Nick Mott

States neighboring Yellowstone National Park have eased rules on hunting wolves, resulting in the most being killed in nearly a century

Last year, two neighboring states loosened restrictions on hunting wolves outside Yellowstone, resulting in a spike in deaths. Locally that's politically popular, but biologists see problems.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 3-2 to increase wolf harvest by allowing neck snaring and trap baiting statewide, night hunting on private land and other changes to the season. The new rules permit “aggressive” hunting measures not seen in Montana for decades.

A state fish and wildlife committee Friday finalized regulations designed to reduce the wolf population in the state using a suite of new hunting tools not seen in Montana for decades.

Big wildfires create their own weather, and can even spawn tornadoes swirling with smoke and flame. Researchers are trying to determine how often they occur.

Wildfires have torched almost 800,000 acres in Montana so far this year. But burns in eastern Montana’s grass and farmland and western Montana’s mountainous, timbered landscape behave very differently. Freddy Monares spoke to MTPR reporter and editor on the podcast Fireline Nick Mott about the different types of fires in Montana.

A state committee dedicated to regulating Montana’s wildlife is expected this week to finalize regulations that could expand wolf hunting to levels not seen in Montana in decades.

Updates are underway for the Waterfowl Protection Plan designed to keep birds out of the toxic Berkeley Pit. Cannons, sirens, drones and lasers have been effective in minimizing bird deaths, according to the project's bird protection specialist.

As more than 20 fires burn in Montana, a debate over how to manage forests to prepare for burns flared up in a Bozeman City Commission meeting Tuesday night. Commissioners narrowly passed a measure to support a controversial logging project.

Researchers who study evidence of fires through the millennia say to expect more and bigger fires as the climate continues to warm. Fire season is already months longer than in the 1970s.