Tribal wildfire programs are underfunded and overburdened.
Montana
Posted inArticles
Farmers face frozen jobs and heavier workloads under DOGE ‘efficiency’ budget
Billions in halted or canceled grants, gutted local offices, market turmoil and broken trust are at stake across the West.
Posted inArticles
The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts
Forest Service stock animals are indispensable to trail work on public lands in the West. Trump’s radical upheaval is accelerating the death of a dying art.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Montana’s youth climate activists aren’t stopping at their landmark court win
As lawmakers push back, the kids aren’t giving up.
Posted inArticles
The art of moving a buffalo
Pedro Calderon-Dominguez’s daily work requires calm, quiet and patience.
Posted inArticles
Access to public land through corner crossing remains legal
A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling in favor of four hunters who faced civil trespassing charges for violating airspace above private land they never touched.
Posted inArticles
The indomitable Butte, Montana
The misunderstood, often-maligned mining town helps itself.
Posted inArticles
In Montana, a new map flipped 12 red seats
A common thread runs through states where Democrats made largest gains: bipartisan maps.
Posted inArticles
These states use stolen Indigenous land to fund prisons
State trust lands generate millions of dollars for carceral facilities and programs every year, largely from extractive industries like oil and gas drilling.
Posted inArticles
The beautiful and awful Butte, Montana
The indelible history of mining poisons a town yet extracts something new.
Posted inArticles
How luxury real estate benefits from Montana’s agricultural tax code
Key takeaways from our investigation revealing how expensive properties use a system meant to help farmers and ranchers.
Posted inArticles
Outgoing Bureau of Land Management director optimistic about public lands
Tracy Stone-Manning discusses the BLM’s achievements and talks about the future as we enter a new political era.
Posted inArticles
Montana’s ag tax slashes bills for thousands of million-dollar homes
Properties classified ‘agricultural’ get a tax break despite no bona fide operations. Can lawmakers’ new proposals tighten qualifications?
Posted inArticles
Who’s against wind development in ‘The Crazies’?
Amy Gamerman’s new book examines attempts to block the energy transition in Montana’s Crazy Mountains.
Posted inJanuary 2025: The West's Most Wanted
Why the West needs prairie dogs
They’re among the region’s most despised species, but some tribes, researchers and landowners are racing to save them.
Posted inIssues
‘I started to grass dance when I was just a little girl’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Posted inArticles
Key Senate and House races remain uncalled across the West
A dramatic shift by Latino voters toward Trump helped create a red wave.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie
Lovesick elk, flamingo fathers, Frankensheep and Bach for bison
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Montana’s Jon Tester might lose. Here’s why that matters
What the Senate contest says about the unexpected shift in Western politics.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
The downballot issues driving the West’s 2024 elections
From climate and public lands to shifting political allegiances, the region faces critical choices at the ballot box.