Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public input on a potential project that would place nearly 33,000 acres of private timberland in northwest Montana under a conservation easement and protect working lands, public recreation access and wildlife habitat.

The deadline to comment on this proposal is May 15. To comment and learn more, visit https://fwp.mt.gov/news/public-notices.

FWP has published a draft environmental assessment that outlines the proposed first phase of the project named the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement. This is the first of a potential two-phase project totaling 85,792 acres of private timberland and fish and wildlife habitat owned by Green Diamond Resource Company.

The first phase includes forestlands in the Salish and Cabinet mountains between Kalispell and Libby. The private property provides abundant public hunting and angling opportunities that would be permanently secured under this proposal. 

The elevation of the property ranges from 3,000 feet near Cow Creek to 6,300 feet above sea level near Bar Z Peak. The property consists primarily of Douglas-fir and mixed
conifer stands interspersed with long valleys and wet meadows, but forest type varies according to aspect and
elevation. 

Dry ponderosa pine stands are found at low elevation sites and on south-facing slopes, while shadetolerant trees such as grand fir and subalpine fir are found on cool north-facing slopes and at higher elevation sties. Engelmann spruce and western red cedar are typically found along streams in riparian habitat. Major drainages in the project area include the Thompson River, Indian Creek, Twin Lakes Creek, and Wolf Creek.

This project would conserve wildlife winter range and a movement corridor for elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and moose. It would provide critical habitat for grizzly bear and Canada lynx, federally threatened species found on the property, and protect streams for the westslope cutthroat trout and Columbia River redband trout, both Montana Species of Concern.

If the project were approved, Green Diamond would maintain ownership of the land under an easement owned by FWP. The easement would allow Green Diamond to sustainably harvest wood products from these timberlands, preclude development, protect important wildlife habitat and associated key landscape connectivity, and provide permanent free public access to the easement lands.

The U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program, the Habitat Montana program and funds raised by Trust for Public Land would be funding sources if this proposal were to proceed. Green Diamond would provide an in-kind contribution in the form of donated land value arising from the sale of the easement.

In 2019, Weyerhaeuser sold all 630,000 acres of their Montana lands to Southern Pine Plantations (SPP). In 2021 and 2022, SPP sold 475,000 acres of their Montana lands to multiple landowners. Green Diamond Resource Company (Green Diamond) made the largest purchase of SPP lands at 291,000 acres, including all the lands located within the footprint of both Phase 1 and 2 of the proposed Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement.

The affected property has historically been owned by mining and timber companies and private landowners that have allowed the public to access the property through short-term Block Management agreements or voluntary open land policies. 

Completion of this project would build on the success of the nearby 142,000-acre Thompson-Fisher Conservation Easement (FWP), the 100,000-acre USFWS Lost Trail Conservation Area (US Fish and Wildlife Service) and other protected lands including the Kootenai and Lolo national forests, the Thompson Chain of Lakes State Park and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation lands.

FWP will review comments and forward a recommendation to the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission this summer. If approved, the project would go before the Montana Land Board for final review.

HELENA, Mont. – BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.

Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned company say the railroad’s corporate predecessors didn’t know the vermiculite it hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers.

The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana. Current and former residents of the small town near the U.S.-Canada border want BNSF held accountable for its alleged role in asbestos exposure that health officials say has killed several hundred people and sickened thousands.

Looming over the proceedings is W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical company that operated a mountaintop vermiculite mine 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside of Libby until it was closed 1990. The Maryland-based company played a central role in Libby’s tragedy and has paid significant settlements to victims.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris has referred to the mining company as “the elephant in the room” in the BNSF trial. He reminded jurors several times that the case was about the railroad’s conduct, not W.R. Grace’s separate liability.

Federal prosecutors in 2005 indicted W. R. Grace and executives from the company on criminal charges over the contamination in Libby. A jury acquitted them following a 2009 trial.

How much W.R. Grace revealed about the asbestos dangers to Texas-based BNSF and its corporate predecessors has been sharply disputed.

