Ralph Maughan has a contact list over at his blog:
WEST YELLOWSTONE, MONTANA. Montana Department of Livestock agents are currently erecting a bison trap near the West Yellowstone Airport, located just outside the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park. According to statements made by the agents and the Montana governor’s office, the state plans to capture and slaughter any bison in Montana starting as soon as tomorrow.
Some local prospectors say the time limits imposed by the Forest Service through forest managers themselves are unfair and leave prospectors little time to establish or work a claim — and make improvements to the land, as required by federal mining laws.
Later this year, the 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness Area should be added to the list, depending on when the Senate acts.
These are private campgrounds on private land, not the privately run campgrounds on public land that is the latest trend in the USFS and those pushing for privatization. The first place I camp on my way out west is a beautiful private campground in Montana that charges about 20$ a night. I camp there to relax from the long drive, to acclimate to the altitude, and to prepare for the more rugged camping in the national forest the next day. The place includes showers as well as little ice cream shop. It is set back in the hardwoods, along a blue ribbon trout stream.
Private campground owners rely on the natural beauty of their locations and creature-comforts to lure campers to higher-priced sites.
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One thing I have learned during my short time in the Slough Creek area is that it is a world all by itself.
May 24, 2007—With summer travel season upon us, we’re taking a closer look at Yellowstone National Park—and we do mean closer.
“It’s very hard work,” Moreno says as he watches his men, who call themselves pineros, scramble over dead fall and slick stone in their search for the next best place for a new seedling. “But it’s good money. It’s the reason they’re all here. They want a better life for their families.”
“Supply” was the problem, yet they rarely bid on national forest projects?
MISSOULA – A shortage of logs clearly got the blame from Stimson Lumber Co. this month when the business announced its plywood plant at Bonner, just east of here, will close for good this summer.
U.S. Forest Service records show Stimson either did not bid on national forest timber sales in the region, or was not sufficiently competitive to get those sales in recent years.
