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☆ Yellowstone’s Wolves: A Debate Over Their Role in the Park’s Ecosystem
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Jim Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 1995, 14 wolves were delivered by truck and sled to the heart of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where the animal had long been absent. Since then, a story has grown up, based on early research, that as the wolves increased in number, they hunted the park’s elk herds, significantly reducing them by about half from 17,000. The wolves’ return and predatory dominance was believed to have had a widespread effect known as a trophic cascade, by decreasing grazing and restoring and expanding forests, grasses and other wildlife. Yellowstone’s dramatic transformation through the reintroduction of wolves has become a global parable for how to correct out-of-balance ecosystems. But decades of damage from elk herds’ grazing and trampling so thoroughly changed the landscape that large areas remain scarred and may not recover for a long time, if ever.

Persons: ”, Thomas Hobbs Organizations: Colorado State University, Yellowstone Locations: Yellowstone, Wyoming

☆ ‘Zombie Trout’ Unsettle Montana, Long a Fly-Fishing Mecca
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Jim Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“And we work very hard to give water back when times are tough. One study on a Colorado river found that salmonflies accounted for slightly more than half of the trout diet. They have receded or disappeared altogether on 500 miles of river in Montana. Another climate-related threat to Montana’s fly fishing is the appearance in some rivers of invasive small mouth bass, a warm water species that prey on trout and could decimate fisheries. State officials have proposed emergency regulations on the Bitterroot River, for example, that require anglers to kill and report any small mouth bass they catch.

Persons: ”, JM Peck, Jackson Birrell, “ Locations: Melrose, Colorado, Logan, Utah, Provo, Montana

☆ Reviving the Redwoods
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Jim Robbins | Ian C. Bates | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The redwoods in this area are much larger in diameter and far more robust, the understory greener and more diverse. “In the untreated forest, trees are not vigorous and are susceptible to stressors — fire, wind and bugs,” said Jason Teraoka, the forester. “But here with more diameter growth and crown growth, it’s a much more vigorous forest and less susceptible to disturbance.”The thinned forest is part of a project called Redwoods Rising, which is aimed at creating old growth redwood forests for the future. Carried out by Redwood National and State Parks and Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit, crews are using chain saws and logging equipment and planning prescribed fires, to mimic the traits of a young healthy redwood forest and undo the damage from decades of unbridled logging and indiscriminate reseeding. Treated forest stands, or communities of similar trees like this, researchers believe, will grow into the classic cathedral-like groves of redwoods over the next few centuries.

Persons: ”, Jason Teraoka Organizations: National Park Service, Redwood National, State Parks, Redwoods League Locations: redwoods

☆ Tracing Mining’s Threat to U.S. Waters
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Jim Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

— In the mountain streams of southern British Columbia and northern Montana, a rugged part of the world, fish with misshapen skulls and twisted spines have been caught over the years. Many scientists attribute the malformed creatures and declines in certain fish populations to five enormous open-pit coal mines that interrupt this wild landscape of dense forest flush with grizzly bears and wolves. Selenium is a naturally occurring chemical important in the environment as a trace element. But selenium pollution has long been recognized as an extremely hazardous byproduct of coal mining. The risk to human health from eating contaminated fish is not well understood.

Persons: PABLO Organizations: Teck Resources Locations: Mont, —, British Columbia, Montana, Teck, Canada, U.S

Christian Poole, 20, has deemed himself “the unofficial ambassador for the state of Montana.”On TikTok, his favorite social media platform, he posts lighthearted videos about the peculiarities of his home state. His nearly 420,000 followers reward him with hearts and laughing-face emojis. Greg Gianforte of Montana signed a bill on Wednesday making his state the first in the nation to ban the site, Mr. Poole, along with hundreds of thousands of users, was left trying to make sense of the unlikely collision between TikTok’s mostly young users and international geopolitics. Recent videos posted by Mr. Poole, of Bozeman, cover topics like cows, which outnumber people in Montana, and spring showers, which often bring frozen pellets called graupel, not rain. He says he posts for fun, not money, and his objective on the app is simple: “I want to make people laugh.”Mr. Poole expected the ban to face numerous legal challenges, he said, so he was “not losing sleep” over it.

☆ Montana Governor Signs Law Banning Transgender Care for Minors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jim Robbins | Jacey Fortin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

HELENA, Mont. — The Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill into law on Friday to restrict transition care for transgender minors, joining about a dozen states that have adopted similar laws since the beginning of the year. The bill, which prohibits transitional hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender people under 18, led to a standoff this month with Representative Zooey Zephyr, one of the Legislature’s only transgender lawmakers. In a speech on the House floor last week, Ms. Zephyr told her conservative colleagues that the ban would put “blood on your hands,” and that denying transition care would be “tantamount to torture.” For days after, House leadership refused to call on Ms. Zephyr during discussion of any bill up for consideration before the House.

☆ UK PM Sunak faces first test of comeback credentials in local polls
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Alistair Smout | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

With voters going through a cost-of-living crisis and inflation stubbornly high at about 10%, local council votes in much of England on May 4 give Labour an opportunity to prove their electoral credentials. Swindon has returned lawmakers representing the winning party at every national election since 1983, making it a bellwether and a key target for Labour, who chose the town for the launch of their local election campaign. "Whilst Sunak's personal poll ratings aren't great, they're not toxic in the way that his predecessors have been," he said. David Renard, the Conservative leader of Swindon Borough Council, said the national picture might hinder his attempts to focus the campaign on more local issues. In its town centre, many voters expressed unhappiness with the Conservatives but some had a degree of sympathy for Sunak personally.

HELENA, Mont. — As Montana lawmakers entered the critical final days of their legislative session on Thursday, one of the state’s only transgender lawmakers, Zooey Zephyr, was left exiled from the House chamber, monitoring the debate and casting votes on a laptop as she sat on a hallway bench near a bustling snack stand. Even as her Republican peers sought to isolate her in the wake of her impassioned comments against a proposed ban on what doctors call gender-affirming medical care for children, Ms. Zephyr said she would not remain idle. She spent much of the day on the bench, working with headphones in her ears to block the sound of chattering lobbyists, the hiss of a milk foamer and the voices of lawmakers ordering coffee. “I am here working on behalf of my constituents as best I can given the undemocratic circumstances,” Ms. Zephyr said on Twitter.

— The Montana House of Representatives took the extraordinary step of blocking the state’s only transgender lawmaker from the House floor for the remainder of the legislative session on Wednesday after an escalating standoff over her ability to speak in the House led to heated protests and arrests on Monday and the abrupt cancellation of Tuesday’s session. The barred lawmaker, Representative Zooey Zephyr, will still be allowed to cast votes during House proceedings for the remainder of session, which concludes on May 5, but must do so remotely. The move is the culmination of a weeklong battle between House leadership and Ms. Zephyr, who was prohibited from participating in deliberations on the House floor after she made impassioned comments during debate over a bill that would prohibit hormone treatments and surgical care for transgender minors. It was one of a half-dozen similar bills targeting transgender youth that the Legislature had considered in the last week alone. And it comes amid an avalanche of similar legislation in Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.

☆ Montana House Cancels Session Amid Standoff With Transgender Lawmaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jim Robbins | Jacey Fortin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This year, 11 states have passed laws prohibiting such care for young people. Few of those legislatures have had to debate those laws with a transgender lawmaker as a member. But she added that she is now serving her third term — and watching transgender candidates in other states win elections, too. Ms. Zephyr, 34, said she ran for office on a campaign platform of affordable housing, health care, human rights and climate justice. But it is her clash with Republican lawmakers over transgender issues that has rapidly raised her profile.

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