Corin Cates-Carney

The U.S. Forest Service is asking for input on a 140,000 acre management project in the Big Belt Mountains, northeast of Helena. But there are few details of what exactly the agency is proposing. 

Kathy Bushnell with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest says the Middleman Project includes the Avalanche drainage continuing north to the Trout Creek drainages of the Big Belts.

“The end goal is to have a healthier and more resilient forest," Bushnell says. "And then also to reduce the fire risk to communities, and homes, and people, and firefighters.”

A Montana District Judge says state utility regulators erroneously gave NorthWestern Energy a pass from a legal requirement to buy power from local small-scale renewable energy projects. 

A Montana wildlife management specialist says one of the oldest male grizzly bears recorded along the Rocky Mountain Front was euthanized this week for killing livestock. 

The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices (COPP) rejected the Republican Party’s complaint against Gov. Steve Bullock Monday, which alleged the Democrat is using state resources in his campaign for president. 

As fire season starts to heat up in Montana, the threat of electrical power lines igniting dry forests is raising concerns. Power lines started the deadliest and most expensive fire in California history last November, the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

The threat of vegetation falling on Montana power lines has increased in recent years due to the rising number of beetle-killed trees.

Seventy years ago today, an 18-man smokejumper crew jumped out of a plane into the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness northeast of Helena. Within hours of the jump the crew was overrun by the fire they were sent to stop, and most of the men died.

MTPR's Corin Cates-Carney looks back at the Mann Gulch tragedy, which lead the U.S. Forest Service — for the first time — to approach wildfire as a science.

Updated 2:38 p.m., August 3, 2019

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton says he is lifting the mandatory evacuation order for the Stickney Creek and Eagle Canyon area at 8 p.m. Roadblocks in the area are currently being removed.

The evacuation order was issued Friday night for the Eagle Canyon Fire, which is burning about 60 acres, four miles northeast of Craig. 

Plans to tie work requirements to next year’s Medicaid expansion are worrying some of the state’s Medicaid recipients, and they used Thursday’s public meeting in Helena to let state officials know.

New analysis from the state health department shows the new Medicaid work requirements set to take effect on Jan. 1 will apply to more Montanans than expected — up to three times more.

Gov.r Steve Bullock Friday named the 18 members of his new grizzly bear management council. The appointees are roughly equal parts ranchers and conservation policy advocates.