Editor’s Note: For the country of Zimbabwe (which has the highest inflation rate in the world), Mary and Larry Irwin of Stevensville were there in historic times. Mary brought home a 100 million zim bill which is worth about .20 cents US. According to Mary, it expires within six months of printing.

Our American friends said, "Don't go;” our Zimbabwe contact said, "Don't come, it's too dangerous right now." But, Larry wanted to hunt Cape Buffs and I had made promises. This would be our third trip to Africa and our second to Victoria Falls. The Falls started drawing me back almost as soon as we flew home last time. Their beauty is beyond description for me.

We had been closely following the news of the Zimbabwe elections via African internet news and though the news never seemed good, we also knew that we wouldn't be leaving God at the border, so off we went with our SCI (Safari Club International) Humanitarian Blue Bag stuffed with 1,000 pencils, notebooks, erasers, Ibuprofen, eye drops and 202 pairs of socks collected by the kids at our church and other caring friends. Plus there was a good sum of money donated to buy other needed medicines and supplies.

The day before we left, we received a notice from the US State Department that Zimbabwe's President Mugabe had expelled all foreign aid and relief organizations and we were warned about bringing in items that could be considered "aid." But we'd made commitments and that big bull was waiting, so we went anyway. At the Victoria Falls airport officials seemed so excited about Larry's guns that the Blue Bag simply cruised through customs!

After a two-day rest (it took about 46 hours to get there from here) we met with our contact, Peter Mudenda, who took us to the remote village of Chidobe, where he pastors a small church. Here we witnessed the real effects and harshness of how Mugabe's policies are hurting the people who are out of the circle of his favor. The village headman had been beaten a few days before because his village had failed to vote for the "correct" party. They had very little food and with so few tourists, many were out of work. We toured the preschool and school, including the school garden, now barren because they had no seed to plant this year. The teachers do an amazing job with so little (salaries average $8 a month, classroom size is over 30 students, no power half the time) and their gratefulness for our little gifts touched our souls. We promised to bring back some milk, cornmeal, peanut butter, and other school supplies, including chalk (the teachers do all their work on large slate blackboards). Because there was hardly anything available on the store shelves in Victoria Falls, we ended up having to get supplies delivered from Bulawayo, 250 miles away. With petrol at about $8.50 a gallon, it wasn't a trip the average person could afford to make.

After seven days in Victoria Falls, which included two evenings of close-up watching 21 huge bull elephants from the blind next to a watering hole and me riding the half mile "zip-line” across a corner of the Falls (screaming all the way down), Larry went on to his hunting camp along Lake Kariba and I traveled down to Cape Town, where I walked smack into the xenophobia riots that were taking place within many of the South African squatter and refugee camps. The plan was for me to volunteer at a shelter for children – infants to 5 years old – born HIV-positive. It took a few days to get into the shelter, and I spent those days exploring Cape Town. I took the cable car up to Table Mountain and was able to hike to the place where I could see the Cape of Good Hope and actually see where two oceans meet.

The contrast of great beauty, great wealth and unbelievable poverty kept my head spinning. Lovely old Victorian homes with bars on windows and doors, large bright garden walls covered with razor wire and the view of a massive mountain range rising straight up, while at its foot sits a huge, ugly squatters' camp of about 10,000 people. These are just some of the pictures I hold in my head and in my camera. When I did get to the children's shelter, it was like a beaming light in a huge, dark ocean of need. Tiny bodies, bright white smiles, chubby brown cheeks and arms reaching up will evoke life-long memories. The directors have to make the decision everyday to accept or reject desperately needy children and also face the daily prospect of death in any of the sweet babies of the shelter. But with resources so limited, it is not possible to accept, or save, all. I did my little part and with the help of funds raised in our church and a generous matching donation from our local SCI Five Valleys Chapter, we purchased 25 cot mattress (all but the most ill kids sleep on a cement floor), sheets and soft, fleece blankets. A final purchase of food for a soup kitchen in another squatters’ camp helped feed folks in that community.

With the help of SCI’s Blue Bag program and all of the donations we received, we were able to provide support to many people in need and we added immense richness to our trip to Africa. We feel we now truly understand what is meant by the Bible's answer to "Who is my neighbor?"

