Promising developments percolate in two North American parks.
Montana
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.
Posted inArticles
Killing wolves to protect cattle may backfire
A new study raises questions about how to handle livestock conflicts.
Posted inNovember 24, 2014: Transportation Transformation
Latest: Bison transferred to Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Disease-free animals from Yellowstone get a new home.
Posted inArticles
Landscape-scale conservation gains ground
The Nature Conservancy just announced its largest Washington land purchase to date.
Posted inNovember 10, 2014: Fallout
Latest: Montana judge rules groups of wells illegal
“Exempt well” laws in most Western states allow domestic wells to be drilled without water rights.
Posted inArticles
Fur flies over Montana bobcat farm
Will animal rights activists keep a bobcat farmer from setting up shop in Montana?
Posted inArticles
Want a trophy buck? Ditch the camo and get a guide
Study looks at successful types of big game hunters
Posted inGoat
Closure of federal sheep facility would be a victory for grizzlies
On the last day of August, 2012, a collared grizzly bear dubbed 726 by federal wildlife biologists vanished into the rugged Centennial Mountains on the Idaho-Montana border. A few weeks later, they recovered his collar near an established campsite. It appeared to have been cut, stoking suspicions that hunters may have shot the bear, a […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
The roads scholar
An ecologist helps wildlife safely cross highways.
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Climate changes for wolverine listing
What good can the Endangered Species Act do in a warming world?
Posted inWotr
The battle for women’s suffrage continues
In Montana, no woman has held federal office since 1916, when Montanans elected their first and only female Congressional representative.
Posted inWotr
Our reliance on drones to patrol the borders
When I think of Canada, I picture caribou herds, universal healthcare and the occasional hockey brawl. Officials at our Department of Homeland Security, however, seem to think the neighbors up North pose a serious security threat. After all, the department has spent the last five years quietly building a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles — […]