Montana Untamed

<p>Last June south-central Montana suffered a historic 500-year flood. High water wiped out bridges and roads in Yellowstone National Park and the Custer Gallatin National Forest, as well as destroyed private homes and bridges. </p> <p>On August 4th, more than 400 days later, the Forest Service has restored access to one of the most popular areas in the Beartooth Mountains – East Rosebud Lake.</p> <p>Here to talk with us today about the recovery efforts is Brett French, outdoor editor for the Billings Gazette.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The summer of 2003 pushed Glacier National Park’s fire response to new frontiers.</p> <p>There had been many fires before, including some catastrophic events. But rarely did so many parts of the park get so threatened by so many different kinds of challenges. And rarely did firefighters attempt some tactics that proved essential then, but might not be possible now.</p> <p>Twenty years later, we look back at the fires of 2003 and what has changed.</p> <p>On this episode, Rob Chaney, managing editor of the Missoulian, re-visits the fire season and talks about what has changed since.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>It’s like school for elk hunting and the classroom is the Snowcrest Mountains. The bonus is it all happens on a backpacking expedition. </p> <p>I am referring to a new course offered by Montana Wilderness school called backpacking skills for aspiring hunters.</p> <p>The Bozeman-based school has been taking students on expeditions for ten years with a mission of providing “empowering expeditionary wilderness courses to youth that foster personal growth and cultivate a conservation ethic through connecting with remote landscapes and wild places”</p> <p>In the last couple of years they have offered this course that takes a fundamental approach to backpacking skills but adds the technical skills pursuing large game in the backcountry.</p> <p>On this episode, Ryan Peters, wilderness program manager for Montana Wilderness School talks about the course.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>From trains and horses to snowmobiles and jet-skis, national parks have had to deal with disruptive technology in wild places.</p> <p>The latest controversy circles around the popularity of e-bikes. These battery-assisted bicycles make it possible for new crowds of tourists to attempt adventures they might have been too old, young, infirm or inexperienced to try before.</p> <p>That puts new pressures on the National Park Service, which has to evaluate e-bike impacts on wildlife and wild places, as well as what kind of resources and amenities the e-bikers need.</p> <p>With me today is Rob Chaney, managing editor of the Missoulian newspaper, who’s traversed Glacier National Park via e-bike and pedal powered bicycles before. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The Last Best Place has been discovered.</p> <p>Across the state, tourists and second-homeowners pull up alongside trucks with stickers of Montana’s outline and the words: “WE’RE FULL.” They stroll through shops with coffee mugs, t-shirts and hats displaying similar sentiments. But the same tourists and transplants inject money into local economies, facilitating jobs and businesses.</p> <p>The tension, however, comes from the flip-side of growing visitation to the Treasure State: strain on emergency response, crowded recreation facilities, traffic and other overburdened infrastructure. And often, locals are left with the bill after visitors go home. </p> <p>That double-edge sword of being a desirable outdoor recreation destination is known as the “amenity trap,” according to a new report from Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics. The report looks at the benefits and burdens faced by towns whose riches in outdoor recreation have brought a wealth of visitors too.</p> <p>With me today is Joshua Murdock, outdoors and natural resources reporter for the Missoulian and a former reporter at the Idaho Mountain Express in Ketchum-Sun Valley, Idaho, who recently wrote about the report.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>After historically low counts of brown and rainbow trout were found in three popular stretches of the Big Hole River, people have begun rallying around the 153-mile freestone river in southwest Montana.</p> <p>There’s still pessimism for what the future holds, but the response has been positive.</p> <p>People genuinely want to find a solution and do what they can to pump life back into the famous Blue Ribbon trout stream.</p> <p>Nationwide fly fishing brands have joined the rallying cries, and there appears to be momentum building within the state, whether it be state funded or privately funded groups.</p> <p>The energy is good and necessary to carry out this all-hands-on-deck effort.</p> <p>But where will we be two months from now when the heat really takes a toll on the Big Hole and its trout?</p> <p>What happens in two years when the Big Hole no longer dominates the fly fishing news cycle? Will the state keep funding projects to their completion?</p> <p>There are still a lot of unknowns, and concrete answers are still years away.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Earlier this year a freight train derailed near Paradise, spilling thousands of beers into the Clark Fork River. For some it was comical, for others it was a close call. </p> <p>And now three months later another train derailment. This time, on the other side of the state, into the Yellowstone River. But this wasn’t a close call and not comical by any standards.