wildlife

A provision allowing the sale of around half a million acres has been removed from the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" by Rep. Zinke and others.

The state’s agency will get more money, new leadership and an expanded mission to protect species.

A high number dead waterfowl reported on the Bighorn River south of Hardin in February was due to starvation, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Mike Garrity writes, "government agencies burning millions of acres of public lands throughout the year is continually poisoning the air in much of the West."

The Bureau of Land Management didn't explain how slashing protected research areas from 22,000 acres to just 3,700 still accomplished its research goals, an Oregon judge said.

Oregon lawmakers are considering a proposal to increase to 2.5% a state tax on hotel, camping and Airbnb stays that would raise up to $30 million a year for state wildlife conservation.

After losing a recent lawsuit, a federal agency that moves or kills predators, mostly at the request of livestock producers, is initiating an in-depth environmental study of how its actions affect grizzly bears.

In a long-running fight over public lands, a conservation group accuses the Bureau of Land Management of deprioritizing the research on the imperiled sage grouse.

Andrew Posewitz writes, "Within the last 20 years, a fringe of extremists began advancing an agenda to erode the North American Model and found a small foothold in Montana."

The judge found that the Bureau of Land Management's environmental analysis was based partly on "guesswork" which "distorted the data," rendering it "irrational and inadequate."