To cap off the trip, when I flew home from Johannesburg through London, I sat and slept about 15 feet away from Nelson Mandela and his wife! I am not easily starstruck, but I will say I barely slept the whole flight. Larry's air miles allowed me to fly first class and the airlines provides lie flat seats, duvet covers and pajamas. So not only was I sleeping in the same compartment as this world hero, we were wearing matching pjs! Unfortunately, this was so much on my mind, that when I got up the nerve to speak to him at the end of the long flight, I blurted out what an honor it was to have slept so close to someone I admire so much! Ooh, I wanted to slap my forehead, but he graciously smiled and said it was his privilege to have traveled with so many nice people. Very African...

There is so much more I could write and I didn't even touch on Larry's hunt. We are very grateful to live where we live and yet, again, I am already thinking about how soon we can return to Africa.

Planned wolf hunt stopped in its tracks

By Michael Howell

With the stroke of a pen last Friday, Federal District Court Judge Donald Molloy brought to a halt planned, licensed, public wolf hunts in the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

In a 40-page ruling released just after 4 p.m. on July 18, Molloy granted a preliminary injunction that effectively reinstates the Gray Wolf’s protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The wolves will remain on the list of federally protected species until the court case filed by a dozen environmental groups challenging the removal of the Gray Wolf from the list is resolved.

When wolves were removed from protection under the act in March 2008, a dozen environmental groups filed suit claiming that the decision was arbitrary and capricious and would endanger the survival of the species in the Rocky Mountain states. In the meantime the three states involved began planning fall hunting seasons as part of their wolf management plans. The environmental groups asked Molloy to grant an injunction to prevent the state’s planned hunting seasons from being implemented while the case was being tried.

Molloy agreed with them:

“In my view,” wrote Molloy, “Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the majority of claims relied upon in their request for a preliminary injunction. In particular, (1) the Fish and Wildlife Service acted arbitrarily in delisting the wolf despite a lack of evidence of genetic exchange between subpopulations; and (2) it acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it approved Wyoming’s 2007 plan despite the State’s failure to commit to managing for 15 breeding pairs and the plan’s malleable trophy game area. In both instances, the Fish and Wildlife Service altered its earlier position without providing a reasoned decision for the change based on identified new information.”

Molloy criticized the federal Fish and Wildlife Service for changing its mind about the need for genetic exchange between isolated subpopulations in the region. In the original criteria set for determining official recovery status of the wolf, set in 1994 and again in 2001-02, genetic exchange between the three subpopulations was determined to be necessary to ensure longterm survival of the species. Molloy notes that the goal was not met. He rejects the agency’s argument that genetic exchange is no longer a high value variable and that documented proof of DNA exchange is not required to meet the criteria. The agency argued that documented dispersal of individual wolves, four to 12 over 13 years, is likely to occur.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service’s assertion that the 1994 EIS requires only potential for genetic exchange, not actual genetic exchange, is disingenuous,” wrote Molloy, and their “speculation about genetic exchange is not convincing.” He adds that, “while the Service is entitled to change its recovery criteria, it must provide a ‘reasoned analysis’ for doing so. In this case, the Service has not sufficiently justified or explained its change of course.”

Molloy also blasts the Fish and Wildlife Service for “flip-flopping without explanation” over its approval of the Wyoming state wolf management plan. Molloy points out that the 2007 plan suffers from the same deficiencies that were recognized in its 2003 plan which was rejected by the Fish and Wildlife Service as inadequate to assure survival of the species. The Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the 2003 plan in part because it assumed eight breeding pairs of wolves will be maintained in Yellowstone National Park. Molloy notes that the same deficiency is embodied in the 2007 plan.

Molloy also notes that “the Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval of Wyoming’s 2007 plan despite its classification of the wolf as predatory throughout much of the state is also problematic and once again represents an agency change of course unsupported by adequate reasoning.”

Left unexplained, Molloy notes, the agency’s actions are arbitrary and capricious.

