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Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 69
A report describing how two Montana highways could be made safer for motorists and wildlife has conservationists optimistic that roadway changes are afoot in south-central Montana - or will be soon. The report comes after a year of high-profile crashes resulting in the deaths of iconic Northern Rockies species including dozens of bison and elk and at least one grizzly cub. Authors of the U.S. 191/MT 64 Wildlife and Transportation Assessment argue that those highways are ripe for wildlife... Full story
Wardens working for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks described a shift toward enforcement and administrative tasks that has moved the division toward a "cop" culture versus the "cowboy" culture most prefer, according to an audit the Legislative Audit Division released last week. The audit, which was completed at the request of the bipartisan Legislative Audit Committee, also highlighted communication issues, waning morale and concerns about a lack of trust between the agency's headquarters in... Full story
Three environmental groups signaled Wednesday their intention to stop a 16,000-acre logging and prescribed-fire project located in a national forest west of Yellowstone National Park. In their notice of intent to sue the Custer Gallatin National Forest, the Center for Biological Diversity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Council on Wildlife and Fish argued that the South Plateau Project’s clear-cutting, logging and road-building will threaten grizzly bears and lynx, both of which are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act. T... Full story
Federal rules codifying which waterways are afforded Clean Water Act protections under the “Waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, rule have been changed once more, continuing a back-and-forth regulatory saga shaped by presidential administration changes and court rulings going back at least a decade. The federal agency that administers the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced Tuesday that it amended its WOTUS definition to comply with the Sackett v. EPA decision the U.S. Supreme Court issued in May. The law...
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen this week joined 20 other attorneys general urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to scrap a proposed rule that seeks to dramatically decrease carbon dioxide emissions in the energy sector. In a 55-page letter dated Aug. 8, the signatories argue that a rule the Biden administration unveiled in May amounts to an unlawful overstepping of the EPA’s authority and an attempt to circumvent a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision. That ruling took a dim view of the executive branch’s efforts to use the Cle...
Marked declines in trout populations across several of Montana’s iconic fisheries have led a group of anglers, fishing guides and community members to launch a “Save Wild Trout” initiative in hopes of better understanding the cause of those declines. Wade Fellin, co-owner of Big Hole Lodge, announced the launch of the privately funded effort on June 22. Save Wild Trout seeks to develop science-based solutions to the problem, which Fellin described as an “ecological emergency” affecting salmonid species in the Big Hole, Ruby, Beaverhea...
Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Friday that Henry “Hank” Worsech is retiring as director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the agency charged with managing Montana’s wildlife and 55 state parks. Dustin Temple, who’s been serving as the agency’s acting director, will take Worsech’s place overseeing the department. Worsech, who’d been on medical leave since February, is retiring from FWP for a second time. Prior to taking the director post, Worsech served as the agency’s license bureau chief. He also formerly served as the executive direc... Full story
The sponsor of a popular initiative seeking to divvy up more than $50 million of marijuana tax revenue is requesting that lawmakers be given an opportunity to override a veto Gov. Greg Gianforte issued in the final hours of the 2023 legislative session. At issue is Senate Bill 442, which proposes to divide tax revenues levied on recreational marijuana sales between the General Fund, county road construction and maintenance, conservation and recreation programs, addiction treatment and veterans...
A bill seeking to make Montana roadways safer for motorists and wildlife by creating a $1 million pilot program for wildlife crossing structures passed out of committee last week. The House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee voted 13-6 to pass House Bill 887 shortly after holding a hearing on the measure. The bill would create a fund for the design, construction, restoration, protection and study of wildlife crossings and other highway features to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. If passed,... Full story
Montana's largest utility company has garnered approval from the state's utility board to restructure its multi-state operation. Last June, NorthWestern Energy asked regulators to separate its operations in Montana from its business in South Dakota and Nebraska, asserting that the restructuring will insulate Montana ratepayers and provide Montana regulators with a more focused look at relevant operations. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and utility regulators in Nebraska and South...
