments from Mat Kuntz (KOONTZ), executive director, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Montana.
Mark Moran
May 12, 2023 - Montana's mental health advocates said state lawmakers addressed many of the state's pressing needs in the just-completed legislative session, but more work remains to be done.
The Montana Legislature addressed increasing funding for youth suicide prevention, adding beds at crisis care centers, improving Medicaid reimbursement rates for community behavioral health providers, increasing the number of community behavioral health centers and reworking conditional-release programs for offenders with serious mental health conditions.
Matt Kuntz, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Montana, said it is exactly how lawmakers should address the state's critical mental health needs.
"There was a big, bipartisan push for mental health," Kuntz acknowledged. "There's a lot of things our country doesn't agree about right now. There's a lot of things our state doesn't agree about right now. But to see bipartisan agreement on mental health is really positive."
Kuntz pointed out that while lawmakers did a lot to support mental health issues in the state, he and other advocates are already thinking about how to make more progress in the next legislative session.
While Medicaid reimbursement rates are slightly higher than they have been, Kuntz explained because reimbursement rates are still below where they should be, caregiver wages stay low, making it hard to attract providers to the profession.
"It's going to be a challenge to keep moving forward with increasing the number of care providers, both clinicians and technical staff," Kuntz cautioned. "Getting those bodies to serve and care for the people and make mental health their career is a long-term challenge, especially coming out of COVID."
Kuntz added he and other advocates are already planning to ask for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates moving forward.
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