Molloy states that Montana’s depredation control law is not likely to threaten continued existence of the wolf. Like Idaho’s, it does permit the killing of wolves who are attacking, killing, or threatening to kill a person or livestock or who are attacking or killing a domestic dog. The law requires notice to Montana Fish and Game officials within 72 hours of the kill. It applies only to the “experimental” population in southern Montana, including the Bitterroot Valley.

But Wyoming depredation law permits killing of wolves “doing damage to private property.” Molloy notes that it does not allow for killing wolves who are harassing persons, livestock or domestic animals, but instead, “it reaches wolves that are, in someone’s subjective view, damaging property.” He said that it is unclear whether a viable wolf population can be sustained under the law.

For all these reasons Molloy ruled that the Endangered Species Act protections are reinstated for the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf pending final resolution of this matter on the merits.

Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks wolf program coordinator Carolyn Sime talked at length with the Bitterroot Star last Friday morning about the state’s wolf management plan and the proposed licensed wolf hunt for the fall. Friday was the last day of public comment on the proposed wolf hunting season.

Sime said that as of December 2007 there were an estimated minimum of 422 wolves in the state, separated into 73 different packs with 39 breeding pairs. She said that the wolf population has been increasing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent annually. The state was considering a hunting quota of 75 wolves statewide. That decision was scheduled for consideration by the Montana Fish and Game Commission on August 5.

“Now everything has changed,” said Sime on Monday in response to Molloy’s ruling.

She said that there would certainly be no hunting of wolves in the fall of 2008.

“Federal law supercedes state law,” said Sime. “It is not possible to hunt or trap a species on the endangered list. There will absolutely be no hunting of wolves in Montana until this litigation is resolved. No licenses will be sold. There will be no hunting.”

Sime said that the ruling essentially takes us back to the status quo before delisting. She said that in the case of Montana it means dealing with listed wolves north of Interstate 90. These wolves returned to the area naturally and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. But the “experimental” population that was introduced south of Interstate 90, including the Bitterroot wolf population, is managed under slightly different rules. Wolves from the “experimental” population can be killed by a private citizen if caught in the act of harassing people, livestock, or domestic animals.

According to wolf management specialist Liz Bradley, there are currently about a dozen packs using the Bitterroot Valley at least part of the year, and in 2007 the number of individual wolves in the Bitterroot was estimated between 60 and 70. So far this summer one wolf was shot and killed on July 1, by a rancher up the East Fork who caught it in the act of chasing livestock. Another was killed by a Fish and Wildlife Service officer on a ranch near Florence following acts of cattle depredation on July 7 and July 11.

Forest Service approves quarry use by county

By Michael Howell

The Bitterroot National Forest has approved a request by Ravalli County to extract up to 1,000 cubic yards of riprap material from the Lost Horse Canyon quarry, southwest of Hamilton. That decision will almost certainly lead to a lawsuit in federal court, according to members of the Lost Horse Canyon Coalition.

A proposal by the Ravalli County Road and Bridge Department earlier this year to use the Lost Horse Quarry, located on national forest land southwest of Hamilton, to produce a large amount of aggregate rock for road building at the site was met with stiff resistance by local landowners and recreationists, especially rock climbers. The Road Supervisor’s fiscal analysis of the project was heavily criticized and the Commissioners eventually rejected the proposal. A subsequent proposal to simply gather and screen 25,000 to 35,000 cubic yards of armor rock to be used as riprap was also shot down and the project was “indefinitely tabled.”

Then, based upon the urgent need for riprap in the reconstruction of Kootenai Creek bridge, Road Supervisor David Ohnstad revived a scaled down version of the request in April of this year. He told the commissioners that the project would require about 860 cubic yards of riprap. He said that another half dozen projects around the county also needed riprap and that he would like to remove a total of about 1,000 cubic yards of material from the Lost Horse Quarry.

Ohnstad said that no mining or use of explosives would be involved, that it would only involve gathering loose rocks at the site and running them through a screen. He said that work at the quarry stockpiling the material would only last about one week, but that hauling the material out would take place over the summer. It would involve hauling 43 truck and trailer loads for the Kootenai Creek bridge project. He presented a cost estimate for the project that showed a savings of $14,000 compared to the next best alternative of purchasing rock from a private quarry.

