Green Options » montana

4 Wolves Gunned Down By Feds Near USDA Sheep Experiment Station

Rhishja Larson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:01:39 +0000

Aerial sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have killed four wolves in Montana for preying on sheep in the secretive Sheep Experiment Station.

The last four wolves of the Sage Creek Pack were gunned down this week by USDA aerial sharpshooters, after the wolves had been targeted for preying on sheep in the 100,000+ acre USDA Sheep Experiment Station (USSES) west of Yellowstone National Park.

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Wildlife Authorities Kill Pair of Wolves in Oregon

Rhishja Larson — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:50:59 +0000

One of only three wolf pairs in Oregon was killed by U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services with approval from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Center for Biological Diversity announced today that Oregon’s wolf recovery program suffered a serious setback when a pair of wolves residing in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in eastern Oregon were killed over the weekend by wildlife authorities.

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Idaho Hunters Will Be Allowed to Kill Wolves - for $11.75 Each

Rhishja Larson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:42:20 +0000

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has decided to allow hunters to kill 220 of the state’s 1,000 wolves.

In the first-ever state regulated hunt of gray wolves in the continental United States, Idaho residents can purchase a hunting tag for $11.75 and out-of-state hunters will pay $186 for the opportunity to kill a wolf.

The hunt is set to begin on September 1, and Montana has planned to begin its wolf hunt in October.

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SUNfiltered: Story of Stuff Deemed “Anti-Capitalist” and “Biased”

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:52:31 +0000

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In internet time, Annie Leonard’s The Story Of Stuff is relatively old. But the 2007 web video, produced by Free Range Studios and funded by the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (among others) has attained cult status in American classrooms. According to the New York Times, teachers around the country use the video to supplement environmental education textbooks that often lack information on recent scientific discoveries.

Creative teaching, right?

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Study Shows Camelina-Derived Renewable Jet Fuel Reduces Carbon Emissions 84%

Dalton Wignall — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:48:05 +0000

Renewable fuels company Sustainable Oils shared the results of a life-cycle analysis of jet fuel created from proprietary Camelina seeds. According to the study, renewable jet-fuel made from Camelina reduces carbon emissions by 84% percent compared to the petroleum-based counterpart.

A team at Michigan Tech University based their research on Camelina grown in Montana and then processed into bio-jet fuel using “UOP hydroprocessing technology”. Next generation biofuels are true hydrocarbons and in the molecular aspect are indistinguishable from fossil fuels, which makes Camelina oil a good candidate to quickly reduce carbon emissions produced by aviation.

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Football Field Sized Trucks Head to Canadian Tar Sands with Superloads

Jennifer Lance — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:37:08 +0000

People in Montana have been noticing some big rigs on their highways, really big rigs.

Special trucks the size of a football field are carrying equipment cargo in “superloads” to the Canadian Tar Sands for oil extraction.

The Billings Gazette reports on the massive size of the trucks:

How big? One load that is coming up from the port of Houston and began its passage through Montana on Wednesday is 20 feet wide, slightly more than 20 feet tall and 290 feet long. It has 90 tires on 24 axles and weighs 917,000 pounds - so heavy that two trucks are attached to the rear to help push it along.

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Study Indicates That Montana and Glacier National Park’s Grizzly Bear Population Has Grown

Levi Novey — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:02:32 +0000

Researchers and officials from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service on Tuesday presented the findings of a 4 year study that estimated the population of grizzly bears in Montana. The results confirmed what was assumed: the endangered grizzly bear population has grown. There are now an estimated 765 bears living in northwest Montana, in places like Glacier National Park. This number indicates that the population has grown by about 2.5X since the last survey was conducted.

Source: Montana’s News Station

Photo Credit: xoque on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Wind Applications Center Finds Home at Montana State U

Joshua S Hill — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

“Students are already interested in the environment and how to help what they perceive as the problems they’ll face when they join the workforce,” said Robb Larson of Montana State University. “So the goal is to get them thinking about wind and alternative energy as a career path.” And to help the students Montana State, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named Montana State the home for a new Wind Applications Center.

“We’re a land grant institution dedicated to outreach and engineering,” said Larson, who is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “It makes sense to support this industry that will eventually help students find jobs in their own state and support this clean, renewable energy industry.”

