Environment

State environmental regulators last month dropped their case to disqualify Hecla Mining from getting future mining permits in the state. The company’s CEO was previously an executive with Pegasus Gold, which abandoned mines near the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in the ‘90s, costing taxpayers $35 million to clean up.

Additional fishing restrictions took effect Monday for rivers in western Montana. The restrictions are intended to prevent fishing during the heat of the day, when high temperatures can stress trout and other cold-water species.

Gov. Greg Gianforte joined six other western governors Friday in a meeting with President Joe Biden to talk about wildfires. Thousands of acres are burning across the state of Montana amid a severe drought and high temperatures.

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.

The City of Polson has declared a water emergency, and is the latest Montana community to implement temporary water restrictions. Water to 60 homes in the city was shut off Monday as the region faces extraordinary demand and low supply.

In 2018, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality sought to prevent Hecla Mining from getting future mining permits, citing CEO Phillips Baker Jr.’s past work as a vice-president of Pegasus Gold. Pegasus abandoned mines near the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in the ‘90s and cost state taxpayers over $35 million to clean up.

The U.S Forest Service has approved a project that will stock the North Fork of the Blackfoot River with westslope cutthroat trout as population numbers for the native fish decline.

DNA results confirm the bear killed by state wildlife officials July 9 was the same bear who fatally attacked a camper in Ovando just over a week ago.

Gov. Greg Gianforte has withdrawn Montana from a coalition of two dozen states dedicated to fighting climate change.

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester Wednesday asked the U.S. State Department to put pressure on an international commission and the Canadian government to stem...