California wildfires bring haze to region

California wildfires bring haze to region. By Chelsi Moy of the Missoulian

It looked like this might be the first summer in quite a while that Idaho, Utah, and Montana skies would not be filled with forest fire smoke, then an unusual lightning storm hit California setting hundreds of fires; most still burning.

One day it will be clear then pretty hazy as the winds shift and pump the smoke into one or more of these states.

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Related story. Monsoonal moisture dampens Arizona’s fire season. By John Faherty. The Arizona Republic. Arizona’s fire season is generally early — April through June. Then in most years heavy flow of moisture from the south reduces or ends the fires. It is happening this year.

Obama lambastes closed-door Plum Creek land talks

Yesterday, we discussed this massive burden Mark Rey has just dropped on Montana counties in the form of access to remote second home sites. This is an indication that Obama may be good on land use issues.

Earlier he blasted the Cline Mine and related proposals in British Columbia that threaten Montana’s Flathead River and Glacier National Park.

Obama lambastes closed-door Plum Creek land talks. By Jennifer McKee. Missoulian State Bureau

July 10 more . . . Plum  Creek — a low-hanging fruit. Obama Chimes In on Plum Creek, Forest Service Agreement. By Matthew Frank. New West.

Groups file suit over wolverine protection U.S. wolverines face threats from climate change, other factors, conservation groups say

Groups file suit over wolverine protection. U.S. wolverines face threats from climate change, other factors, conservation groups say. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Once again the Bush Administration is arguing that the wolverine is not threatened everywhere, so it needs no ESA protection. They say that are wolverine in Canada.

We have discussed their probably illegal interpretation of a “signification portion of a [species] range” in a number of other ESA listings.

Hoskins on brucellosis

Robert Hoskins, one of the best informed people who post to this web site, is, of course, active writing in many publications.

Recently he had a good LTE to the Billings Gazette. Brucellosis management has utterly failed.

In Google News comments, he follows up on the Montana brucellosis in great detail.

There Is No Scientific Proof that Elk Infected Montana Cattle with Brucellosis. By Robert Hoskins, Naturalist, GravelBar. Google News. Comments by people in the news.