The House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee voted on four wolf-related measures last week ahead of a key legislative deadline. The committee narrowly approved two bills that would codify wolf trapping season dates and trappers' ability to use neck snares in state law. The committee also tabled two wildlife advocate-backed measures related to a controversial hunter and trapper reimbursement program and the hunting and trapping of wolves near national parks. Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, s... Full story
nnounced Friday that it is exploring whether grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems are sufficiently recovered to no longer be considered as an endangered species. The agency's announcement was welcomed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and other Republican officials, who've long sought to restore management of grizzly bears to state agencies. Environmental and conservation groups expressed wariness at the development, questioning whether state... Full story
An 11-year-old effort to manage crowding on one of Montana's most popular fisheries stalled out without resolution in late December when the Fish and Wildlife Commission decided not to advance regulatory changes on the Madison River. In lieu of pursuing a commission-directed rulemaking process, the commission expressed interest in putting the issue on the Environmental Quality Council's plate, a move that would effectively delay any regulatory changes by several years. Commissioner K.C. Walsh of... Full story
A Helena judge reinstated the 2022-2023 wolf hunting and trapping regulations passed by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Tuesday in a ruling that rejected environmental groups' request for an order halting wolf hunting and trapping while the larger issue of Montana's wolf management is weighed by courts. Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Christopher Abbott's order also dissolved his Nov. 15 restraining order that had temporarily reinstated regulations from 2020-2021, before the... Full story
Environmental groups WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote are asking a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge to toss out Montana's current wolf-hunting regulations and declare four hunting laws passed by last year's Montana Legislature unconstitutional. In a lawsuit filed Oct. 27, the groups argue that four bills the Legislature passed in 2021 and the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission-set wolf quotas for the 2022-2023 hunting season violate the Public Trust Doctrine, "an ancient... Full story
The Montana Fish and Wildlife commission recently to reinstate a cap on the number of Yellowstone-area wolves that hunters and trappers can kill, abandoning an approach that allowed hunters and trappers to kill 21 wolves last season. Most of the approximately 100 commenters speaking about wolf management at the Aug. 25 commission meeting expressed frustration with wolf hunting and trapping generally, or the prospect of hunting and trapping wolves that leave the northern border of Yellowstone... Full story
At an event last week, NorthWestern Energy outlined its plan to prevent future Hebgen Dam malfunctions like the one that dewatered the Madison River late last year, cutting flow to one of the state's flagship trout streams in half in a matter of minutes. Representatives from the company, which operates the 108-year-old dam under a hydropower license administered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, also presented a plan to monitor the Nov. 30 event's impact on the Madison River's...
Low temperatures and persistent precipitation combined with an unusually high June snowpack to set the stage for historic flooding in southwest and south-central Montana last week. At least five rivers in Park, Carbon and Stillwater counties set all-time records for high flows, wiping out bridges and roads and sending entire buildings downstream in the process. Ed McIntosh, a meteorologist with Billings news station Q2, said a recent cycle of precipitation from the West Coast brought a... Full story
The Environmental Protection Agency thwarted Montana lawmakers’ attempt to loosen water quality standards last week, telling the state that it acted out of turn by adopting a new regulatory framework without first obtaining federal approval. In a May 10 letter to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA asserted that a law passed by the Montana Legislature last year runs afoul of the federal Clean Water Act. The agency said it’s concerned that the state’s repeal of numeric standards for nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodie...
Gov. Greg Gianforte asked land managers for their commitment to aggressive initial attack to extinguish all wildfires at a 2022 wildfire briefing in Helena last week. "In Montana, we do not, and will not, have a 'let it burn' policy," Gov. Greg Gianforte told representatives from about a dozen state and federal agencies present at the briefing. "We will respond immediately to fire with one primary goal, and that is to put that fire out as safely and quickly as possible. I appreciate all of your... Full story
Housing affordability, development and Montana's changing character topped the list of issues Montanans identified as serious problems facing the state in a poll commissioned by University of Montana researchers last month. A striking majority of poll respondents identified "lack of affordable housing" as a problem in Montana, with 77% calling the issue "extremely" or "very" serious. Development sprawling into what were once ranches or open lands was identified as an extremely serious or very... Full story
BOZEMAN - After six years and tens of thousands of public comments, one of the largest and most popular national forests in the Northern Rockies has a new forest plan to guide its management for the next 15 years. The new forest plan will replace the 1986 and 1987 Custer and Gallatin forest plans. (Custer and Gallatin were combined in 2014. Prior to that they were separate national forests with individual forest plans.) The new plan fleshes out how the U.S. Forest Service will balance... Full story
The state Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last week to close wolf trapping and hunting in southwestern Montana if or when six more wolves are harvested in the region. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that 20 wolves that roamed out of Yellowstone National Park have been killed this season, the most in any single hunting season since wolf reintroduction in 1995. Park employees have since deemed one pack, the Phantom Lake Pack, "eliminated," according to the story, which... Full story
Road ecologists say wildlife crossings are one of the best ways to reduce wildlife-vehicles collisions and mitigate one of the most significant human impacts on ecosystems. This three-part series examines regional crossing initiatives as the federal government prepares to implement a $350 million pilot project - the largest investment of its kind in U.S. history. This final installment examines the issue on Highway 191, one of Montana's busiest roadways. When wildlife researcher Patricia Cramer... Full story
Road ecologists say wildlife crossings are one of the best ways to reduce wildlife-vehicles collisions and mitigate one of the most significant human impacts on ecosystems. This three-part series examines Montana's approach to crossing initiatives as the federal government prepares to implement a $350 million pilot project - the largest investment of its kind in U.S. history. During a Nov. 17 hearing, Martha Williams answered dozens of questions you'd expect an incoming director of the U.S.... Full story