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Refined Refinery? ConocoPhillips in Billings, MT

Courtney Carlisle — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:59:21 +0000

Billings, MT plays host to three petroleum refineries, which fuel the local economy. I was fortunate to receive an invitation from the American Petroleum Institute to come out as their guest and tour the ConocoPhillips refinery and meet a few of the local citizens to hear their thoughts on big oil.

Out of the three refineries located in Billings, one has a very unique story and position in the world of refining. The ConocoPhillips refinery is the first Energy Star certified refinery in the world (two years in a row). Not bad for an industry that is not highly regarded in public opinion given the current prices we are paying at the pump, but sustainability and environmental factors actually rank very high on the list of priorities for this tightly run operation.

Not only is ConocoPhillips the most energy efficient and least polluting out of the three, it was also the first to form a Citizen’s Advisory Council comprised of community members unafraid to speak up about their concerns with having a refinery located in town - the most prevalent, of course, being air quality control.

Stepping off of the plane (from LA granted), the air in Montana is crisp and clear, which is amazing given the fact that there are three refineries that are emitting sulfur and CO2 among other elements into the air. However, even walking around the Conoco plant, it was hard to smell any evidence of “refining” going on. The community members that I got to speak with (including Stella of local Stella’s Kitchen and Bakery fame) excessively praised the efforts of the Conoco team for this reason and for the EPA air quality reports (which I’ll post on later) showing ConocoPhillips leading the pack in terms of lowest amounts of Sulfur Dioxide and other irritants.

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The Nature Conservancy: 320,000 Acres of Forest Protected in Landmark Deal

Jonathon — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:04:46 +0000

Few places on Earth are as untouched as the “Crown of the Continent” — a 10-million-acre expanse of mountains, valleys and prairies in Montana and Canada. The area has sustained all the same species — including grizzlies, lynx, moose and bull trout — for at least 200 years.

Now — in one of the most significant conservation sales in history — The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land have preserved 320,000 acres of forestlands in western Montana that provide valuable habitat for species in the Crown of the Continent.

“There hasn’t been an animal extinction here since Lewis and Clark encountered it in the early 19th century,” explains Kat Imhoff, the Conservancy’s state director in Montana. “It’s the only such ecosystem in the Lower 48 states.”

The deal is part of the Conservancy’s large-scale efforts to protect forestlands around the world — the majority of which are working forests supplying sustainably harvested timber.

Over the past five years, the Conservancy has protected 3.5 million acres of forestlands — at a time when nearly one-half of Earth’s original forest cover is gone and global deforestation rates continue to rise.

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School Lunches 3: An Inspiration and a Goodbye.

Carla Wise — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Seems like all the good food stories I find start with an amazingly dedicated person. Someone who decides to work on making things better, often as a volunteer. Someone with unusual passion and skill. The story I want to leave you with today probably started that way too, but I don’t know that for certain. What I do know is that three years into it, Grow Montana’s Food Corps has helped schools and colleges in Montana buy more local and Montana-grown food. They are helping revitalize the Montana food economy. And they provide an inspiration for what can be done at the state level.

The FoodCorps, staffed with 5 AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, works with Montana farmers,

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How a Billionaire Candy Man Fights Energy Companies

Maria Surma Manka — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:21:16 +0000

In many western states, landowners don’t necessarily own the minerals beneath their own property. This allows energies companies, in some cases, to drop in and drill. That doesn’t sit well with one wealthy Montana resident.

Forrest E. Mars, Jr. is the billionaire owner of the Mars Candy Company, the wonderful people who bring us treats like Snickers and M&Ms. He’s been a relatively secretive and private individual, but his sprawling Montana ranch - called Diamond Cross - also happens to sit near some of the largest natural gas and coal deposits in the country, including on the northern end of the Powder River Basin. So Mars and his $14 billion are joining ranchers and groups like the Northern Plains Resource Council to file a lawsuit to stop the companies’ operations.

Pinnacle Gas Resources is one of the energy companies that holds a lease on Mars’ land predating his ownership. Last week a judge ruled that Pinnacle could start drilling on Diamond Cross for coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas found in lodged in coal seams.

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