</p> <p>Early Saturday morning about 5 miles east of Reed Point, tanker cars from a Montana Rail Link train plunged into the river along with twisted railroad tracks, steel beams and concrete from the trestle. The tankers were each carrying hazardous materials in varying level of toxicity.</p> <p>With me today is Chirs Jorgensen, managing editor of the Billings Gazette newspaper, who was first to report the situation.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>A recent federal court ruling in Wyoming has once again sparked discussions about the legality of corner crossing.</p> <p>I want you to visualize a checkerboard. A grid of black and white squares.</p> <p>Now imagine that layout on a map, where the black squares are public land and the white ones are private. This land ownership layout is common in the west, a relic of past when the government was divvying out land to railroads pushing lines west.</p> <p>Corner crossing refers to the act of traveling from one piece of that public checkerboard to another, by crossing where they meet in the corners. </p> <p>In the recent Wyoming case, a judge found that four Missouri men did not trespass onto adjoining private land as they stepped from public to public land at a corner designated by a survey marker and using a ladder. </p> <p>Brett French, Outdoors editor at the Billings Gazette, is here to untangle the issue and give a bit of context as to what this mean for Montana</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The American food system is broken and intact ecosystems can help fix it.</p> <p>That's according to Cole Mannix, the founder of Old Salt Co-Op, a vertically integrated meat company that's mission is to feed people meat from producers who steward the landscape.</p> <p>Raised on his family's ranch in the Blackfoot Valley, Mannix takes his father's mantra with him in everything he does - "the land owns us."</p> <p>On this episode I talk with Mannix about agriculture's role in land conservation and how eating meat doesn't have to be odds odds with a healthy natural world.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>On the heels of a long, wet Montana winter, runoff season is mostly done and anglers are itching to hit the river and ready to target some hungry springtime trout.</p> <p>Flows are robust and above average for this time of year in some areas. The Big Hole River is no exception. Aesthetically, it appears healthy and full of life. The breathtaking landscape of the Big Hole Valley can inspire optimism, especially in an overly-eager fly angler. </p> <p>But he Big Hole River’s trout population is still in decline and Conditions appear dire as ever. the worst seems yet to come.</p> <p>Experts around southwest Montana say that, among the many factors at play, we should be looking at disease and bureaucratic failures as to why the Big Hole is in its continued state of peril.</p> <p>Like any conflict, there’s plenty blame to go around. And there’s more than just two sides of the story. The 153-mile freestone river is a complex ecosystem and with that, comes complex issues. </p> <p>On this episode is Matt Keiwet, managing editor of the Montana Standard and Independent Record newspapers who recently reported on the imperiled Big Hole River.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Somewhere in Montana, it will happen. Many places, actually — maybe in your town. And it’ll happen this summer. But nobody knows exactly when, where or how bad. </p> <p>Wildfire is an inherent part of life in the American West. In recent years, a warming climate has increasingly led to larger and more destructive wildfires becoming more common. But that’s an average trend over time. </p> <p>So, what about this fire season? Will blazing infernos turn Montana into ash? Or will the state escape widespread devastation? </p> <p>With me today is Joshua Murdock, the Missoulian’s outdoor recreation and natural resources reporter. Joshua has reported on wildfires around Montana and the West for the Missoulian and other papers.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The Beartooth Pass climbs between Wyoming and Montana at an elevation close to 11,000 feet.</p> <p>The route through the Beartooth Mountains, Highway 212 between Cooke City and Red Lodge, contains the highest mountains in the state. Because of its elevation, the high landscape is a fragile tundra ecosystem where roads not driven in 50 years are still visible on the landscape.</p> <p>The highway opens on Friday morning, prior to the Memorial Day weekend. And because so much snow is piled atop the pass, skiers and snowboarders come from around the West to carve a few final turns before summer.</p> <p>Lately, however, snowmobile use atop the pass has increased. The machines are used to tow skiers back up the mountains, as well as just to ride. As a result, there’s a crowding issue and fears of damage to the fragile environment.</p> <p>Brett French, Outdoors editor at the Billings Gazette, talks about the situation on this episode.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Brad Orsted wanted to get better.</p> <p>Facing the unimaginable loss of his infant daughter Marley while in his mother’s care, and the extreme guilt of unanswered questions surrounding her death, Orsted spent years meeting with doctors and therapists. They prescribed medications and therapy sessions as he self-medicated with alcohol, haunted by memories of Marley and spiraling downward into suicide scenarios.</p> <p>But what Orsted could not find in the bottom of a bottle of pills or vodka, he finally found in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. The wildlife advocate, photographer and filmmaker chronicles his story in the new book <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250284709">“Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild,”</a> laying bare in the land of bears his path to recovery.