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Montana Chapter Activities

This summer, a national audience watched as wildfires moved throughout sections of the interior Columbia basin. Although the media attention has died down, the debate over fire ecology and forest management in this region has been re-ignited, creating an opportunity for conservation biologists. The Montana Chapter of SCB (MTSCB) is rising to the occasion.

As the focus of our Outreach and Education program, we are creating a fire ecology module to synthesize relevant primary literature for conservation practitioners and policy makers in the region. We will distribute this module widely and post it on our website (http://www.forestry.umt.edu/students/organizations/mtscb/). Specifically, we hope to share information and build networks with city and county planners and local politicians. Towards this end, we also will distribute Conservation Biology in Practice to these individuals. For more information about the fire ecology module or the Outreach and Education program, contact Jock Young (bioljsy@selway.umt.edu) or Seth Wilson (sethwil@selway.umt.edu), respectively.

Our second program for 2001 reviews the conservation biology curriculum at the University of Montana in order to make recommendations for strengthening this area of education. Our first product is a pamphlet to inform incoming undergraduates about conservation biology courses at the university. For more information, contact Jan Scher (janscher@yahoo.com).

Third, our perennial Land Management Issues program continues to put conservation theory into practice. Over the last year, we have reviewed and commented on a variety of issues, including Plum Creek Timber Company's HCP, salvage logging proposals on state lands, USFWS'sproposal to de-list the gray wolf, and USFS's Roadless Area Conservation Initiative. Next, we will review USFS's National Fire Plan and work closely with USFS as they develop a multi-forest environmental impact statement for fuels treatments in this region. For more information about this program, contact Than Hitt (than@wildrockies.org). For general information about the chapter, contact Amy Cilimburg (scb@selway.umt.edu).

Nathaniel Hitt, than@wildrockies.org

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