Wildlife

The land will now become the state’s newest wildlife management area.

Martha Williams has informally led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since January.

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.

Where there are stressed fish, there are stressed fishing guides. As Montana and much of the west feel the effects of persistent drought, those with a line in the future of the state’s fisheries are navigating high temperatures, low flow and closures across the state.

Yellowstone National Park will see its first park-wide fishing closure on all rivers and streams since 2007. The closure will prohibit fishing from 2 p.m. to sunrise the following day.

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.

Wildlife officials shot and killed a grizzly bear early Friday morning near Ovando, where a bear attacked and killed a woman early Tuesday morning.

The chair of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee penned a letter Wednesday saying its Bitterroot subcommittee improperly closed its meeting to the public earlier this year

More than a half dozen wildlife bills have been signed into law, all with a similar vision for Montana: they suggest that there are too many predators on the landscape — and that numbers of animals like wolves and grizzly bears need to be reduced. Now, questions are proliferating over the future of predators in Montana. How that future looks lies at the intersection of law, values, and living with those species on the ground.

A bear attacked and injured a hiker Friday morning in Yellowstone National Park. The incident comes just over two weeks after a park visitor sparked an...