</p> <p><em>If you are in crisis and want help, call the Montana Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline, 24/7, at 988 or by texting “MT” to 741741.</em></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>As we plan and plant our gardens this spring, consider the mountain lion.</p> <p>The stealthy predators are strictly meat eaters, but what and where they kill provides nutrients for the soil and promotes plant growth. It’s an odd concept examined in a recent study by the big cat conservation group Panthera. From 2014 to 2018, the group collared 50 mountain lions and tracked them to identify kill sites. Once identified, the researchers collected soil and plant samples, comparing them from the kill site to nearby areas.</p> <p>The results proved what most gardeners already know, adding nutrients to the soil can boost plant growth. Billings Gazette Outdoor editor Brett French recently wrote about the study and talks about its findings.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The 68th legislative session adjourned in a whirlwind Tuesday evening, with lawmakers making their final votes on spending and social bills.</p> <p>While unprecedented events over the last two week including protests and arrests grabbed national headlines, in other areas of the Capitol lawmakers debated some of the final bills dealing with hunting, fishing and access. Wildlife legislation often brings some of the biggest debates of the session, and while we did see plenty of strong opinions, this session came in with a bit of a different tone and that seemed to carry through.</p> <p>I’m joined today by Tom Kuglin with the Montana State News Bureau. You’ve been following wildlife and access bills for the last few sessions, so what stood out to you.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Bighorn sheep are an iconic species in Montana and the West.</p> <p>Rams, which can grow large curving horns, are prized by trophy hunters who will pay thousands of dollars at annual auctions to secure a permit to hunt. Yet the species has been plagued by small populations in many herds, die-offs due to disease and limited success when animals from healthy herds are transplanted to create new populations.</p> <p>Recently, Billings Gazette Outdoor editor Brett French wrote an article about Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks launching new studies to help guide their bighorn sheep management. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The image went around the country in days: A man clinging to a broken chairlift 20 feet above the ground, one ski off, moments before he had no choice but to jump. What the image didn’t show was that moments before, the man’s 4-year-old son had fallen off the chair when it broke. </p> <p>It happened at Montana Snowbowl ski area just north of Missoula, back in March. The incident sparked an outcry from the community and prompted the U.S. Forest Service to investigate the safety and operations of Snowbowl. And it’s spurred questions about why Montana deregulated chairlift safety in the late ‘90s. </p> <p>With me today is Joshua Murdock. He’s a reporter at the Missoulian who covers outdoor recreation, natural resources and land management agencies like the Forest Service. He’s been following the situation at Snowbowl and investigated chairlift safety there and more broadly in Montana. He’s also an avid skier, including at Snowbowl and other small ski areas around the West. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Freight train derailments in the U.S. have come under increasing scrutiny since a train carrying hazardous materials derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio, in early February. </p> <p>Montana is no stranger to freight train derailments. In 1996, a train derailed near Alberton and released chlorine. Some residents still live with health problems from chemical exposure. And, just this past Sunday, April 2, a freight train derailed near Paradise, spilling thousands of beers into the Clark Fork River. </p> <p>With me today is Joshua Murdock, a reporter at the Missoulian. He reports on outdoor recreation, natural resources and the environment. He was at the site of Sunday’s derailment and is reporting on the incident. </p> <p>He’s also spent hours interviewing Missoula author Ron Scholl, a leading expert on chemical spills from train derailments who says that Alberton holds lessons for East Palestine. </p> <p>Josh has also reported on how hazardous materials transported by train are largely kept secret from the public, including from the communities they pass through. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>With large ear tufts and feet built for hunting snowshoe hares in deep powder, the Canada lynx is an elusive species prowling parts of Montana.</p> <p>Lynx range from Canada and Alaska south into a few states in the lower 48. While no large scale population estimates are available, scientists believe that northwest Montana and northern Idaho likely have the strongest populations, and that is important when considering factors that may put stress on the cats in the future.</p> <p>A recent study completed by Washington State University and published in the Journal of Wildlife Management gives us our first population estimate for Glacier National Park. </p> <p>On this episode Tom Kuglin of the Montana States News Bureau talks about his reporting on the study.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Montana’s only wild horse herd is found in south-central Montana’s Pryor Mountains. This is an area of extremes. The lowlands are desert-like, while the mountain tops rise to more than 8,700 feet. Across about 42,000 acres of this rugged land a herd of about 205 are spread across lands managed mostly by the Bureau of Land Management, but also the Custer Gallatin National Forest and the National Park Service.