Environment

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A sow grizzly bear and two cubs were captured because they were coming near residences along the Rocky Mountain Front to eat spilled grain, Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said.

The Trump administration moved forward Friday with plans to scale back a century-old law protecting most American wild bird species, despite warnings that billions of birds could die as a result.

Conservation groups want a Montana court to cancel the approval of the long-disputed Black Butte copper mine, saying it would pollute a tributary of the Smith River, one of the state's most popular recreational rivers.

A grizzly bear was euthanized roughly 12 miles south of Eureka after it became habituated to people and food conditioned, according to a Tuesday press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Montana's three Yellowstone National Park entrances have opened after they were closed two months ago to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Flathead National Forest is proposing a fuels-reduction project in the northwest area of the Flathead Valley. The project includes commercial logging and road building.

Federal courts have delivered a string of rebukes to the Trump administration over what they found were failures to protect the environment and address climate change as it promotes fossil fuel interests and the extraction of natural resources from public lands.