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Fire season in Montana still has not ended. Thirty-five fires continue to burn across the state, though the combined acreage makes up a small amount of the total burned this season. A continued drought in the east will help maintain fire-prone conditions through early November, though Monday night brought precipitation and cooler temperatures to western Montana, according to Dan Zumpfe, a meteorologist based in Missoula for the National Weather Service. "Certainly for western Montana, it looks...
On Sept. 15, dry pine needles littered the forest floor, forming a beige blanket over charred soil. Insect chatter echoed through the woods while a woodpecker pounded the trunk of a scorched Douglas fir, scattering chips of charcoal. In mid-July, when the Horse Gulch Fire burned at its most intense, firefighters cut a perimeter along the timberline's edge, just beneath a ridge's saddle. Now, a narrow lane of overturned soil, evidence of firefighting bulldozers, separated blackened earth from...
More frequent wildfires in the West can turn hiking through beautiful, high-elevation country into a dangerous game for hikers. In July, seven friends from Idaho, Colorado, Washington and Montana took off for a week of backpacking in southwestern Montana. Everything went off without a hitch their first night. A rainstorm passed through but it wasn't a big deal. But when they woke up, they saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky. Darren Wilson had anticipated something like this, even before the...
On July 22, roughly 7.5% of NorthWestern Energy's Montana customers received a message from the utility company about a potential power shutoff. The warning came both digitally and via mail to 30,000 energy consumers located in or adjacent to heavily forested areas of the state. "Our wildfire specialists have identified your property to be within a high risk area," the email read. "Due to living in a high risk wildfire area, we want to help you prepare for service interruptions and public safety...
When teachers, nurses and coaches call to ask about air quality in their rural Montana school districts, staff at the Department of Environmental Quality sometimes feel limited by the information that's available from the current network of regulatory sensors scattered around the state. "That just doesn't feel good enough," DEQ's Air Research and Monitoring Supervisor Kelly Dorsi said. "So when we had the opportunity to apply for this Advanced Monitoring for Communities Grant as part of the... Full story
On Wednesday, July 17, Brandi Castleberry stood behind the counter of the store at Kim's Marina & Resort, looking out over the empty room. Just outside the window, a fleet of boats floated idly at the docks. A few more dotted the water beyond. A thick cloud of white smoke hung over Canyon Ferry Lake. The Horse Gulch Fire had just turned a week old. "Typically we are on a waiting list, fully booked, with everything from RV sites to boat rentals," resort owner Lukas Jewett said. Jewett estimates t...
By Monday, the fire line around Horse Gulch Fire hosted 465 people working to prevent the spread. The fire remained 0% contained. Jimtown Road and Canyon Ferry Road mark the western and southern edges, respectively, of the 12,797 affected acres. The fire has not crossed those two boundaries, and continues to push eastward, but remains west of Hellgate Gulch. A large number of bulldozer crews and on-foot personnel continue to dig fire lines along that threatened part of the perimeter. According... Full story