</p> <p>The Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is one of only four designated wild horse and burro ranges in the country, which means the area is managed principally, but not exclusively, for wild horses.</p> <p>These horses were made famous by documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens. Her films following the stallion known as Cloud from birth his birth in 1995 to adulthood have drawn visitors to the region from around the world. </p> <p>Recently, the BLM released a proposed management plan that would reduce the herd, an always controversial topic among wild horse advocates. The federal agency would prefer to see the herd cut to no more than about 120 horses. To do that, the BLM is proposing “gathers” that would trap horses that could then be adopted out.</p> <p>To learn more about this unique horse population, I talked with Brett French, outdoor editor of the Billings Gazette.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>It’s a hallmark trait of bears, a characteristic known even by small children: bruins hibernate through winter.</p> <p>Except, this year around Missoula, many of them aren’t.</p> <p>From neighborhood “trash bears” to near-city grizzlies feeding on frozen roadkill all season — plus, rural grizzly tracks spotted amid a frigid and snowy February — bears in west-central Montana are active in greater number and frequency than normal for this time of year.</p> <p>On this episode is Joshua Murdock, the Missoulian’s outdoors and natural resources reporter. He’s been reporting on all sorts of unusual bear activity in recent months, including this. <br><br></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>In 2022 a male wolf that was captured and fitted with a GPS collar south of Dillon decided to take a long hike through some of Montana’s most spectacular wild country.</p> <p>If the wolf had hitchhiked a ride in an automobile, the distance covered is close to 300 miles. But those miles don’t reflect the elevation gains and losses of climbing up and over the mountain ranges. They also don’t tally the rivers that course through the landscape, including the Madison, Gallatin, Yellowstone and Clarks Fork Yellowstone.</p> <p>Unfortunately, we only know all of this because the wolf made a decision that proved fatal.</p> <p>With me today is Brett French, Outdoors Editor for the Billings Gazette, to tell the story of this lone wolf’s trek.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The Blackfeet Nation, tucked along the north end of the Rocky Mountain Front, has played host to a tribally managed buffalo herd for decades. </p> <p>Now in the past, the tribe has sold occasional bison hunts to individuals, but last month marked the first time a tribe in Montanan opened a raffle bison hunt to the public. In partnership with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the Blackfeet Nation invited members of the public to enter two trophy bison hunt raffles. People could buy 20 tickets maximum at $10 apiece and the winner had to pay $2,500 to secure the spot.</p> <p>Jeff Larson out of Victor was the first winner, and reporter Nora Mabie and I headed out to the Blackfeet Reservation in February to see what the hunt was all about. Nora, who covers Indigenous communities for the Lee Montana newspapers, joins me today.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Christopher Preston went wandering with buffalo and running after barred owls in the dark to explore the fate of wild animals in a human world.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tenacious-Beasts-Wildlife-Recoveries-Animals/dp/026204756X">Tenacious Beasts</a>, the University of Montana environmental philosophy professor examines what choices we make as we try to restore and rewild creatures that we’ve nearly wiped off the face of the planet. The effort took him many unexpected places, from Norwegian fjords full of humpback whales to Italian mountains with apple-munching grizzly bears and English countrysides with transplanted bison. It also features many animals dear to Montanan landscapes, such as migratory salmon, gray wolves and beavers. </p> <p>Tenacious Beasts hit the bookshelves this February, and Preston spoke with Missoulian Managing Editor Rob Chaney about its findings.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Montana has one of the most unique wildlife situations in the world. Yellowstone National Park bison almost annually migrate into Montana during the winter. Since the bison are carriers of the disease brucellosis, which can cause pregnant female cattle to abort, the park animals are not allowed to freely roam like other wildlife. Instead, they are confined to designated zones outside the park’s north and west entrances, near the communities of Gardiner and West Yellowstone.</p> <p>Incremental progress has been made in addressing the conflicts between those who believe the bison should be allowed to roam like other wildlife and state and federal officials in charge of managing the big mammals. With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considering a petition to list bison as an endangered species, and Yellowstone officials writing a new bison management plan, the iconic species that is now the national mammal stands at the cusp of more management changes. In addition, a bison advocacy group has publicly plotted a plan to argue that bison should be allowed to roam freely so tribes can hunt them, bringing treaty rights into the mix.