The railroad said it was obliged under law to ship the vermiculite, which was used in insulation and for other commercial purposes, and that W.R. Grace employees had concealed the health hazards from the railroad.

Former railroad workers said during testimony and in depositions that they knew nothing about the risks of asbestos. They said Grace employees were responsible for loading the hopper cars, plugging the holes of any cars leaking vermiculite and occasionally cleaned up material that spilled in the rail yard.

Former rail yard worker John Swing said in previously recorded testimony that he didn’t know asbestos was an issue in Libby until a 1999 newspaper story reporting deaths and illnesses among mine workers and their families.

Swing also said he didn’t think the rail yard was dusty. His testimony was at odds with people who grew up in Libby and recall dust getting kicked up whenever the wind blew or a train rolled through the yard.

The estates of the two deceased plaintiffs have argued that the W.R. Grace’s actions don’t absolve BNSF of its responsibility for knowingly exposing people to asbestos at its railyard in the heart of the community.

Their attorneys said BNSF should have known about the dangers because Grace put signs on rail cars carrying vermiculite warning of potential health risks. They showed jurors an image of a warning label allegedly attached to rail cars in the late 1970s that advised against inhaling the asbestos dust because it could cause bodily harm.

BNSF higher-ups also should have been aware of the dangers because they attended conferences that discussed dust diseases like asbestosis in the 1930s, attorneys for the plaintiffs argued.

The Environmental Protection Agency descended on Libby after the 1999 news reports. In 2009 it declared in Libby the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the federal Superfund cleanup program.

The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases can develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick and dying for years to come, health officials say.

Family members of Tom Wells and Joyce Walder testified that their lives ended soon after they were diagnosed with mesothelioma. The families said the dust blowing from the rail yard sickened and killed them.

In a March 2020 video of Wells played for jurors and recorded the day before he died, he lay in a home hospital bed, struggling to breathe.

“I’ve been placed in a horrible spot here, and the best chance I see at release — relief for everybody — is to just get it over with,” he said. “It’s just not something I want to try and play hero through because I don’t think that there’s a miracle waiting.”

___

Brown reported from Billings, Mont.

April 18 (UPI) — Two transgender women on Thursday sued the state of Montana and several state agencies over a 2022 policy that prohibits people from changing the sex designation on their birth certificates.

The lawsuit challenges SB 280, which only allows for changes in sex designation on birth certificates after the person’s sex “has been changed by surgical procedure.”

The plaintiffs also challenged the Montana Motor Vehicle Division’s policy, which no longer allows applicants to change the sex designation on the driver’s license, which transgender people have previously been able to do with a letter from a doctor.

According to the lawsuit, all of these measures are “invalid, illegal and unconstitutional.”

“After finally being able to live my life openly as the woman I know myself to be, I am frustrated that my birth state, Montana, is forcing me to carry around a birth certificate that incorrectly lists my sex as male,” said Jessica Kalarchik, a transgender veteran and one of the plaintiffs in the case.

“I am being forced to use a birth certificate that is inaccurate and that places me at risk of discrimination and harassment whenever I have to present it.”

The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Nixon Peabody LLP, also seek a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of these policies.

“Here in Montana we treasure our right to privacy and to live our lives free from governmental intrusion,” said Akilah Deernose, executive director for the ACLU of Montana.

“The State of Montana clearly has not learned any lessons from the past few years, where Courts have repeatedly struck down unconstitutional laws targeting transgender Montanans.”

Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services in February said it would only process applications for amending the sex designation on birth certificates in cases where the person’s sex was misidentified at birth or if incorrect sex designations were the result of a scrivener’s error.

The agency said it would not amend a birth certificate based on “gender transition, gender identity, or change of gender,” subject to the provisions of SB 458, which defines sex as being “determined by the biological and genetic indication of male and female.”

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, signed SB 458 last May. The governor’s office at the time said transgender people can “identify with whatever gender, but not sex, they wish.”

SB 280 also faced a legal challenge shortly after its adoption in 2021. During the case, District Court Judge Michael Moses of Billings issued a preliminary injunction and ordered the state not to enforce the law.