environment

A Helena judge will allow Montana’s wolf hunting and trapping season to proceed unchanged while a lawsuit works its way through the courts.

Accusing the government of failing to comply with the Endangered Species Act, a conservation group asked a federal judge on Tuesday to demand a nationwide recovery plan for the gray wolf.

Last summer, the jet stream became a "jet wave," which helped form a "heat dome" over the Pacific Northwest. The effect was a catastrophic heat wave that killed as many as 1,400 people.

Mike Bader writes, "Ideally, opponents of the POWDR plan will congeal around a common vision for the future of the Holland Lake area. This is a rare opportunity to reduce our footprint on wild areas while maintaining quality recreation opportunities for ordinary people in a rustic setting."

The surge in river usage that started in 2020 with the pandemic was accompanied by increasing use of the Blackfoot’s upper reaches, which have traditionally been used only by anglers and outfitters.

In order for the expanded bear buffer zone to work, officials say the city will need to hire more animal control officers to patrol and give warnings and citations to people who break the rules.

Beth Schenk writes, "While the impacts from climate change are frighteningly real and happening now, and the challenges to addressing them are enormous; I come away optimistically heartened and invigorated for action."

The plan detailed a total of 16 goals to improve the health of Missoula’s urban forest and emphasize the community’s connection to its trees. In terms of numbers, the city failed.

Joceylyn Leroux writes, "The wholesale attack on the federal agency comes from a longstanding opposition to bison by the Montana Department of Livestock, which is afraid of losing grass (and perhaps political influence) to our national mammal."

The agency has been dragging its feet rather than study whether the insecticide it approved eight years earlier is harmful to endangered species.