bitterroot river

A public access controversy on the Bitterroot River is heating up again due to a landowner proposal to build fences across a portion of the river.

A new agreement struck between Missoula County and two Lolo landowners will soon provide legal public access from a popular local park to the Bitterroot River.

The headwaters of the Bitterroot River is a bad place for a rare-earth element mine, according to a local mine-contamination expert.

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accepted the Bitterroot River Nutrient Protection Plan, a document developed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality over the past three years.

Mike Bader writes, "The Sheep Creek site is about the worst place for extensive mining operations."

After a new mining company recently announced that it intends to develop a rare-earth metals mine in the headwaters of the Bitterroot River, the Bitterroot National Forest issued a statement saying it hadn’t received a mining application from the company.

A petition for Fish, Wildlife & Parks to allow motorized boats on the Bitterroot River into the summer months was withdrawn, but only after the FWP commission debated creating a working group to consider it.