Montana

By the late 1880s, less than twenty-five bison remained in Yellowstone National Park. Currently, the bison population in the park is between about 4,800 to 5,000. The size of the bison herd in Yellowstone and how to maintain that number has been a source of conversation, conflict, and collaboration over the decades. This August, the National Park Service released a 137 page draft of their Environmental Impact Statement for how to manage the shaggy creature within the park boundaries.

This week, a Montana judge sided with more than a dozen young activists who sued the state for violating their right to a clean environment by allowing fossil fuel development. The landmark case could have a ripple effect across the Mountain West and beyond.

Since the late nineties, Yellowstone National Park has sent thousands of bison to slaughter. They did it in keeping with a legal agreement with the state of Montana to control populations and keep the animals from leaving the park in search of food in the spring. Yellowstone officials and the Intertribal Buffalo Council, which represents 83 tribes, celebrated an expanded holding facility that will reduce the slaughter, and send more live animals to tribal lands across the country.

A new report shows that allergy season is starting earlier and lasting longer across much of the U.S., including many parts of the Mountain West.

Despite all of the snow and cold snaps across the Mountain West, many cities are experiencing fewer nights at or below 32 degrees due to climate change. It’s a warming trend that has a wide range of impacts.

Cooke City is a small mountain town in the southwest corner of Montana that is known for being the snowiest town in the state and is also a gateway town to Yellowstone National Park. In the winter, there is only one driving road into the town from the west, because to the east is a nine mile stretch of highway that is not plowed. That nine miles has created a lot of controversy amongst locals.

A Montana judge restored wolf hunting regulations statewide Tuesday two weeks after temporarily restricting wolf hunting and trapping, especially in areas surrounding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.

The Colorado School of Mines and Red Rocks Community College are offering the energy assessments through the Rocky Mountain Industrial Assessment Center, which was funded last year as part of a $60 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

A new report evaluates the business climate for LGBTQ+ people in every state, and most of the Mountain West ranks on the low end.

After an Associated Press article reported that hunters have killed 20 Yellowstone National Park wolves that wandered from the park's boundary this season, environmental organizations are calling on the federal government to relist gray wolves in the northern Rockies on an emergency basis.