U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Interior Department has stated that listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act is Òwarranted but precluded.Ó
The sage grouse isn't listed as an endangered species, but federal officials hope to help ranchers protect the bird's habitat and avoid that fate.
"We have a window of time that we can take steps proactively to help the bird's habitat," USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Da ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:42 AM
BOULDER, Mont. (AP) -- Trial has begun in Boulder for a Whitehall taxidermist charged with paying $5,000 to buy a trophy bighorn ram that he knew had been shot illegally.
John Lewton is charged with felony purchase of an illegally killed animal.
The case is controversial becaus ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:59 AM
A grazing plan for nearly 50,000 acres of national forest land in Montana has been rejected by a federal appellate court, which sent the plan back to the U.S. Forest Service for further study.
It's currently unclear how the decision may end up affecting ranchers who rely on allotments in ...
Friday, March 19, 2010 1:09 AM
CORVALLIS, Mont. (AP) -- The past year was tough everywhere, but with the price of milk hitting historic lows you could make a case that the dairy industry was hit as hard as any.
For folks at Huls Dairy in Corvallis, home of the state's only methane digester, that grim backdrop only make ...
Friday, March 19, 2010 3:49 PM
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) -- Officials with the Montana Organic Producers Cooperative say the state's organic beef growers had a rough year in 2009.
Mark Smith, the cooperative's administrator and a Lavina rancher, says sales of organic beef were down 47 percent compared to the previo ...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:48 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
