What We Work For:

• To conserve the Peace and Quiet essential to public health and the health of our native ecosystems.
• To ensure timber sale programs on public lands truly sustain water quality, fish and wildlife.
• To pursue these goals through public education and public involvement whenever possible, and through administrative appeals and litigation when necessary.

Snowshoe hare tracks bound deep in the snow next to the trail above Krause Creek. They criss-cross it, run along side it and disappear into the trees.

The snow is light and muffles the sound of movement.

It’s the first snowshoe and cross-country ski trip of the season for the Swan Rangers hiking group. Keith Hammer, who started the weekly hiking group in 2005, said they usually are snowshoeing and cross-country skiing by mid- to late December.

“This year, it’s like we’re at least a month late,” Hammer said. “There’s a lot of trails that up to a few days ago were bare.”

Read the full Bigfork Eagle article.

Bigfork Eagle photo by Camillia Lanham

Under the guise of “National Security and Federal Lands Protection,” the Act by that name would do anything BUT protect federal lands!

Indeed, Act co-sponsor Denny Rehberg brags the Act will allow the Border Patrol to re-open roads other agencies have rightly closed to motor vehicles in order to protect water quality, fish and wildlife. Rehberg falsely claims people cannot hunt, fish or hike on roads closed to motor vehicles! Read Rehberg’s claims here.

HR 1505 would exempt Customs and Border Protection agents from 36 laws written to protect the public, its lands, and its fish and wildlife within 100 miles of the US-Canada and US-Mexico borders. (Including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act)!

Rehberg’s promotion of the Act appears to use the Border Patrol to undo environmental protections and expand access for ATVs and other motor vehicles, ignoring the clear fact that such access makes drug smuggling, poaching and other illegal activities easier.

You can help the Swan Rangers maintain trails in the Swan Range.

We have a volunteer agreement with the Forest Service to remove brush and deadfall, improve trail tread, and help control erosion on Swan Range trails in the Swan Lake and Hungry Horse Ranger Districts.

We’ve worked on the Peters Ridge, Peterson Creek, Wire, and Strawberry Lake Trails this fall, hurrying before frost sets in! (See example ‘before and after’ Strawberry Lake Trail photos, below).

We use hand tools and no power tools.

If you are reasonably physically fit and would like to help, email Keith Hammer at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!

The Forest Service is removing a number of breakneck biking jumps and ramps from the Beardance Trail on Crane Mountain, where they weren’t supposed to be installed in the first place

Rich Kehr, the district ranger at the Swan Lake Ranger District, said mountain biking features at Beardance — and any other trail in Flathead National Forest for that matter — need to follow the guidelines of a trail management objective.

“(The features) didn’t meet with the objective of the trail,” Kehr said. “They cause riders to go off the main tread of the trail and form these side trails and parallel trails.”

Read the full Flathead Beacon article.

Take Action!

The documents show that [Ron] Cron was fined $300 for three days he spent developing a trail on Crane Mountain after he said he found Swan Lake Ranger District employees unreceptive to his proposals to expand trails there. An agent found his hand tools on the trail, took them as evidence and left a business card. Cron later called and admitted building the trail.

“We purposely left the beginning and end of the trail obscured and not brushed out so it was not obvious because we knew we were doing something illegal,” Cron wrote in the affidavit. “We wanted to build the trail first before telling the Forest Service because we knew once the trail was established it would never be removed.” . . .

[Keith] Hammer believes any future public process considering mountain biking on Crane Mountain is illegitimate while the trail there already exists.

“The trails continue to be used and have been used for over two years,” Hammer said. “So the entire process is biased until the Forest Service goes out and shuts down these illegal trails.” . . .

Other emails by Forest Service officials express concern over how freeride mountain biking fits with other uses. That compatibility is what has Hammer concerned about the Beardance Trail, where riding features like elevated logs and other natural obstacles have been incorporated.

Read the full Flathead Beacon Article. While there, be sure to add your comments to help insure laws to protect wildlife and other forest users are followed on our public lands!

Email Swan Lake District Ranger Rich Kehr and Flathead Forest Supervisor Chip Weber today and ask that all unauthorized bike trails, jumps and ramps on Crane Mountain be removed to protect wildlife and other forest users!

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Read our previous article about Crane Mountain Trails for more background.

Jerry Sprunger cartoon.

Extreme downhill mountain bikers have cut illegal trails on Crane Mountain and constructed unauthorized jumps and ramps on its historic Beardance Trail. The Forest Service has allowed these illegal trails and structures to persist for years, setting the stage for dangerous conflicts between breakneck mountain bikers and other forest users.

Some extreme mountain bikers have organized as Crane Mountain Trail Supporters and are being courted by the Forest Service. We offer our findings in this article and provide photos of some of the illegal trails, jumps and ramps in our Crane Mountain Position Paper.

If you agree with our position, please email District Ranger Rich Kehr at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Tell him you want all unauthorized extreme downhill mountain biking trails, jumps and ramps removed from Crane Mountain - and that you want to be kept informed.

Such rogue and bullish downhill mountain biking is causing problems across the country, has already caused problems near Whitefish, and will certainly cause problems in the Swan Range and elsewhere if we can’t get a handle on it near Bigfork.