Yellowstone Glacier and Grand Teton national parks had their second-busiest years on record in 2024. Yellowstone finished the year with more than 4.74 million visitors. Grand Teton had 3.62 million visitors. Glacier’s totals have not yet been updated with December figures but tourism had already pushed visitation to 3.18 million by the end of ...
Montana’s federal congressional delegation was joined by Governor Greg Gianforte Monday in Washington D.C. to celebrate the inauguration of President Donald Trump to his second term. The outdoor ceremony was scrapped because of cold weather and held in the Capitol Rotunda as was Ronald Reagan’s in 1985 also because of very cold weather. At the...
For the first three-quarters of 2024 over 250,000 drug dosage units were seized in the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in Montana down from the same period in 2023. The Montana Division of Criminal Investigations says the top threats are methamphetamine and fentanyl and now a rise in cocaine is being seen. Virtually 100% of...
The Bureau of Reclamation is investing $54.5 million in two Montana Rural Water Projects to ensure more residents have access to clean safe drinking water. The Rocky Boys North Central Montana Rural Water System will get $47.5 million to plan and design upcoming on-reservation water delivery pipelines. $7 million is for the Musselshell-Judith ...
About 150 people gathered outside the Montana State Capitol in Helena Wednesday for a rally to push lawmakers toward supporting the reauthorization of Medicaid expansion which provides health care coverage to roughly 80,000 adults statewide. The expansion of the joint federal-state health insurance program will end in June unless the Legislatu...
Montana’s winter snowpack is growing after running about half of what is normal for early December. High-elevation snowpack across most of western Montana has nearly doubled since last month. Despite the recent improvements though snowpack remains slightly below normal across most of Montana. Montana’s mountain snowpack generally peaks in Apri...
Montana’s largest coal mine might be able to increase its coal production by 19 million tons. The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement has prepared an environmental impact statement that allows for the expansion of the Spring Creek Mine near Decker. If approved the Navajo Transitional Energy Company will gain access to ...
The U.S. will rebuild a stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry that match the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds. The outbreak has killed more than 130 million in all 50 states pushing egg prices from egg-laying hens to record highs. Montana has had over 82,000 affected poultry in 16 positive flocks since t...
Outdoor advocates have declared state marijuana tax revenues to be a priority for this Legislative session. The funding mechanism lawmakers established in 2021 prioritized outdoor recreation and public lands gut the Gianforte administration will be proposing a reduction in some of the accounts in order to fund water projects at the Department ...
Montana Wyoming and Idaho had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove some of the region’s grizzly bears from protections under the Endangered Species Act but Wednesday the federal agency announced its decision to keep them protected and proposed changes to its management approach. A new recovery zone would include Washington a...
