Pheasants disperse invasive eastern red cedar

In South Dakota the Chinese ring-necked pheasant is not wildlife but it is a canary in a chemically and genetically engineered coal mine. 

As the climate warms the northward march of eastern red cedar adds habitat for songbirds but is explosively flammable especially during red flag events. The Chinese ring-necked pheasant relies heavily on eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) berries (fleshy female cones) as a critical winter survival food source. While pheasants primarily feed on agricultural grains like corn and milo during the fall, the persistent berries of the eastern red cedar provide vital nutrition when snow covers ground-level foods. 

Beyond food, eastern red cedar stands provide excellent thermal protection against harsh winter weather and serve as dense escape cover from predators. As pheasants and other wildlife forage on these berries, they act as primary seed dispersers for the tree across the landscape. Highly invasive; unchecked cedars quickly take over open spaces and crowd out vital native plant diversity.

The good news? Some 1.3 million invasive pheasants were put to death by hunters in the state in 2025 in addition to the intentional culling of about 30,000 farm-raised fowl at Gisi Pheasant Farm because of the H5N1 bird flu outbreak.

BHNF hoping to protect streams with Wild and Scenic designation

The 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protects waterways that are primitive, unpolluted, and accessible only by trail or are largely primitive with natural shorelines but accessible in parts by roads. 

In 2022 when Joe Biden was president, the Black Hills National Forest proposed Wild and Scenic designations for Little Elk Creek, Little Spearditch Creek, Spearditch Creek, Sand Creek, and Beaver Creek even though the assessment found 21 streams or stream segments totaling 144.7 miles in the South Dakota and Wyoming Black Hills were eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Designation takes an act of Congress or a direct order from the Interior Secretary.

Some of Box Elder Creek and the Bogus Jim Creek tributary are strongholds for the lake chub and the only location within South Dakota and the Black Hills where it has been identified in the past 50 years. Finescale dace was the only fish found in Black Hills streams by the Custer Expedition in 1874 but the white sucker and threatened lake chub are also native. Dace and chub are preyed upon very heavily by non-native brown and rainbow trout. 

Earth haters in Meade County want no part of it.

The Little Elk Creek section under consideration is in both Meade and Lawrence County, and is located between Dalton Lake and the forest boundary near Piedmont. A parking lot at Little Elk Creek Trail is already frequently full, and commissioners expressed concern about what additional tourism would mean for the area, and for surrounding private property owners. The Meade County Commission’s opposition will be noted in the environmental impact statement, that is part of the Forest Service decision-making process for land designations. [Meade Co. opposes Little Elk Creek wild and scenic river designation]

Learn more from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Montana last domino to fall in BHE/NWE merger

[image or embed]

— Problembear (@problembear.bsky.social) October 24, 2026 at 11:14 AM

Utilities are not your friends. 

In January the three Earth haters in the South Dakota Public Utilities Cartel approved a rate increase for NorthWestern Energy but the absence of transparency in the proposed merger with Black Hills Corporation is worrying the Montana Farmers Union. 

Now, the five Earth haters on Montana Public Service Commission are scheduled to take up the $15.4 billion merger proposal but non-profit 350 Montana has joined with MFU saying it will place additional financial risks on Montanans. And, if NWE and BHE merge, the deal could mean some $16 million for CEO Brian Bird and probably $30 million for top company executives.

The two parties urge the PSC to reject the merger — or set conditions that protect Montanans, especially from the potential costs of data centers. “In the end, this is not about love. This is about money,” wrote lawyer Monica Tranel on behalf of 350 Montana and Montana Farmers Union. “Enforceable conditions are the necessary prenuptial here.” The new company is named Bright Horizon Energy. If approved, the new company will operate in Montana, South Dakota, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. [UPDATED: Public Service Commission to take up NorthWestern, Black Hills merger]

In a related story NWE is hiding information from the SDPUC about a planned 131-megawatt natural gas fired power plant south of Aberdeen.

Problembear is the online handle used by William Fleischman, a longtime Montana-based progressive blogger, wilderness enthusiast, and political content creator.

Gaia targeting Betty Olson again

Remember when Betty Olson said global warming is bunk because it's cold during the Harding County winters? Well, the grassland fire danger index will reach the extreme category on Friday for her front yard because Gaia is targeting Republican counties again.

