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| Jul 29, 2010 - 06:41 PM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
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The State Land Board, comprising Montanaıs top five elected officials, voted unanimously on Monday to delay at least until Dec. 21 a decision on leasing the Otter Creek coal tracts in order to gather more public comments on the bid package.
Opponents of the leases say approval makes no environmental sense and would also mandate construction of the controversial Tongue River Railroad. Supporters say the leases would bring needed jobs to the southeastern area of the state.
The state owns millions of tons of coal in the Otter Creek area on the eastern boundary of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, which, if leased, could bring in millions of dollars in rental fees and other bonus and royalty payments.
Mexican firm takes Asarco
Grupo Mexico is again in control of Asarco after a Texas judge approved a bankruptcy plan this past Friday. The decision means the Mexican-based company has won over Sterlite Industries, Ltd., of India, which had been fighting for control over Asarco.
Cleanup of the former Asarco lead smelter in East Helena is slated to take place with $100 million from a trust fund set up by the State of Montana and financed through the bankruptcy.
Asarco was bought by Grupo Mexico in 1999 and filed for bankruptcy six years later.
Semitool being sold
Applied Materials, Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., plans to buy Kalispell-based Semitool, Inc., for $364 million in cash ($11 per share) by the end of December, according to press reports. Semitool makes machines that make precision semiconductors and related packaging.
Applied Materials executives said the Semitool purchase will help the company make smaller and more powerful products to respond to demand for chips in mobile devices.
Palin coming to Billings
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is scheduled to attend a booksigning at noon on Dec. 8 at Borderıs Books in Billings. She will be signing her new book entitled, ³Going Rogue², which was released on Tuesday of this week.
Palin started a tour this week in Michigan to promote the book, which has so far received mixed reviews. She appeared Monday on Oprah Winfreyıs television show.
Snow helps elk hunters
Harvest of elk was strong during the fourth weekend of the 2009 general big-game season in southwest Montana, although the deer harvest was below average, according to the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Overall, 7.7 percent of hunters checked game through the six check stations with 107 elk, 38 mule deer, and 15 white-tailed deer. About 2,076 hunters stopped at a southwest Montana check station.
³The colder temperatures and snow got the elk moving and helped hunters harvest more of them,² said FWP Regional Wildlife Manager Kurt Alt.
Divide check station south of Butte saw the greatest percentage of hunters with game. Twelve percent of hunters checked game through the station with 27 elk, six mule deer, and one white-tailed deer.
Hunters passing through Blacktail station south of Dillon checked 11 elk, 2 mule deer, and six white-tailed deer. Approximately 9.7 percent of hunters checking through Blacktail had game.
Hunter numbers are down slightly from the five-year average of 2,478 hunters. The percent of hunters with game is about the same as the five-year average of 7.9 percent. Elk harvest was above the five-year average.
GIS Day celebrated locally
As part of a global Geographic Information System or GIS Day celebration, the Montana State Libraryıs Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) will demonstrate GIS technology to fifth-graders from Smith School on Wednesday. Staff from NRIS and the Montana Natural Heritage Program will give interactive presentations using information collected by the children as they walk from Smith School to the Montana State Library using hand-held GPS devices to plot their way.
MSL staff will pick up the students at Smith School at noon on Wednesday and walk over to the library to demonstrate some NRIS mapping applications from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
³As part of the Montana State Library, NRIS provides access to geographic information for government agencies, private businesses, and the general public,² said Jennie Stapp, administrator of the Montana State Digital Library. ³GIS Day provides a perfect opportunity for us to expand our audience. Introducing students to the power of GIS is a great way to get them interested in geography.²
A Geographic Information System is a computer system that links geographic information (where things are) with attribute information (what things are). Unlike flat paper maps, Geographic Information Systems help people analyze relationships between many different layers of information at once. GIS is used throughout the world to solve critical problems in fields such as health, transportation, law enforcement, natural resources, and agriculture.
The NRIS Geographic Information Clearinghouse is one of the many resources available from the Montana State Library at http://msl.mt.gov. The NRIS Web site is at http://nris.mt.gov.
Feds to purchase land
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday that their agencies will acquire seven parcels of high-value conservation land totaling 5,026 acres in Colorado, Montana and Nevada for $11.7 million. The largest is a 4,573-acre property within the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado.
The Bureau of Land Management would acquire three other parcels, including a 37-acre property within the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail corridor in Montana and two parcels totaling seven acres within the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would acquire 280 acres within the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana. The U.S. Forest Service would purchase two Nevada properties in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. It totals 123 acres just east of the Tahoe Basin with creek frontage and a portion of the federally designated Pony Express National Historic Trail.
These latest acquisitions are authorized by the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act of 2000, which established a special land conservation fund to purchase private ³inholdings² in western states from willing sellers whose acreage is surrounded by, or next to, lands managed by Interiorıs Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service, and the Department of Agricultureıs U.S. Forest Service.
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The Queen City News is published every Wednesday in Helena, MT, by Mossback Media, LLC.
Contents are copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without prior permission from the QCN.
Copyright İ Queen City News, 2002
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