Independently reported news stories of Montana's people, land, water and wildlife.
Some say collaboration is the way to solve complicated public land issues. But in Montana’s Crazy Mountains, both collaborators and outsiders are questioning the intent and timing of a proposed public-private land swap.
Read MoreA federal judge halted a timber project Friday because the Forest Service might have overstepped its bounds in bypassing the public process.
On Friday, Missoula federal District Judge Donald Molloy put a hold on the Moosehorn Ditch Salvage Timber Sale in time to halt logging scheduled to begin on Aug. 1. In so doing, he gave attorneys for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystem Council time to press their lawsuit that the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest approved a timber sale without going through a public process as required by law.
Read MoreEven though U.S. oil prices have dropped to levels not seen in more than a decade, a Denver-based company is proposing a drilling project that could threaten prime wildlife habitat in southwest Montana.
The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and the Dillon Bureau of Land Management Office are conducting an environmental assessment of oil drilling in the Tendoy Mountains south of Dillon. They are accepting public comment until midnight on March 25.
Read MoreThe Obama administration’s final proposal for an annual budget would allocate $13.4 billion to the Department of the Interior for everything from wildfire suppression to funding for scientific research. But with a Republican-led Congress in an election year, parts of the budget could fall by the wayside by September.
Read More“The places that matter are not always made of brick and mortar.”
Amy Sakariassen’s comment was the essence of the testimony heard by a federal advisory council that is deciding whether drilling for oil and gas would degrade historic sites in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountain Front.
Read MoreAlthough it’s short, a new bypass road has a long history and goes a long way toward reopening part of the Custer Gallatin National Forest south of Big Timber.
On Wednesday morning, the new 1.6-mile section of the West Deer Creek Road was opened to the public, ending a 25-year struggle over access on the nearby Cherry Creek Road.
Read MoreA Canadian company wants to mine the Treasure State, but the sites it wants to develop are next to another treasure: Yellowstone National Park. That’s raised concerns for some, especially those that live and work on the Yellowstone River.
For the next week, the Custer Gallatin National Forest and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality are requesting public input on a proposal to explore the gold deposits in the mountains southeast of Emigrant and Chico Hot Springs in the Paradise Valley.
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