Montana Untamed

Last June south-central Montana suffered a historic 500-year flood. High water wiped out bridges and roads in Yellowstone National Park and the Custer Gallatin National Forest, as well as destroyed private homes and bridges.  On August 4th, more than 400 days later, the Forest Service has restored access to one of the most popular areas in the Beartooth Mountains – East Rosebud Lake. Here to talk...

The summer of 2003 pushed Glacier National Park’s fire response to new frontiers. There had been many fires before, including some catastrophic events. But rarely did so many parts of the park get so threatened by so many different kinds of challenges. And rarely did firefighters attempt some tactics that proved essential then, but might not be possible now. Twenty years later, we look back at the...

It’s like school for elk hunting and the classroom is the Snowcrest Mountains. The bonus is it all happens on a backpacking expedition.  I am referring to a new course offered by Montana Wilderness school called backpacking skills for aspiring hunters. The Bozeman-based school has been taking students on expeditions for ten years with a mission of providing “empowering expeditionary wilderness cou...

From trains and horses to snowmobiles and jet-skis, national parks have had to deal with disruptive technology in wild places. The latest controversy circles around the popularity of e-bikes. These battery-assisted bicycles make it possible for new crowds of tourists to attempt adventures they might have been too old, young, infirm or inexperienced to try before. That puts new pressures on the Nat...

The Last Best Place has been discovered. Across the state, tourists and second-homeowners pull up alongside trucks with stickers of Montana’s outline and the words: “WE’RE FULL.” They stroll through shops with coffee mugs, t-shirts and hats displaying similar sentiments. But the same tourists and transplants inject money into local economies, facilitating jobs and businesses. The tension, however,...

After historically low counts of brown and rainbow trout were found in three popular stretches of the Big Hole River, people have begun rallying around the 153-mile freestone river in southwest Montana. There’s still pessimism for what the future holds, but the response has been positive. People genuinely want to find a solution and do what they can to pump life back into the famous Blue Ribbon tr...

Earlier this year a freight train derailed near Paradise, spilling thousands of beers into the Clark Fork River. For some it was comical, for others it was a close call.  And now three months later another train derailment. This time, on the other side of the state, into the Yellowstone River. But this wasn’t a close call and not comical by any standards. Early Saturday morning about 5 miles east...

A recent federal court ruling in Wyoming has once again sparked discussions about the legality of corner crossing. I want you to visualize a checkerboard. A grid of black and white squares. Now imagine that layout on a map, where the black squares are public land and the white ones are private. This land ownership layout is common in the west, a relic of past when the government was divvying out l...

The American food system is broken and intact ecosystems can help fix it. That's according to Cole Mannix, the founder of Old Salt Co-Op, a vertically integrated meat company that's mission is to feed people meat from producers who steward the landscape. Raised on his family's ranch in the Blackfoot Valley, Mannix takes his father's mantra with him in everything he does - "the land owns us." On th...

On the heels of a long, wet Montana winter, runoff season is mostly done and anglers are itching to hit the river and ready to target some hungry springtime trout. Flows are robust and above average for this time of year in some areas. The Big Hole River is no exception. Aesthetically, it appears healthy and full of life. The breathtaking landscape of the Big Hole Valley can inspire optimism, espe...

Somewhere in Montana, it will happen. Many places, actually — maybe in your town. And it’ll happen this summer. But nobody knows exactly when, where or how bad.  Wildfire is an inherent part of life in the American West. In recent years, a warming climate has increasingly led to larger and more destructive wildfires becoming more common. But that’s an average trend over time.  So, what about this...

The Beartooth Pass climbs between Wyoming and Montana at an elevation close to 11,000 feet. The route through the Beartooth Mountains, Highway 212 between Cooke City and Red Lodge, contains the highest mountains in the state. Because of its elevation, the high landscape is a fragile tundra ecosystem where roads not driven in 50 years are still visible on the landscape. The highway opens on Friday...

