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 BALD EAGLE
DELISTED
Effective August 8, 2007, the bald eagle in the lower 48
states was removed from the federal Threatened and Endangered
Species List. The bald eagle is a great example of how the
Endangered Species Act is intended to and can work to
successfully recover species in danger. The numbers of nesting
bald eagles now far exceeds the recovery goals and has for many
years.
Although now delisted, bald eagles will continue to be protected
in other ways. Both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald
and Golden Eagle Protection Act will continue to protect Bald
Eagles by prohibiting killing, selling or otherwise harming
eagles, their nests or eggs. Also a set of National Bald Eagle
Management Guidelines were prepared to provide information for
people who engage in recreation or land use activities on how to
avoid impacts to eagles.
FIRE SALVAGE PLANS
BEING PREPARED
The summer of 2007 saw numerous wildfires in the Flathead
area including several large ones on the Flathead National
Forest. Now the Flathead Forest is preparing plans to salvage
timber and the public has different avenues to be involved and
comment. There will be opportunities to provide comments on
what issues and concerns should be addressed during the
development of draft management plans and later, when the draft
management plans are available, there will be opportunity for
comment on those.
Fire salvage and how it is implemented has great potential for
adverse impact on a variety of wildlife species. For example,
cavity nesting birds and other wildlife that use snags will be
greatly affected by the size, species, numbers and distribution
of snags left after salvage.
Flathead Audubon encourages everyone to participate in some way
in the development of the fire salvage plans by commenting
directly to the Flathead National Forest or letting us know of
your concerns so that we may incorporate them into Flathead
Audubon’s comments.
CITY/COUNTY
PLANNING AND RIPARIAN AREAS
Riparian areas, their values and management, continue to be a
high-profile topic for city and county planners. Flathead
Audubon encourages everyone to stay involved in this issue and
work toward incorporating adequate riparian management in
planning rules and regulations around the county. Healthy,
functioning riparian areas provide benefits for water and
wildlife not only on-site but also off-site since both water and
wildlife move frequently.
CONSERVATION ALERT: RIVER SETBACKS
Thursday night, November 15th, the Flathead County
Planning Board wrapped up the discussion of riparian
setback regulations. The Board focused primarily on two
key issues:
¨ What size streams should be protected by setbacks?
¨ Should subdivisions with municipal sewer service be
exempt from such building regulations?
The proposal calls for 250-foot setbacks with 100-foot
vegetative buffers for the Flathead, Stillwater,Swan and
Whitefish Rivers. 200-foot setbacks with 75-foot
vegetative buffers apply to Ashley Creek from Smith Lake
to the Flathead River and also to the Pleasant
Valley-Fisher River. The Board adopted 60-foot building
setbacks and 50-foot vegetative buffers on all streams
in the county not already listed.
The regulations only apply to new subdivisions, not
existing developments or farms. Many were disappointed
that the vegetative buffer was dropped from subdivisions
developed with municipal sewer service. This ignores the
need for riparian barriers between streams and people.
Write the commissionersif you feel there should be
riparian barriers on all streams and rivers. That will
be the next level of discussion of these regulations. -
-- Bob Lopp |
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