</p> <p>On this episode is Brett French, outdoor editor at the Billings Gazette, who recently wrote a story on the ins and outs and disagreements over bison management.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>It’s the suit-and-tie version of a grizzly bear hunting season, with the federal government announcing it will consider petitions from Montana and Wyoming to remove the grizzly from Endangered Species Act protection and state legislators scrambling to make new laws and policies to exert local control of the big bears. </p> <p>But a lot of fine print stands between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review and a future grizzly trophy hunt. The apex predator has made big gains since the ESA gave it threatened status in 1975. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the act itself.</p> <p>Ranchers and hunting outfitters report increasing encounters with big bears in the woods, and they fear for their livestock and lives. So do hikers and tourists, who thrill to the chance of seeing a grizzly in the wild. Wildlife managers must envision how to handle an animal that doesn’t pay attention to boundaries, jurisdictions or laws. </p> <p>On this episode is Rob Chaney, managing editor of the Missoulian newspaper, and Tom Kuglin with the Montana State News Bureau.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>For almost three-quarters of a century, the start of ski and snowboard season was marked by the Warren Miller Film Tour that fall.</p> <p>The narrated films, shown around the country and world, have documented the evolution of skiing and the rise of snowboarding across multiple generations. But for the first time, a new Warren Miller Film won’t actually be filmed this year.</p> <p>On this episode, Missoulian newspaper reporter Joshua Murdock, who writes about outdoor recreation and is himself an avid backcountry and resort skier shares the down low on this news.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>It’s a fish of many names: burbot, ling, eel pout, lawyer, mud shark and poor man’s lobster, just to name a few.</p> <p>Montana’s major rivers and reservoirs are home to a fish that may not be the first to come to mind like trout or walleyes for anglers, but ling have a certain following when it comes to a unique fishing experience and great eating.</p> <p>Today I’m with Tom Kuglin with the Montana State News Bureau and we’re going to talk a bit about this species and a story we did taking to some dedicated ling fishermen and our local biologist.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Across the West, federal and state land management agencies are strategically logging, thinning and burning forests with the goal of making them more resilient to uncontrolled wildfire, as well as diseases. But conservationists and wildlife advocates worry the work will harm grizzly bears and other federally-protected species that call those habitats home.</p> <p>In Western Montana, three projects from different agencies have drawn criticism and lawsuits from stakeholders that say the work will damage grizzly bear habitat. </p> <p>With me today is Joshua Murdock, the outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian, to talk about the projects and people’s concerns.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>In Montana’s backcountry, as well as along some well-traveled highways and railroads, avalanches are a cause for concern.</p> <p>Scientists have been working for decades to better understand these natural phenomena for a number of reasons – the biggest being to save lives. At the same time, national forests have created avalanche forecasting services to provide daily information to backcountry snowmobilers, snowshoers, skiers and snowboard about weather and avalanche conditions. Combined with newer cellphone apps, beacons, airbag backpacks and avalanche safety courses, backcountry users can be better prepared than ever for winter outings.</p> <p>Despite all of this work, avalanche fatalities continue to capture headlines. The most recent in Montana was the death of a Washington man snowmobiling outside Cooke City. </p> <p>To learn more, I am talking today with Billings Gazette Outdoors editor Brett French. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>What does it take to become leader of the pack? For wolves in Yellowstone National Park, research shows it might be exposure to a cat-centric parasite.</p> <p><a href="https://missoulian.com/news/local/alpha-cyst-cat-parasite-may-drive-wolves-to-pack-leadership/article_9985e752-3f71-5206-bd6a-55154c945b1e.html">A recent study by University of Montana and Yellowstone biologists</a> found a remarkable thing about toxoplasma gondii– a single-celled parasite that can survive in almost any warm-blooded animal but only reproduces in felines. It turns out that wolves infected with toxo, as the biologists nickname it, appears to turn wolves into risk-takers. That means they’re more likely to disperse to other packs, and WAY more likely to become leaders of new packs than uninfected wolves. </p> <p>The study adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that some parasites may have a real ability to change minds – including human minds. </p> <p>On this episode, Rob Chaney, editor of the Missoulian newspaper discusses these</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Tony Bynum operates at the intersection of conservation, wildlife, beauty and truth.</p> <p>The photographer and conservationist has stamped out a career capturing images of western big game, documented oil and gas development along the Rocky Mountain Front, wilderness values across Montana and a host of projects internationally. But while many find inspiration in beautiful landscapes and wildlife, few have seen them so up close and personal.