BILLINGS, Mont. -- Henry Armstrong's family has farmed the same patch of central Montana land for 100 years, hanging on through the Depression, low wheat prices and the ever-present risk that the next generation would move on.
Armstrong, 82, lives in the same house near Geraldine that his ...
Friday, March 12, 2010 12:01 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Montana farmers say good snow cover this winter increases the likelihood of a good wheat crop.
The National Agriculture Statistics Service reports that snow cover through February was the best it's been in 14 years. Close to 61 percent of the crops in the stat ...
Sunday, March 07, 2010 11:59 AM
RITZVILLE, Wash. -- Ron Jirava is walking one of his fields. Surveying the 3,500 acres he farms with his father, Wayne, he looks for signs of life from the winter wheat he planted last fall and makes plans for the spring and summer growing season.
Water is on his mind.
"It's dryland, ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
As farmers make their final planting decisions, Washington Grain Commission CEO Tom Mick doesn't expect wheat acreage in his state to drop significantly compared with last year.
Some irrigated ground in the Columbia Basin may be diverted from wheat to corn or other row crops, but farmers ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- The new forester for the U.S. Forest Service's northern region says the agency is facing several challenges, including beetle-killed pine trees and snow-free watersheds.
Leslie Weldon was named to succeed Thomas Tidwell in the post last year, overseeing 15 national fo ...
Thursday, March 04, 2010 11:08 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Farmers in 10 Montana counties could qualify for federal disaster aid, under a declaration announced by federal agriculture officials in response to a crop-killing deep freeze last October.
Yellowstone and Stillwater counties were named primary natural disaster areas ...
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 10:08 AM
Environmental group says Forest Service inflated revenue
An environmental group's economic rationale has failed to persuade a federal appellate court to block a timber sale.
The Native Ecosystem Council had claimed the U.S. Forest Service used unreliable financial data to approve a timber ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 PM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Montana's state veterinarian is recommending brucellosis vaccines for all sexually intact female calves, saying it is necessary to control disease and keep the cattle marketable.
Marty Zaluski told producers at Billings' Public Auction Yards that mandatory statewide v ...
Friday, February 26, 2010 8:19 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- The founder of the millionaires-only Yellowstone Club goes on trial Wednesday to face claims that he fleeced the private ski resort out of at least $286 million.
Before its 2008 bankruptcy filing, the Montana club gained a reputation as an alpine haven for the nati ...
Friday, February 26, 2010 7:49 AM
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) -- The Gallatin Local Water Quality District board will hold a public hearing and final vote on Monday on whether to expand the county's water quality district.
The board is considering expanding the district's boundary by 580 square miles to the north, west and s ...
Sunday, February 21, 2010 9:08 AM
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- Stimson Lumber Co. has agreed to remove a PCB-laced cooling pond and berm on the Blackfoot River in Bonner.
The announcement by the company on Thursday means it will pay for the $6 million remediation project.
Work to remove about 8,500 dump truck loads o ...
Sunday, February 21, 2010 9:08 AM
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot has joined the Plum Creek Timber Co.'s board of directors.
Plum Creek president and chief executive officer Rick Holley says Racicot's background as an experienced statesman and leader will be of great value to the company.
...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 11:48 AM
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Nearly 50 of the 88 bison that have been held in a quarantine compound outside Yellowstone National Park have been loaded in large stock trailers for the two-hour ride to their new home on Ted Turner's ranch.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim says ...
Friday, February 19, 2010 9:49 AM
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- A U.S. Fish and Wildlife plan that would more than quadruple habitat protection for bull trout in the West is up for public review.
The agency is holding information sessions on the proposal in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Biologist Wade Fredenberg, ...
Friday, February 19, 2010 8:09 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Only one Yellowstone bison was reported shot as Montana's bison hunt neared an end with most of the animals still inside the national park, where hunting is banned.
With the end of the three-month hunt at sundown Monday, animals leaving the park will be subject to ...
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:08 AM
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Gov. Brian Schweitzer says the Department of Livestock is coming under budget with implementation of its brucellosis plan.
Schweitzer hailed the announcement Thursday as a $450,000 budget cost savings.
The governor says the money goes back into the general ...
Saturday, February 13, 2010 3:29 PM
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) -- The Natural Resources and Conservation Service says Montana's mountains have experienced a third straight month of below-average precipitation.
In a report released Thursday, the NRCS says precipitation in mountains west of the Continental Divide was 57 per ...
Sunday, February 07, 2010 9:48 AM
Billionaire seeks 88 Yellowstone animals for their pure genes
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Billionaire Ted Turner is getting 88 bison from Yellowstone National Park from a faltering Montana program that was supposed to put the disease-free animals on public or tribal lands.
Fish, Wildlife and Par ...
Sunday, February 07, 2010 12:09 AM
DILLON, Mont. (AP) -- The Bureau of Land Management says a plan to move 805 wild horses to a private ranch in southwest Montana has been put on hold.
The agency said Wednesday it has filed a motion with the Interior Board of Land Appeals to voluntarily stay a Dec. 28 decision to oper ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 9:09 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Montana officials have agreed to hold hearings on the potential repeal of a state rule that has allowed tens of thousands homes to be built without water permits in rural subdivisions.
In December, a group of Montana ranchers challenged a 1993 rule that exempt ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 8:49 AM
BUTTE, Mont. (AP) -- State wildlife officials have authorized the killing of the remaining one or two members of a wolf pack in the Big Hole Valley after repeated attacks on cattle west of Wisdom.
Last week, federal trappers confirmed that the Bender pack had killed a calf on a private ranch ...
Thursday, February 04, 2010 8:08 AM
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- State wildlife officials have confirmed an outbreak of pneumonia in a fourth herd of bighorn sheep in west-central Montana.
The latest occurrence was found in the Upper Rock Creek herd, which had about 340 sheep in May, FWP biologist Ray Vinkey said Monday.
Vinke ...
Wednesday, February 03, 2010 4:29 PM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- A former Montana state senator and wildlife commissioner has been tapped as Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar's senior adviser for the Northwest.
Missoula attorney Steve Doherty served 12 years in the Montana Senate and chaired the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission ...
Wednesday, February 03, 2010 8:09 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Federal officials say livestock grazing fees on public lands across the West and much of the Midwest will remain unchanged in 2010 for the fourth year running.
The $1.35 per head monthly fee applies to land in 16 states administered by the Bureau of Land Manag ...
Sunday, January 31, 2010 3:29 PM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- A new tally of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies shows the population held steady across the region in 2009, ending more than a decade of expansion by the predators but also underscoring their resilience in the face of new hunting seasons in Montana and Idaho.
Biolo ...
Sunday, January 31, 2010 8:48 AM
Meat processing returns to Mont.
LAUREL, Mont. (AP) -- A Montana food-processing company has renovated an old meat plant to start making sausage, jerky and cooked ground beef, as soon as it gets final approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
American Food Products plans to make th ...
Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:39 AM