For decades, the freight trains trundling over Marias Pass toward Glacier National Park and the Great Bear Wilderness along a 206-mile stretch of tracks between Shelby and Trego have posed a threat to the grizzlies living in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bear recovery zone, particularly when a derailment causes a grain spill, or a train-killed deer or livestock carcass draws the bears onto the busy tracks. 

And for decades, a host of state, federal and tribal wildlife management agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations and conservation groups, have worked with the railroad to mitigate the hazards to threatened and endangered species like grizzlies, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Three years ago, BNSF Railway Company proposed the most comprehensive solution yet when it applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) and formally submitted a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) outlining measures it would take to reduce train-caused grizzly mortalities in the region.

But that hasn't happened yet.

With me today is Tristan Scott, the managing editor of the Flathead Beacon newspaper, who’s recently reported on the situation.

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The Greater Yellowstone Coalition recently announced it had raised $6.25 million to buy out Crevice Mining Group’s 1,368 acres, claims and water rights just north of Yellowstone National Park’s border.

Crevice came onto the scene in 2015 when it proposed mining on a mountainside above Gardiner. The proposal led to more than 400 local businesses and groups fighting to protect the area. The opposition was also focused on a proposal to mine just outside of Chico Hot Springs, in Emigrant Gulch.

This eventually led to the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act, signed into law in 2019, removing 30,000 acres of public lands from mining in the region. However Crevice was not halted by the act, since it already owned private claims.

The GYC decided the best solution to halt any mining was to buy the Crevice owners out.

Brett French, outdoor editor at the Billings Gazette, recently reported on the buyout. 

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On Oct. 13, news broke that the owner of Holland Lake Lodge has decided to cancel his controversial expansion and upgrade plans at the resort.

He’s ending his partnership with a large Utah-based resort company called POWDR and is trying to sell the lodge. It’s huge news in Montana, as for the past year there’s been quite a bit of an uproar as people protested the plan.

You can’t drive anywhere in western Montana without seeing billboards for “Save Holland Lake,” a group that’s been criticizing the expansion plans. The whole saga involved threats of lawsuits and lots of heated public meetings.

Exactly a year ago Dave Erickson of the Missoulian newspaper joined me as news broke on the expansion proposal and he’s on this episode to cover all that's happened since last year.

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It was a chance encounter with a northern pintail drake that made Chuck Black’s lifelong dream come true.

That dream: to win the Federal Duck Stamp art contest and have his painting in the pocket of every waterfowl hunter in the country.

Chuck’s interest in the Federal Duck Stamp started as a youth growing up in Minnesota, where water-fowling is a religion and many of the legends of the contest call home.

After nine failed tries to win the contest, on Sept. 16 a lifelong dream came true when he finally won the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service Federal Duck Stamp art contest.

On this episode, we hear from Chuck about his quest to get his painting on the stamp and life as an artist in Montana.

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In late September the Legislative Audit Division released a report investigating Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Enforcement Division. The audit documented a division riddled with morale problems and distrust in management.

What’s more, the report found FWP’s Human Resources Division – which is responsible for all FWP employees – was opening the agency up to the risk of litigation because of its practices.

Prior to the audit’s publication, the Enforcement Division chief retired with an additional $150,000 in compensation, two top administrators were reassigned and FWP’s director has stepped down and been replaced.

Here to talk about the audit today is Brett French, outdoor editor at the Billings Gazette.

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A little over a month ago, the world watched in horror as fast-moving flames leveled the idyllic oceanside town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The fire had started just that day but winds from a distant hurricane swept the flames into a firestorm that killed more than 100 people, making it the deadliest American wildfire in more than a century.

Similar things happened around Montana this summer, thankfully with no deaths reported. But there were other similarities between them: A new fire grows rapidly, fanned by hot and dry winds, to quickly threaten a town. And that happened as Montana has seen a remarkably quiet season for wildfires by some measures.

On this episode Joshua Murdock, outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian talks about the River Road East Fire outside of Paradise, Montana.

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On September 1, the U.S. Interior Department announced that the last energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine area had been relinquished.

This piece of ground surrounded by the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, was considered sacred to the Blackfeet.

It was also considered so valuable by the Louisiana-based Solenex LLC energy company, they held onto the lease through seven presidential administrations, two federal court fights and 40 years of negotiations.

When we last talked about the Badger Two-Medicine a year ago, it was on its way to a second round before the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals. 

On this episode, Rob Chaney, managing editor of the Missoulian, fills us in on what has changed.

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If you were a grizzly on the move, where would you go and how would you get there?

As the federally protected bears roam farther each year beyond their recovery zones, more Montana communities are seeing grizzlies for the first time in decades.

Eventually, wildlife managers hope that two separate populations centered around Glacier and Yellowstone national parks could connect. And the species’ recovery plans target the bears expanding to other places, too.

Now, a new study from the University of Montana shows how the animals might do that. With me today is Joshua Murdock, outdoors and natural resources reporter at the Missoulian.

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The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks recently released the results of two hunter surveys.

One was sent to 5,000 residents and another to 800 nonresidents. The surveys asked questions about the state’s management of elk and mule deer, two iconic species in the state. Brett French, outdoor editor at the Billings Gazette, recently wrote about the results of the survey.

Since the story on the FWP survey came out, Montana Backcountry Hunters and Anglers examined the methodology the agency used. The group contends that counting neutral responses to the survey as those satisfied with the state’s elk management sways the calculation to FWP’s favor.

On this episode French, talks about the survey and subsequent blowback to the results.

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Ailments like brucellosis and chronic wasting disease have become well-known in hunting circles over the past few decades. Both are known to infect elk and be spread by close contact between infected animals. 

That’s why it seems ill-advised that Wyoming operates winter feedgrounds for elk. Spread across the western third of the state, the sites congregate elk allowing brucellosis and CWD to spread. Right now. 

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is taking public comments on its newly unveiled feedground management plan.

To learn more about the issue, we’re talking with Brett French, outdoor editor at the Billings Gazette.

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