</p> <p>Once a high ranking federal employee at the Environmental Protection Agency, Bynum has put passion over paychecks as he pursues a message of conservation with every photo he takes.</p> <p>From his home in Great Falls, Bynum recently sat down with Thom Bridge and Tom Kuglin to talk about his life and some of his most iconic work.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Each fall as winter nears and cold temperatures descend on Hyalite Canyon near Bozeman, water that weeps from the cliff bands lining the canyon walls freezes into bulging layers of ice with translucent hues of white, yellow and blue. And each year, that frozen water allows human to defy the gravity that pulled the water out of the rock in the first place. </p> <p>If, of course, they're willing to climb it. Many are. And fear is sometimes the best motivator to keep climbing, but there are a lot of things about ice climbing that go well beyond the simple act of climbing up a vertical frozen waterfall. </p> <p>On this episode is Joshua Murdock, the outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian, and a rock and ice climber himself. He spent four days at the Bozeman Ice Festival, climbing a bit but mostly reporting and photographing different aspects of the event. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Glacier National Park’s namesake ice fields attract millions of visitors a year. Many wonder if they’re making a funeral visit. Predictions that all the glaciers in the park will melt by 2030 or sooner have been floating around for a couple decades. That deadline now looms less than a decade away. </p> <p>What would happen if Glacier Park’s glaciers disappeared? And what are some people thinking about as ways to save polar and glacial ice through the emerging field of geoengineering? </p> <p>On this episode, Rob Chaney, editor of the Missoulian newspaper, talks about work being done to keep glaciers around the world from shrinking.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Thirty years ago a young German outdoorsman crossed the big ocean and landed in Montana. He quickly became fascinated with the freedom of opportunity to hunt and fish in the West. Since then he’s dedicated his career to answering why and how North American conservation works.</p> <p>Thomas Baumeister has dedicated his adult life to conservation both professionally and personally.</p> <p>Baumeister recently retired from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and now runs Access WILD, a llama outfitting business. He has also taught at both Carroll College in Helena and Arizona State University, and is involved with numerous conservation and hunting organizations.</p> <p>On this episode, we run the gamut of conservation topics from access to ethics, from pheasants to elk and everything in between. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The imperiled status of the river-dwelling population of Arctic grayling in Montana continues to roil the waters of public debate about the fate of the species’ survivors in the Big Hole River.</p> <p>The latest wrangle focuses on the utility or futility of stocking grayling in a Big Hole watershed creek and tributaries during a time of low flows and warm water.</p> <p>This fall, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks released Arctic grayling fingerlings into a section of French Creek previously treated to remove non-native fish. </p> <p>On this epsiode Duncan Adams, outdoor and natural resource reporter at the Montana Standard, fills us in on the debate over the fate of this striking fish with a sail-like dorsal fin. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Montana’s wolf hunting season is in full swing with trapping season set to begin soon, but a recent state judge’s order has put a temporary halt to some regulations and an upcoming hearing could have major implications on the remainder of the season.</p> <p>Republicans in the 2021 the Montana Legislature passed a number of laws aimed at reducing Montana’s wolf population, which pushed the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission to adopt some of the most aggressive regulations since delisting. Contentious hearings, intense media attention and lawsuits have largely defined the conversation since.</p> <p>On this episode, Tom Kuglin with the Montana State News Bureau talks about a debate over wolves in the state that has remained at a fever pitch for nearly two years now.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>The Badger-Two Medicine region nestles between the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. It also lies in legal limbo after the latest court decision re-opened a fight over energy drilling rights that’s been going on for three decades.</p> <p>On September 9, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ordered the Department of Interior to re-instate a federal lease and drilling permit to Solenex LLC. That lease covers about 10 square miles of the Badger Two Medicine, and the permit potentially opens it to road-building for drilling rigs to explore for oil.</p> <p>Last week, the coalition of environmental groups and Blackfeet cultural organizations returned to court seeking to overturn Leon’s latest order. It’s a back-and-forth routine that’s gone on since the 1980s. And while many thought the matter settled at the end of the Obama – and then Trump – administrations, it now appears to live on through the Biden administration.</p> <p>On this episode, Missoulian reporter Josh Murdock and Managing Editor Rob Chaney recount the history of the Badger-Two Medicine legal fight and why this place is important.