Obviously a one-two punch of gas prices and the economy.

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Glacier National Park officials said they think the 2.6% decline is primarily related to the late opening of the Going to the Sun Road and the early partial closing for construction.

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The federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving plans to sell oil and gas leases in pristine wilderness areas in eastern Utah that have long been protected from development, according to a notice posted this week on the agency’s Web site.

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The release of male wolf No. 922 is intended to increase the wolf population in the Gila. The Interagency Field Team hopes the wolf also will help them locate female wolves in the forest.

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Elborno said even McCain supporters were among those being asked to leave.

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

If you want to use motors, 90+% of the lower 48 is open for that use.

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Concerned OHV users made their first stop at the Public Works Committee meeting this week, when they asked the county to designate its county roads for OHV use and to contact Region Five of the U.S. Forest Service to request all Level 3 roads be kept open to OHVs

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Biology graduate student Sarah McMenamin spent three summers in a remote area of the park searching for frogs and salamanders in ponds that had been surveyed 15 years ago. Almost everywhere she looked, she found a catastrophic decrease in the population.

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“If Kempthorne is serious about conserving America’s legacy of wild bison on the landscape, the Department of the Interior needs to first take care of wild bison in Yellowstone,” said Geist. “Protecting migration corridors to bison winter range and spring calving grounds on public and private lands would be a good first step in protecting the integrity of America’s last wild bison herd.”

I camped at Kintla in late September/early October. I wonder if I ran into this man at some point. Sad news.

Kintla is a beautiful lake. Glacier produces wherever you go in the park.

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They had recently started investigating the circumstances surrounding the man’s disappearance. Thus far, the investigation had focused on the area where the man was last seen n at the head of Kintla Lake.
According to a written statement from the Park Service, search efforts began on Oct. 23, after the man failed to call an acquaintance for a ride, as expected. The man had flown to the Flathead Valley on Oct. 7. The next day, he was dropped off in the park’s North Fork area near Kintla Lake. That day, he was contacted by a park ranger at the Kintla Lake Campground, where he planned to spend the night.