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Rapid City SD
738 PM MDT Thu Oct 22 2026

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM MDT FRIDAY DUE TO
GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR NORTHERN FOOT HILLS, BUTTE
COUNTY AREA, AND WYOMING BLACK HILLS...

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM MDT FRIDAY
DUE TO GUSTY WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR NORTHERN CAMPBELL,
SOUTHERN CAMPBELL, CROOK COUNTY PLAINS, AND WESTON COUNTY PLAINS...

SDZ323-327-WYZ318-231645-
/O.EXA.KUNR.FW.W.0040.261023T1700Z-261024T0500Z/
Northern Foot Hills-Butte County Area-Wyoming Black Hills-
738 PM MDT Thu Oct 22 2026

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM MDT FRIDAY...

* AFFECTED AREA...Fire Weather Zones 318, 323, and 327.

* TIMING...From 11 AM to 11 PM MDT Friday.

* WINDS...Southwest winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.

* RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 15 percent.

* IMPACTS...Any fires that develop will spread rapidly. Outdoor
  burning is not recommended.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are
either occurring now, or will shortly. A combination of strong winds,
low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior.

Thune conspired with Faceberg, Cambridge Analytica

There is little doubt in my mind that damning evidence linking the Trump Organization to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Russia was destroyed on 9/11 and John Thune's early rejection of Trump was a ruse. He already knew Donald Trump was a career criminal from his basketball buddy Jim Comey. That's right: the vast white wing of the Republican Party was going to beat Hillary Clinton at any cost even if it meant colluding with a sworn enemy of the United States, destroying the presidency and taking down the republic. So Thune made Congress look the other way as Russia and Cambridge Analytica conspired with Facebook to hack the 2016 election. 

Most readers know that back in 2018 this interested party declared that with the help of James Comey Hillary Clinton threw the 2016 election so Donald Trump could destroy the Republican Party. I believe she knew that had she won, the Republican House would have impeached her over her husband's connection to Jeffrey Epstein and the US Senate removed her before the 2018 midterms, a President Tim Kaine would have met an untimely end before naming a Veep and Paul Ryan would become POTUS. 

When the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke, Thune was serving as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. He led early congressional efforts demanding accountability from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, co-authoring a formal demand letter and pushing for public hearings regarding the pervasiveness of Facebook's data harvesting but then gave it up after being pressured by the Trump Organization. 

And, had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton been elected in 2016 Paul Ryan would have become president. Her campaign knew that had she won the rabid Republican House would have impeached her, the Senate would have removed her before the 2018 midterms and Trump would be on the sidelines egging them on. Somebody (Robert Mercer and Cambridge Analytica) promised Paul Ryan the presidency had Clinton been removed and Tim Kaine met an unfortunate end but that all crashed when Trump was installed. There’s no way in Hell the GOP would have given a President Kaine the time to choose a Veep. Clinton sat in with the most sophisticated intelligence community on the planet, ferfucksake so the Obama administration and her campaign knew the Russians, the Trump campaign, John Thune and the Republican Party were hacking the election and the battle over her private emails proves it. 

The tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch was to deliver a thumb drive containing the Steele Dossier to the Justice Department because it was an open secret Trump was already under the microscope as a Russian agent. Hillary's campaign was phoned in at best so they gave Trump and the GOP all the rope they're using right now to hang themselves. 

During April 2018 congressional hearings regarding the data privacy scandal, Thune publicly questioned Zuckerberg about how Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested data from 87 million users, calling the incident a massive "breach of trust" but then went to Moscow on the Fourth of July to be schooled by Vladimir Putin.

The landmark ruling stems from the long-running fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the political consulting firm harvested the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users during the 2016 election cycle. In September 2026, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for over 43 million individual violations. State District Court Judge Francis J. Mathew wrote in his decision that "Facebook promised users that they (the users) controlled their data. This was false." New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated that the multi-billion dollar judgment sends an "unambiguous message to Silicon Valley" regarding data tech accountability. Statements from those initial 2018 congressional probes—including warnings from Thune that Congress needed to exercise strict oversight if tech companies failed to protect consumer data—were widely revisited and cited by media and legal teams during the New Mexico trial.

In a related story, NMAG Raul Torrez is suing Epstein's lawyer and accountant.