</p> <p> </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Part teacher and part guide, Whitney Gould is one of the finest casters in the world and fresh off competing in the <a href="https://wcflycasting2022.com/">World Fly Casting Championships</a> in Norway where she took home a trove of medals, including a gold. Her first world championships was both exciting, she said, and a learning experience for what to expect and how to train for the next championships in two years.</p> <p>Gould is a spey specialist, referring to the two-handed casting technique common in big salmon and steelhead rivers, but with a dedicated following across the West. She's also a trout guide on the Missouri River where she guides for <a href="https://www.headhuntersflyshop.com/">Headhunters Fly Shop</a> in Craig and for organizations such as <a href="https://warriorsandquietwaters.org/">Warriors for Quiet Waters</a>. She enjoys the challenge of fishing, and it rarely feels like a job – she particularly loves to teach.</p> <p>On this episode, we share a drift boat with Gould for a day of fishing, casting lessons and conversation about a life around water.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>GPS collars attached to wildlife like deer, bears, moose, elk and pronghorns have opened biologist’s eyes to how far these species may move across the landscape as the seasons change.</p> <p>Epic feats of travel have been recorded in Wyoming showing elk swimming streams in spring runoff to reach ideal grazing areas. A mule deer doe has trekked 500 miles each year from the Red Desert of southwestern Wyoming to Grand Teton National Park. Pronghorns, although prairie animals, have been photographed moving through mountainous areas to reach good food.</p> <p>Likewise, in Montana pronghorns have been recorded crossing a frozen Fort Peck Reservoir and running down Highway 2 on the Hi-Line for six hours during a blizzard. Grizzlies have been tracked moving across Interstate 90. Mountain lions have been monitored swimming the Missouri River and traveling as far as the Dakotas from the Missouri Breaks.</p> <p>Brett French, outdoors editor at the Billings Gazette, talks about this accumulation of migration information, as well as to help us understand how this data is being used.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Bears have been in the news a lot lately, because they’ve been getting into a lot of things lately.</p> <p>As drought continues its grip on western Montana, berry crop failures are sending desperately hungry black bears into human environs with unusual frequency and boldness. </p> <p>This means that conflict-prevention measures are more important than ever, especially in places that may not be accustomed to the hungry bruins. </p> <p>And grizzlies as always are making front page news as fall sets in when we see the most human-bear conflicts annually.</p> <p>On today's episode, Joshua Murdock, the outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian, talks about why this summer and fall have been especially tough for bears. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Montana’s fishing industry is an economic juggernaut, now accounting for one in five tourism dollars spent in the state and an estimated at $750 million annually. </p> <p>Fishing is important both economically and culturally, with communities built up near popular rivers to cater to locals and visitors. We also know that during low water and high temperatures, fishing can stress trout. To protect the resource, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will restrict or even prohibit fishing. Some closures may last weeks or even months, and climate scientists predict that such conditions will only become more common in the future. </p> <p>On this episode, Tom Kuglin talks about a new study that looks at the economic consequences of climate change on Montana’s fishing industry. Who did the study and how have anglers adapted to these closures.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>In early September news broke of a plan to re-develop Holland Lake Lodge. The proposal seeks to remove 10 aging structures and add 32 new buildings, including a new 28-room lodge, a new restaurant and 26 new cabins near the lake.</p> <p>Originally built in 1924 and last updated in 1947, Holland Lake Lodge Inc. owns the buildings but leases about 15 acres of land from the U.S. Forest Service to operate under a special permit.</p> <p>The proposal has drawn the ire of many and lead to countless letters to the editor and online campaigns against it.</p> <p>On this episode Dave Erickson of the Missoulian newspaper helps make sense of what the future may hold for the north side of Holland Lake.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>With pheasant season fast approaching, on this episode we are talking about a new program here in Montana that has stirred plenty of debate for the last year and a half.</p> <p>Housed at Montana State Prison, inmates there are now raising pheasants for release on wildlife management areas. We attended the release of some of the first prison-reared pheasants at Lake Helena recently for the special youth season, but thousands were released across the state.</p> <p>This week, Tom Kuglin of the Montana State News Bureau talks about the history of pheasants in Montana and why these releases are significant.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>If you have a problem with your neighbor, you’d try to work with them to sort it out, right? Or what if your neighbor’s friend was causing you issues? You’d probably ask your neighbor to talk to their friend about it, right? Well, that’s happening right now with British Columbia and Montana.