wilderness

Missoula County on Monday joined city officials and private partners in announcing that it would take the lead in securing public ownership of 480 on and around Marshall Mountain.

The bill would allow charges to be filed against people who interfere with fire suppression methods by operating drones in the area of an active fire.

Mike Garrity writes, "Certain politicians call the Alliance for the Wild Rockies “a serial litigator.” But in actuality, the Forest Service is a serial lawbreaker."

The court sided with two organizations that sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for not carrying out its own decision, made almost 23 years ago, to place an experimental population of 25 grizzlies in the Bitterroot Recovery Area.

A Missoula federal judge heard oral arguments Tuesday on why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to recover the Bitterroot population of grizzly bears for the past two decades.

On Tuesday, a Yellowstone National Park wildlife biologist on a radio telemetry flight observed the first grizzly bear of 2023 to emerge from hibernation.

Instead of dealing with important issues like climate change or protecting critical habitat in the face of booming development, our elected representatives are avoiding the hard work by focusing on divisive cultural distractions.

George Wuerthner writes, "What is amazing to contemplate is how the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the last functioning temperate zone landscapes where natural processes still dominate a portion of the landscape."

More than two dozen organizations and scientists have submitted criticisms of Montana’s proposed grizzly bear management plan, hinting at the hurdles that might hamper delisting.

Experts say bear baiting will increase the likelihood of defense of life and property kills of bears, and will alter the natural processes and behaviors of bears and other wildlife.