Environment

A Georgia-based timber and real estate company is confirming it’s the buyer of 630,000 acres of Montana timberlands from Weyerhaeuser. There was widespread speculation that the deal announced last week could cut off public access to some of that land, but Southern Pine Plantations said it will maintain that access.

The Gwich’in have lived and hunted in the Refuge long before it was carved out as federal, protected land. Their territory spans a huge swath of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, and their health and culture depends on the Porcupine caribou herd - a group of animals 200,000 strong that calve on the area of the coastal plain slated for drilling.

A copper mining company and Butte-Silver Bow county agreed this week to a plan to pump more cold, clean water into local creeks. While the company and county call the deal a win-win, some are concerned about the downstream impacts.

Montana wildlife officials announced Wednesday that a white-tailed deer in southwest Montana has, for the first time, tested positive for chronic wasting disease. The deer population in the Ruby Valley is dense, which could fuel transmission.

Glacier National Park officials say they will continue a shuttle service along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, with or without Flathead County. County officials voted last week to end the 12-year long relationship with the park.

Bear managers pushed back on recent concerns over grizzly bear deaths during a meeting of state and federal wildlife officials in Missoula Tuesday.

The Flathead National Forest announced a large project Wednesday that proposes commercial logging in areas usually protected from that activity. Officials say it aims to reduce wildfire risk to private homes near the North Fork of the Flathead River.