Category: All News
Source: LA Times So-called super fires — like the fire currently rampaging through the Colorado Springs area, spurring mass evacuations, destroying property and endangering lives — are not going away. They will continue to flare up, not just around the U.S. but also around the world and, possibly, become more severe, one expert says. Peter […]
Question: How long can a Montana sagebrush plant live? Answer: 200 years
The mountain pine beetle is about a quarter-inch long, has a one-year life span, is native to North America and, if left unchecked, this little bugger can kill forests. That is the fear of forestry experts throughout Douglas and Elbert counties, who are keeping their eye on trees that have succumbed to the beetle. Michael […]
Source: Missoulian U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., added several measures to help the state’s forestry industry to the 2012 farm bill on Thursday. They include a measure providing $100 million to the U.S. Forest Service for combating bark beetle outbreaks and permanent reauthorization of the stewardship contracting system that permits logs-for-restoration work like the Southwest […]
Source: CBS Denver CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As crews continue to face off against a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado, some in the timber industry say the area’s fire danger has been heightened by U.S. Forest Service policies and an economy that discourages them from harvesting millions of acres of dead trees that stand ready to […]
Question: When the Lewis and Clark expedition spent one entire day trying to capture a live prairie dog to be sent back to Washington, how did they finally make the catch? Answer: By forming a bucket brigade and pouring water down its hole until it was flushed out – it survived the […]
Source: Missoulian Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos The mountain pine beetle epidemic worrying Montana’s timber industry has literally turned explosive in Canada. Extra-dry sawdust from milling beetle-killed logs is the prime suspect in two fatal British Columbia sawmill explosions this year. Mills there now face whopping insurance rate increases, prompting at least one […]
Hope all you fathers out there had a great day!
Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photo’s Question: How many states have a larger population of elk than Montana? Answer: None. There are an estimated 150,000 elk in the state
Source: The Daily Sentinel Picture compliments of : Big Sky Country Photos It appears that bark beetles are attacking more than just the trees. Research conducted outside Steamboat Springs has found that the beetles that have decimated pine and spruce forests throughout the western United States have also inadvertently contributed to the air quality problems […]
Photo compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Question: What wild animal species in Yellowstone National Park injures more humans than any other? Answer: The Bison, injuring an average of 5 humans per year
Source: Cowboys and Indians By Jason Blevins As pine beetles continue to ravage the West and the construction market continues to stall, entrepreneurs and environmentalists struggle to give new life to dead wood. The sky was the limit in 2007. Home prices were skyrocketing. Little more than a signature harvested big loans. Everyone was spending. […]
Question: What percentage of the approximately 7500 Native Americans living on the Crow reservation speak Crow as their first language? Answer: 85%
Source: Missoulian Paul Bunyan wouldn’t have known what to make of Gordon Ash’s little logging crew in the Pioneer Mountains last week. Instead of axes or saws, the U.S. Forest Service team went after trees with sticks of high explosive. “You’d calculate the proper amount of explosive, and then fix that on the tree with […]
Question: How cold was it at Rogers Pass on January 20, 1954, when Montana set the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in the continental U.S.? Answer: The thermometer registered 70 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature it was capable of recording.