Brad Orsted wanted to get better. Facing the unimaginable loss of his infant daughter Marley while in his mother’s care, and the extreme guilt of unanswered questions surrounding her death, Orsted spent years meeting with doctors and therapists. They prescribed medications and therapy sessions as he self-medicated with alcohol, haunted by memories of Marley and spiraling downward into suicide scen...

As we plan and plant our gardens this spring, consider the mountain lion. The stealthy predators are strictly meat eaters, but what and where they kill provides nutrients for the soil and promotes plant growth. It’s an odd concept examined in a recent study by the big cat conservation group Panthera. From 2014 to 2018, the group collared 50 mountain lions and tracked them to identify kill sites. O...

The 68th legislative session adjourned in a whirlwind Tuesday evening, with lawmakers making their final votes on spending and social bills. While unprecedented events over the last two week including protests and arrests grabbed national headlines, in other areas of the Capitol lawmakers debated some of the final bills dealing with hunting, fishing and access. Wildlife legislation often brings so...

Bighorn sheep are an iconic species in Montana and the West. Rams, which can grow large curving horns, are prized by trophy hunters who will pay thousands of dollars at annual auctions to secure a permit to hunt. Yet the species has been plagued by small populations in many herds, die-offs due to disease and limited success when animals from healthy herds are transplanted to create new populations...

The image went around the country in days: A man clinging to a broken chairlift 20 feet above the ground, one ski off, moments before he had no choice but to jump. What the image didn’t show was that moments before, the man’s 4-year-old son had fallen off the chair when it broke.  It happened at Montana Snowbowl ski area just north of Missoula, back in March. The incident sparked an outcry from th...

Freight train derailments in the U.S. have come under increasing scrutiny since a train carrying hazardous materials derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio, in early February.  Montana is no stranger to freight train derailments. In 1996, a train derailed near Alberton and released chlorine. Some residents still live with health problems from chemical exposure. And, just this past Sunday, Apr...

With large ear tufts and feet built for hunting snowshoe hares in deep powder, the Canada lynx is an elusive species prowling parts of Montana. Lynx range from Canada and Alaska south into a few states in the lower 48. While no large scale population estimates are available, scientists believe that northwest Montana and northern Idaho likely have the strongest populations, and that is important wh...

Montana’s only wild horse herd is found in south-central Montana’s Pryor Mountains. This is an area of extremes. The lowlands are desert-like, while the mountain tops rise to more than 8,700 feet. Across about 42,000 acres of this rugged land a herd of about 205 are spread across lands managed mostly by the Bureau of Land Management, but also the Custer Gallatin National Forest and the National Pa...

It’s a hallmark trait of bears, a characteristic known even by small children: bruins hibernate through winter. Except, this year around Missoula, many of them aren’t. From neighborhood “trash bears” to near-city grizzlies feeding on frozen roadkill all season — plus, rural grizzly tracks spotted amid a frigid and snowy February — bears in west-central Montana are active in greater number and freq...

In 2022 a male wolf that was captured and fitted with a GPS collar south of Dillon decided to take a long hike through some of Montana’s most spectacular wild country. If the wolf had hitchhiked a ride in an automobile, the distance covered is close to 300 miles. But those miles don’t reflect the elevation gains and losses of climbing up and over the mountain ranges. They also don’t tally the rive...

The Blackfeet Nation, tucked along the north end of the Rocky Mountain Front, has played host to a tribally managed buffalo herd for decades.  Now in the past, the tribe has sold occasional bison hunts to individuals, but last month marked the first time a tribe in Montanan opened a raffle bison hunt to the public. In partnership with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the Blackfeet Nation invite...

Christopher Preston went wandering with buffalo and running after barred owls in the dark to explore the fate of wild animals in a human world. In Tenacious Beasts , the University of Montana environmental philosophy professor examines what choices we make as we try to restore and rewild creatures that we’ve nearly wiped off the face of the planet. The effort took him many unexpected places, from...

Montana has one of the most unique wildlife situations in the world. Yellowstone National Park bison almost annually migrate into Montana during the winter. Since the bison are carriers of the disease brucellosis, which can cause pregnant female cattle to abort, the park animals are not allowed to freely roam like other wildlife. Instead, they are confined to designated zones outside the park’s no...