Species of Concern: How the Endangered Species Act has influenced Northwest Montana
It’s been 50 years since President Richard Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act. This four-part series looks at how the landmark environmental legislation has influenced Northwest Montana’s ecosystems and habitats, and how it continues to be used as a tool to protect species on the brink.
Part One: Northwest Montana's rare species have a vital role in ecosystems
The northern bog lemming is a small, rust colored rodent with a short tail and a hairy snout. Active year-round, day and night, the animal is often found in the wet meadows and bogs of Northwest Montana. As its wetland habitat continues to degrade, the lemming could face a threat to its existence.
The suckley cuckoo bumble bee, fluffy in appearance, is also native to western Montana. A social parasite, the bees rely on other colonies to collect sufficient pollen. They stick to western meadows at a wide range of elevations, yet their numbers are declining due to loss of habitat, pesticides and competition from other bees.
The suckley cuckoo and bog lemming are among the 86 designated species of concern that can be found in Flathead County, along with the northern alligator lizard, black swift, mayfly, trumpeter swan and the northern leopard frog. These listed animals are experiencing declining population trends, threatened habitats or poor distribution.
Kept by the Montana Natural Heritage Program, alongside Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the species of concern list aims to provide a basis for proactive conservation – to prevent a species from becoming threatened, or worse, endangered. ....
Part Two: Protecting Montana's prehistoric sturgeon a 'long game'
Ecologists describe the sturgeon as a living dinosaur.
The large fish, armored with bony plates, traveled throughout North American waterways for millions of years — their fossil record going back to the time of the tyrannosaurus rex.
Despite its perseverance, the white sturgeon, native and unique to Northwest Montana for millions of years, was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1994.
Thirty years later, the effort to save them continues. ...
Part Three: Natural migration and federal protections aided Northwest Montana's wolf recovery
A female gray wolf stepped over the Canadian border and into Montana 45 years ago. Her name was Kishinena.
Kishinena weighed about 80 pounds, had a range of up to 30 miles on each side of the border north of Glacier National Park and was believed to be running with at least a few other wolves upon her crossing into the U.S.
Named after a creek in southeast British Columbia, Kishinena was the first wolf captured and collared by biologists in the North Fork of the Flathead drainage in 1979 after the species had been eradicated from the region decades prior.
Around 1981, the unlikely happened — Kishinena crossed paths with a male wolf that had also ventured into the North Fork ...
Part Four: Endangered Species Act wielded in the courtroom
Keith Hammer is no stranger to litigation.
President of the nonprofit Swan View Coalition, Hammer has repeatedly taken on the Forest Service and other governmental entities over the past 40 years. He's sued over timber projects and forest plans, logging roads and snowmobile trails, pesticide use and habitat impacts.
In almost all of those cases, he's leaned on the Endangered Species Act.
Established 50 years ago as a tool to help preserve the natural world amid humanity’s impact, it is often used in courtrooms to do just that. ...
Watch and Listen to The Species of Concern Series of our Deep Dive podcast on the Daily Inter Lake You Tube Channel or on your favorite podcast app.