Environment

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks released new details about a bear attack near Columbia Falls that left a woman with serious injuries. Evidence at the scene revealed the bear was a grizzly sow traveling with at least one cub-of-the-year.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is opening up a public comment period as part of an environmental review for American Prairie’s proposal to change the class of livestock on one of its parcels from cattle to bison.

The Trump Administration eliminated billions of dollars in available grants, and remaining funds are proving difficult to access. That includes for a Montana organization working to protect against invasive species. It’s still waiting for federal money awarded eight months ago. If the money isn’t approved soon, it could be gone for good.

The search is on for a bear in the Columbia Falls-area that attacked a woman Monday. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and U.S. Forest Service investigators say a woman who was walking her dog sustained significant injuries following the attack.

Nearly 45-million acres of national forest lands that have been protected for 25 years could open up to logging. The Trump administration Tuesday proposed a new regulation that would remove what’s known as the “roadless rule.” MTPR’s Aaron Bolton spoke with Ellis Juhlin from the Montana Free Press about the latest in a decades-old fight over where the federal government allows logging.

An atmospheric river swept across the Pacific Northwest last December, dropping more than a foot of rain – and tens of millions of dollars in damages – in portions of the Cabinet Mountains. Work repairing and stabilizing a stretch of northwest Montana’s flood-damaged Libby Creek is now complete.

The Flathead National Forest has approved a plan to replace and modernize a wastewater treatment system for western Montana’s Holland Lake Lodge.

The state is looking for public comment on a potential tungsten mine in the Flint Creek Range of southwest Montana. Comments will be accepted until Friday, Aug. 14.

Northwest Montana has a below-average huckleberry crop this year. That means bears are now looking for alternative food sources and getting into trouble as a result.

Bozeman and Missoula declared 100% clean electricity goals in 2019 and have been chipping away at this effort ever since. Now both cities have committed to a new renewable energy plan that gets them closer to carbon neutrality by 2030.