wildlife

An animal tested positive for brucellosis in Gallatin County, the state Department of Livestock reported in late December.

The Missoula-based Vital Ground Foundation and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative - announced that they had joined forces to preserve two land parcels near Missoula that are critical for species trying to cross Interstate Highway 90.

Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem trends — which include another high mortality year — are not a cause for concern, federal and state grizzly bear managers say.

Georgia Good writes, "By moderating wolf policy, FWP can protect the traditions, wildlife, and lands that make Montana great, before it loses the right to do so."

The Center for Biological Diversity sent a 60-day notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declaring its intent to sue if the agency doesn’t develop a national recovery plan for the gray wolf as required by the Endangered Species Act.

While the news releases are an improvement over the illegal no-notice amendments that commissioners passed last year, some sportsmen are concerned that resident hunters might not be aware of some of these last-minute proposals.

A domestic elk that escaped from an eastern Idaho domestic elk facility and was killed by a hunter outside of the facility’s fence has tested negative for chronic wasting disease, state officials said.

Three organizations are suing to stop the Forest Service from logging in a remote region of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest that serves as important habitat for threatened wildlife.

Jennifer Manning writes, "Let’s make Missoula a community where bears can stay wild and where wildlife encounters remain something to admire, not repair."

Michael Garrity writes, "Greater sage grouse occupied more than 460,000 square miles across 13 Western states, including Montana, and three Canadian provinces before European settlement in the 1800s."