Laura Lundquist

U.S. Fish and Wildlife attorneys withdrew their appeal of a May Missoula federal court ruling that the agency must use its 2013 wolverine assessment while deciding whether to list the species. The agency has until November 2023 to reach its conclusion, according to the Missoula ruling.

With only four months until the start of the Legislative session, people are already developing ideas for the next round of wildlife bills, although some caution against more wolf-killing bills.

The plan is to preserve the lodge, the owner’s cabin and the barn and winterize the buildings so the facility can operate year-round. The old gift shop and cabins would be removed.

Legislators might have jostled a sleeping giant in 2021 by messing with Montana’s hunting and fishing laws. Hunters and anglers may have been too sluggish to react then, but now, they’re demanding accountability at the ballot box.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is making changes to its law enforcement division, including disbanding a team of detectives responsible for investigating large-scale wildlife crimes and license fraud.

Twenty wildlife and public lands professionals are proposing a plan to “rewild” public lands in the West to preserve threatened fish and wildlife and help people survive in the face of worsening climate change. But even the professionals admit the plan is controversial.

For the area around Garnet Ghost Town, the rules would prohibit metal detectors, camping and campfires, smoking or shooting, and all pets must be on a leash.

Its flower may be minute, but the Howellia is a poster child for a huge but relatively unknown national scientific network that that helps find, protect and recover endangered species.

As rivers warm up, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has restricted fishing to the morning hours on several rivers to go easy on trout.

The Environmental Quality Council dedicated almost two hours last week to a review of gravel pits and the new law that applies to all gravel pits proposed since May 2021.