The constitutionalist group Oath Keepers is defending a mine that the Forest Service says is out of compliance.
Montana
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Finding the quiet West inside
A writer remembers a week spent on a cattle ranch, and an unexpected discovery.
Posted inArticles
Old mines still plague Montana’s Clark Fork
Why one of the nation’s largest Superfund river sites can’t address pollution from abandoned mines.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
The scrappy effort to revive a former mining town
In Butte, Montana, optimism is booming.
Posted inJune 8, 2015: Tree of Life
Grave dangers and satisfying ends
Review of ‘Crow Fair’ by Thomas McGuane.
Posted inJune 8, 2015: Tree of Life
Heart cracked wide open
Review of ‘Tom Connor’s Gift’ by David Allan Cates.
Posted inArticles
Why is Montana giving its bison specialist the boot?
The state blames budget cuts as it demotes a longtime wildlife biologist.
Posted inArticles
American Indian students in Utah face harsh discipline
Research finds they are referred to law enforcement and arrested more than any other group.
Posted inArticles
A coal terminal would bring profit to one tribe, damage to another
Photos of the communities for and against the proposed Washington port.
Posted inArticles
State bills to study federal-to-state land transfers
A rundown of the legislation in each state and a look into the motives behind them.
Posted inArticles
Tribal water compact moving through Montana legislature
But the bill stirs up longstanding criticism of basic tribal sovereignty.
Posted inArticles
Bison to be reintroduced in Banff, new plans for Yellowstone herd
Promising developments percolate in two North American parks.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
Photographs and writing on Yellowstone wildlife
Review of “Yellowstone Wildlife: Ecology and Natural History of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”
Posted inArticles
A murky bill for national park waterways
A Yellowstone paddling bill raises hopes, suspicions.
Posted inArticles
The technique that’s revolutionizing aquatic science
Looking for brook trout? Try environmental DNA.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
My kind of town: Livingston, Montana
An essay on returning home to the West, after years abroad.
Posted inArticles
Oil pipelines are going to keep breaking in rivers
On the second day of July in 2011, I walked down to my hay fields to see if the Yellowstone River had flooded its banks. It had — but so had crude oil leaking from Exxon’s Silvertip Pipeline, which runs underneath the river upstream from my farm south of Billings, Montana. That was the beginning […]
Posted inArticles
Perseverance pays off for the Rocky Mountain Front
A 37-year crusade ends in new protections
Posted inArticles
Montana mycologist fights fungus with fungus
To save whitebark pines, apply slippery jack.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Have returning wolves really saved Yellowstone?
Researchers fear that some damage can’t be undone.