The commission voted 4-0 to send a letter of request to use the quarry.

Commissioner Jim Rokosch noted at the time that the decision to send a letter of request was not the same thing as approving the project. He said that if the Forest Service gave them the green light, the commissioners would then hold a public hearing to decide whether to approve the project and the public would have ample opportunity to weigh in on that decision.

Commission Chair Carlotta Grandstaff does not remember the meeting that way.

Rokosch could not be reached for comment Monday, but Grandstaff said that as far as she knew the decision to send the letter of request meant that the project would go forward without further deliberation if the Forest Service approved the request. She said that in her opinion no further Commission action would be required.

Road Supervisor David Ohnstad concurred with Grandstaff’s opinion. He said that as far as he knew no further action by the Commissioners was required now that approval by the Forest Service had been received. He said that the Commissioners have already awarded the bid on the Kootenai Creek bridge construction project which would require the use of a majority of the riprap being removed from the quarry. That project must be finished by November for the county to receive reimbursement for a major portion of the expenses from the state.

“We are not going to waste a whole lot of time to get that material ready for use on the bridge,” said Ohnstad. “We’ve got the approval we need,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of making it happen.”

According to Mark Behrman, a member of the Lost Horse Canyon Coalition, Ohnstad doesn’t have the approval he needs and it is not going to happen. He said that his group is prepared to file a federal lawsuit to stop it if Ohnstad should send official notice to the Forest Service that he is proceeding with the project.

Behrman said that one of the main complaints about the proposed project has always been a lack of any credible fiscal analysis. Behrman said that Ohnstad’s projection of costs and benefits for the latest proposal is as vague and inaccurate as his previous proposals that were shot down.

He said that his group has plenty of evidence to show that the Road Supervisor’s estimates are seriously flawed. He said that the Road Department’s analysis did not figure many of the costs and exaggerated the potential costs of using a private contractor to supply the rock. He said that the public process conducted by the commissioners to date is also fatally flawed. His group claims that an environmental analysis of the project should have been conducted and that the Commissioners’ decision is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. He also claims that the written request for use of the quarry was signed on April 29, but the public meeting was held a day later on April 30.

“A procedure was not properly followed here,” he said. He said that his group has given the Commissioners ample opportunity to sit down and discuss these dollar figures. Behrnan said that apparently the Commissioners don’t see the need.

“They are showing blind faith in this guy that we have proven wrong twice before,” he said.

Berhrman insists that this is not a good use of taxpayer dollars and that if the Road Supervisor proceeds with it, his group will seek an injunction to stop the project.

Daly celebrates opening of new emergency department

By Michael Howell

Dr. James G. Hansen cut the ribbon last Friday at the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Emergency Department grand opening. Hansen was the first emergency care physician hired at the Hospital in 1983. He said that back in those days patients might pay with a cord of wood or some garden vegetables. Things have changed a lot since then.

Five hundred chairs were not enough to meet the demands of all the curious and the well-wishers who showed up for the opening celebration and a tour of the new facility. But there was plenty enough food and plenty to celebrate.

Hospital Board Chair Sonny LaSalle hosted the event and introduced the many people who were instrumental in getting the facility funded and built. The 20,000 square foot facility took 15 months to construct, cost over $5 million and is truly state of the art in its design. Every aspect of the design from the color of the walls to the natural lighting was decided upon with care and research to provide the best environment and the most relief for what is, unfortunately for some, one of the worst, most stressful experiences in their lives.

Lisa Lackner is the new Emergency Room Director and has over 30 years experience in the field.

There won’t be any waiting at the emergency room door to sign in as the Emergency Room has a portable computer system and can sign in patients at their bedside. Other computerized communications and monitoring equipment have optimized the ability of staff to perform their duties. Quiet rooms are available for family members and for use by police for doing paper work.

Construction of a new emergency medical facility, which not long ago came out at the top of a survey of the community’s wish list, has now become a reality.

The new Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Emergency Department is open for business. You never know when you may need one, but when you do need one, it’s nice to know you have one of the best.

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