Environment

Montana lawmakers are advancing a plan aimed at proving that the state is ready to manage grizzly bears if they are delisted from federal protections.

How toxic are the grounds of a former pulp mill along the Clark Fork River? It’s a question with an answer more than a decade in the making, and one that will determine how the site’s hundreds of acres of unlined waste ponds are cleaned up.

Three conservation advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Missoula challenging the federal government's policies for killing and moving grizzly bears.

State wildlife officials say that the first documented cases of avian flu infections in grizzly bears have been detected in Montana.

Montana’s hot real estate market is making it harder and more expensive to conserve grizzly bear habitats. Nonprofit conservation groups trying to connect isolated bear populations face the challenge of a growing human population and the rising cost of land.

To accommodate higher rates of predation, the Montana Livestock Loss Board has requested an additional nearly $150,000 to reimburse ranchers for the loss of their animals, a nearly 50 percent increase from two years ago.

Three virtual events are on the calendar for January with the goal of looping the public into the process of revising the document that guides the management of the Lolo National Forest and its resources.

Gov. Greg Gianforte Tuesday announced three appointments to the board in charge of setting fish and wildlife regulations in Montana. Gianforte has now filled all seven spots on the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission with his appointments.

Some Montana residents are exploring ways to make death more eco-friendly. It’s known as a green burial. That means no headstones, no coffins and no embalming.

2022 was full of weather extremes in Montana, from late-season snowstorms and historic flooding in Yellowstone to lengthy heatwaves and a record-setting December deep-freeze.