Field reports: Montana rancher fined for chasing grizzly

PROTECTED SPECIES – A Montana ranch hand has been fined after posting a video of a grizzly bear being chased by a truck on social media.

The Helena Independent Record reports that Lawrence Kennedy of Browning was fined $400 with a $25 processing fee after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Kennedy initially pleaded not guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act but entered the new plea agreement July 5. He is charged with unlawfully harassing a threatened species.

Federal officials investigated Kennedy after he posted a video to Facebook in March showing him driving a pickup truck as a bear ran across a Browning-area ranch.

Kennedy told the Independent Record in March that he was chasing the bear to keep it away from a herd of cows that were calving.

Penalties for harassing or killing protected species vary widely and perhaps can be influenced locally. For example:

A Whitman County farmer was fined $100 for using a pickup to chase a wolf before shooting an killing it in a field in 2014. The wolf, listed as a state endangered species, had not posed a threat to people or property.

A Spokane man this year was ordered to pay $5,000 restitution and given a prison sentence for illegally killing a grizzly bear near a campground.

Hughes Meadows Road

closed for construction

PUBLIC LANDS – The Priest Lake Ranger District is temporarily closing the popular Forest Service Road 662 to Hughes Meadows for construction.

A major project began Friday to replace a culvert with a bridge over Hughes Fork. Construction will continue into the first week or two of September, Forest Service officials say, noting that the road will be closed for public safety.

Forest Road 662 is the main road leading into Hughes Meadows.

Tim Knight, Priest Lake District Ranger, said he is aware that this area is popular to visitors this time of year.

“Replacing the culvert with a bridge will leave the road, and the resources, in a better condition than they are now,” he said.

Info: Priest Lake Ranger District, (208) 443-6800.

Predator control banned

on refuges in Alaska

WILDLIFE – Along with a strong rebuke to local wildlife managers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is banning brown bear baiting and other Alaska-legal predator hunting techniques in national wildlife refuges within the state.

The rules are aimed to stop state-authorized bear-, wolf- and coyote-control policies on federal land. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages 73 million acres of land in Alaska, a New Mexico-sized area.

The agency proposed the rule in January, arguing predator control violates the agency’s mission to “conserve species and preserve biodiversity.”

“Over the past several years, the Alaska Board of Game has unleashed a withering attack on bears and wolves that is wholly at odds with America’s long tradition of ethical, sportsmanlike, fair-chase hunting, in something they call ‘intensive predator management,’” wrote U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe in a Huffington Post column defending the final rule on Wednesday.

“There comes a time when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must stand up for the authorities and principles that underpin our work and say, ‘No,’ ” he said.

The federal agency will prohibit shooting brown bears at bait stations, trapping black bears and shooting wolves or coyotes during the denning season.

The rule has drawn strong opposition from Alaska’s state government, the state’s congressional delegation and Alaska organizations such as the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Alaska Outdoor Council.

“Make no mistake – the size, scope and impact of this rule is enormous,” U.S. Rep. Don Young wrote in a statement. “This unilateral power grab fundamentally alters Alaska’s authority to manage wildlife across all areas of our state.”

Last month, Young inserted a rider into the Fish and Wildlife Service’s budget that would prohibit the agency from implementing its proposed Alaska rule. The House approved the budget with Young’s rider, but the budget has not been signed into law.