Montana Wildfire News

Rep. Nancy Ballance , a Republican from Hamilton, has served as a chair of the House Appropriations Committee in Montana’s Legislature since 2015. The committee is tasked with building a balanced budget for the state, which is the only legal requirement of the lawmaking body. Ballance is a former insurance executive, and has dug deep into Montana’s finances. UM Legislative News Reporter Shaylee Ragar spoke with Ballance last week about the state’s revenue projections, the future of Montana’s

Since before the smoke from the Rice Ridge Fire cleared in 2017, a team of University of Montana researchers have been tracking lung health of local residents. They presented their early findings to the Seeley Lake Community Council for the first time Monday night.

The Bitterroot National Forest is taking comments on a proposed timber sale and vegetation management project in the Sapphire Mountains northeast of Stevensville. The Forest is proposing to manage vegetation and reduce fuels on 238 acres in and next to the Threemile Wildlife Management Area. It says is entirely within the Wildland-Urban Interface -- the area of forest that mixes with human development and is at risk for wildfire.

Wildfire training sessions for firefighters in Montana are being called off because of the government shutdown. That has state officials worried about whether they’ll be prepared for next fire season. Michael DeGrosky has been scheduled for months to teach a wildfire training course in Missoula next week.

The Flathead National Forest announced Monday that it has approved a pair of vegetation management projects that it says will improve forest health and increase resistance to wildfires .

A team of researchers at the University of Montana has received a $700,000 grant from NASA to promote reforestation efforts across the western United States. The grant will allow UM’s researchers to develop a set of tools to help the U.S. Forest Service improve its decision-making process following major disturbances like wildfires.

The 2018 fire season has cost the state $6.7 million as of the end of November, according to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. That’s significantly under the state’s average fire bill of around $20 million over the last decade.

A study released this week finds new wildfire resistant homes cost roughly the same as more traditional home construction . The finding is potentially significant given growing public awareness as fire seasons lengthen and mega-fires, like California's devastating Camp Fire, increasingly displace people from their homes. One-third of American homes are now located in the wildland-urban interface , that zone where homes are built near, or in, undeveloped wildlands susceptible to fire.

The fires raging in California, and one continuing to smolder in Glacier National Park, have managers in Whitefish thinking about how people in town can prepare for the worst. More than 70 people came to the Wildfire In The City forum, hosted by Climate Smart Glacier Country on Wednesday. Speakers showed old images and newspaper clippings detailing the area’s historic burns and city staff talked about the challenges Whitefish faces.

Like thousands of tourists, businesses and locals, wildfire altered plans for some 40 artists participating in a residency program hosted by Kalispell’s Hockaday Museum of Art last summer.