River Closure Messaging Masked Reality: Trout Are Many and Healthy BY JOSHUA ROBERSON 04/09/17 Last August 19, Governor Steve Bullock closed 183 miles of the Yellowstone River—from Yellowstone National Park's northern boundary at Gardiner to the Highway 212 bridge in Laurel. The reason for this emergency action: an invasive fish-killing parasite called PKX … [Read more...]
It’s Long Past Time to Delist Yellowstone’s Grizzlies
Wildlife Officials Say the Time Is Overdue to Remove Yellowstone Area Grizzlies From the Threatened Species List BY TOM DICKSON 03/06/17 During a late August morning last summer, Kevin Frey drives up Paradise Valley on U.S. Highway 89 toward Yellowstone National Park. Pointing toward mountains surrounding the valley's fields of grazing cattle, irrigated alfalfa, and … [Read more...]
Fake News Eclipses Dire Ecological Threat
Believe Half of What You See, None of What You Hear BY DAVID S. LEWIS Now, at this moment, an event continues to unfold that may portend dire consequences for the planet and untold millions of people for decades to come, not the data modeling predictions otherwise known as climate change (it’s worth noting that recently a top NOAA scientist turned whistleblower received … [Read more...]
Weather Marches Onward in This Land of Extremes
RICK & SUSIE GRAETZ While the month of March figures officially as winter in Montana, even as hints of spring linger in the air, the coldest weather of the season has come and gone. And it's worth pointing out that the national record for cold in the lower 48 states—70 degrees below zero—was documented right here in Montana at 2:00 a.m., Jan. 20, 1954, on the west side … [Read more...]
Idaho Teen, Now Scientist, Found Triassic Marine Fossils
Clues to the Mystery of Prehistory BY DENISE HOEPFNER 03/04/17 Montana State University paleontologist L.J. Krumenacker discovered a window into Early Triassic marine life by way of fossils he found near Paris, Idaho, more than 15 years ago when he was a teenage fossil hunter. Now, Krumenacker is part of an international team of scientists, led by French … [Read more...]
Fukushima Radiation Spikes to 2011 Levels
300 Tons of Radioactive Water Pour Into Pacific Daily BY WHITNEY WEBB 03/01/17 Operators of the Fukushima nuclear power plant have identified a gaping hole in a reactor containment vessel, which has resulted in a drastic spike in radiation levels. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company which owns and operates the now defunct power plant, announced … [Read more...]
USFS Claims Easement Through Landowner’s Front Yard
The Arrogance of the US Forest Service BY TERRY L. ANDERSON 02/06/17 After years of hearing from my friend Frank-Paul about the beauties of Indian Creek in the Madison Range, south of Ennis, Mont., my wife and I saddled our horses at the designated U.S. Forest Service trailhead more than a mile from the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area boundary. For the first mile or so, … [Read more...]
Carving for the King
Montana Artist Amber Jean Carves in Bhutan—What a Relief BY MARIA WYLLIE 02/06/17 Located in the Eastern Himalayas, the Kingdom of Bhutan stands out as a place like no other. Roughly the size of Switzerland, rural and landlocked, the country is wedged between China in the north and India in the south. Called “The Land of the Thunder Dragon,” the tiny Buddhist kingdom … [Read more...]
Death By Avalanche
Victim Pulled From Deep Snow Near Cooke City BY PAUL WEAMER Just north of Cooke City, Montana, a stone's throw from Yellowstone, blustery arctic winds blew across Henderson Peak in the Beartooth Mountains. Air temperatures hovered in the upper teens, as afternoon wind gusts of over 20 mph began to diminish by 3:00 p.m. Four skiers approached a slope dotted with trees, … [Read more...]
Aerial Cameramen Capture Yellowstone, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho
Capturing the Big Sky From High Above BY MARIA WYLLIE Imagine hovering above Yellowstone National Park, and the world's natural treasures in the most remote areas, where humans rarely travel. Like a bird of prey circling its quarry, you look down upon the landscape, see how it all fits together—from on high, yet close enough to the ground to take in the … [Read more...]