</p> <p>Contaminated water from coal mines in British Columbia is flowing into Montana, and it’s harming wildlife in both places that’s sacred to indigenous populations. But Canada, and the coal mining company, don’t seem to want to work with Montana and the U.S. to find a diplomatic solution.</p> <p>On this episode Joshua Murdock, the outdoors and natural resources reporter with the Missoulian, discusses his coverage of the issue throughout the summer. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>In mid-June historic floods ripped through Yellowstone National Park. Thousands of visitors were evacuated and the park was temporarily closed as officials assessed the damage.</p> <p>Eventually, all but two entrances to the park were reopened. The North Entrance, near Gardiner, and the Northeast Entrance, near Cooke City, have been closed to the public all summer due to road damage caused by the flooding. Since then the Park Service has launched a heroic effort with federal partners to reopen the roadways.</p> <p>On this episode, Brett French, outdoor editor for the Billings Gazette, talks about how those efforts are going and what the impacts of the park’s closing of the two entrances has had on the gateway communities of Cooke City, Silver Gate and Gardiner. </p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>What’s Montana’s most loved river? The Smith? The Yellowstone? The Bitterroot? </p> <p>Well, if you measure love by usage it’s most likely the Madison.</p> <p>Given angling pressure on the river, with rafts as prolific some days as caddis flies and with trout being hooked and released multiple times, many people believe something has to change.</p> <p>For years now, both commercial outfitters and recreational anglers floating the river have expressed concerns that the Madison is being loved to death. There are fears that familiarity breeds descent in angler experience.</p> <p>On this episode Duncan Adams, outdoor reporter for the Montana Standard newspaper, talks about the tensions between user groups and the river stuck in the middle.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>This year the Scapegoat Wilderness marks its 50th anniversary. The 240,000-acre wilderness makes up the southern portion of 1.6-million acre Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and includes some great backcountry hiking and backpacking. Some of the most well-known locations include Scapegoat Mountain, Webb and Heart lakes and Red Mountain. </p> <p>But beyond the beauty of the landscape, the Scapegoat has a fascinating and important history that continues to have reverberations in land management policy today.</p> <p>This week, Tom Kuglin shares his reporting behind a three-part series on the past, present and future of the Scapegoat wilderness.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>It might surprise some to learn that Montana’s largest National Wildlife Refuge doesn’t contain a single mountain. Instead all 1.1 million acres of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, or CMR, consists of sweeping prairie encompassing the massive Fort Peck Reservoir and rugged, impassable badlands that spin the land into a labyrinth of gumbo hills and plummeting draws. </p> <p>But for all its rugged wildness, the refuge has not always stood as a pristine example of prairie grasslands and more than a century of western expansion, homesteading and ranching has left behind barbed-wire remnants of when the refuge was parceled out as ranchland years ago. But one conservation group, known as Keep It Public, alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices that oversee the refuge are hoping to remove those fence lines in a decade’s long effort to restore the refuge’s prairie to its untamed glory. </p> <p>On this episode, A.J Etherington, city editor of the Billings Gazette newspaper, talks about his time spent in the CMR reporting on work done by conservationists.</p> <p><em>This podcast is created in partnership across five newsrooms – the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Missoulian, the Montana Standard and the Ravalli-Republic. You can support this podcast and our efforts by subscribing. Visit any of these newspapers’ websites, and click on the Become a Member button at the top of the home page. We appreciate your support of local journalism.</em></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

<p>Inside a trench the length of a football field, against the mesmerizing backdrop of the Rocky Mountain Front lay a scattering of granite-hued bone fragments, each exposed for the first time after some 75-80 million years preserved in the Two Medicine Formation’s alkali powder. </p> <p>David Trexler, a lifelong resident of nearby Bynum, Montana, and paleontologist for a half-century calls it the most spectacular and complete bone bed he’s ever worked on. </p> <p>What Trexler knows so far is that many of the multi-species bones unearthed are from a new breed of duck-billed dinosaur.</p> <p>Trexler sees more than the Earth’s distant past in dig sites like that along the Front He also connects the dots to an ominous outcome for humans humans don’t view what he describes as a “ticking time bomb” through a more holistic and urgent lens.</p> <p>This week Jeff Welsch, editor of Lee Enteprises' Montana newspapers talks about discoveries of creatures of the past and Trexler’s theory about the future.</p> <p><em>This podcast is created in partnership across five newsrooms – the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Missoulian, the Montana Standard and the Ravalli-Republic. You can support this podcast and our efforts by subscribing. Visit any of these newspapers’ websites, and click on the Become a Member button at the top of the home page. We appreciate your support of local journalism.</em></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>