Montana

Ninth Circuit narrows wolf trapping ban in Montana griz territory

Published

2 years ago

April 24, 2024

Ninth Circuit narrows wolf trapping ban in Montana griz territory

Alanna Mayham

(CN) — An order limiting wolf trapping and snaring in Montana’s grizzly bear territory survived the scrutiny of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday, but the question of how much land a federal judge can restrict to protect the state’s threatened grizzlies from wolf traps remains.

In January, a three-judge panel took a skeptical view of a 2023 injunction that prohibited wolf trapping in a broad swath of western Montana outside of the narrow timeframe of Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 annually, or when grizzlies are most likely to be hibernating in dens.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s preliminary injunction was aimed at protecting grizzlies from wolf traps — an issue opponents say is becoming more common because the warming climate is pushing bears to forage later into the winter and even earlier in the spring.

But Molloy’s order prohibited trapping in a much larger part of Montana than what conservation groups requested and did not follow the state’s scientific determination of where grizzly bears live.

On Tuesday, two-thirds of the panel affirmed Molloy’s injunction because the plaintiff organizations — Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force and WildEarth Guardians — demonstrated that Montana’s recreational wolf trapping and snaring regulations would harm grizzly bears in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“Under our limited and deferential standard of review, we affirm the district court’s grant of injunctive relief,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennet, a Donald Trump appointee, with the concurrence of U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik, a Bill Clinton appointee.

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Richard C. Tallman partially dissented, explaining that he would have vacated the entire injunction because the plaintiffs’ evidence falls short of proving that irreparable harm is likely — not just possible.

“While I agree with the majority that plaintiffs established a serious question on the merits, the evidence of record establishes that plaintiffs failed to show a reasonably certain threat of imminent harm to grizzly bears should Montana’s wolf regulations remain in force,” the Clinton appointee wrote.

Tallman also argued that the plaintiffs’ evidence is too speculative to warrant an injunction, particularly regarding how climate change affects grizzly denning habits and the plaintiffs’ lack of verified reports of grizzly bears getting caught in recreational wolf traps after 2013.

The other judges disagreed.

“As the district court pointed out, one of plaintiffs’ experts declared that ‘only 12% of unpermitted grizzly bear killings are actually reported,’ and that the ‘data shows that trappers who find grizzly bears in their traps are highly unlikely to call a government agent,’” Lasnik wrote.

Lasnik added how Montana’s evidence showed that over 25% of grizzly bear killings go unreported, suggesting that verified reports are not the best indicator of how often grizzlies are trapped.

All three judges could agree that the injunction is geographically overbroad.

“The district court enjoined wolf trapping and snaring ‘in all areas included in wolf regions one through five, plus Hill, Blaine and Phillips counties,’” Lasnik wrote. “That comprises what appears to be more than half of the entire state of Montana and includes expansive areas outside the occupied grizzly range and even some areas east of Billings — areas that plaintiffs did not even ask to be covered by the injunction.”

The panel also took up Montana’s argument of how the injunction prohibits state researchers from trapping and snaring wolves in the summer for scientific purposes — even though the injunction never prevented that.

On March 19, Montana filed an unopposed motion to modify the injunction so it could allow the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and other management agencies to trap wolves for scientific and livestock conflict management purposes. Molloy denied the request on March 25, explaining that such agencies already had the authority to perform research trapping and they were unaffected by the injunction.

“Apparently the Ninth Circuit wasn’t aware of that,” said Mike Bader of Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot in an interview.

Bader also noted how Tallman in his dissent did not acknowledge a permanent injunction from U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale in March that banned all wolf trapping and snaring in Idaho’s panhandle, Clearwater, Salmon and Upper Snake regions between March 1 and Nov. 30 — the grizzly bear’s non-denning season.

“She actually cited the Molloy injunction ruling as an influence on her ruling, so we hope we can get a permanent injunction because then we would have common law in the Ninth Circuit from both Idaho and Montana,” Bader said.

And that hope might not be far from reality, especially since Molloy’s injunction will stay in place until he adjusts the geographic scope of the order. Bader said a final ruling on the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment could arrive within the next few months and that a favorable outcome would also prohibit coyote traps in grizzly territories.

“I think the big issue is climate change,” Bader said, adding how states rely on outdated data for grizzly denning behaviors.

“Especially this past winter, we had reports of females with cubs out in January and a lot of bears out well into December and even past Christmas,” Bader said. “So, the old dates really don’t apply because of the change.”

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Montana

Strong wind in the forecast statewide

Published

2 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Nick Vertz suspected calm weather wouldn’t soon return after last week’s high-speed wind event that recorded 101-mph winds in Glacier County. The Billings-based National Weather Service forecaster said Montanans should expect exceptionally strong gusts Tuesday night and Wednesday.

“I joke that the weather’s just playing catch up with how mild of a fall and start to the winter we had,” Vertz told Montana Free Press on Tuesday.

Nearly the entire state is under an official high-wind warning, meaning the weather service expects wind speeds of 58 mph or greater. While the official warning status may vary by region, the weather service anticipates the strong winds will move west to east through late Wednesday evening.

The National Weather Service hazard forecast covered the state in a high wind warning at 5:30 on Tuesday. Credit: Courtesy National Weather Service

Winds aloft, higher altitude gusts that generally exceed wind speeds on the surface, are both unusually powerful and relatively low in altitude. Vertz says high-speed winds aloft blowing downward is the result of warm weather.

“You can think of it as pushing those strong winds aloft down to reach the surface,” Vertz said.

Though much of Montana experienced a similar strong-wind pattern last week, Vertz said this system is a statewide event and that the weather service has “more confidence in those stronger winds to occur just all across the board.”

With gusts coming out of the northwest, Vertz advised caution for drivers headed north or south, who would likely experience the “full brunt of those crosswinds.”

Montana’s most recent experience with a major wind event on a similar scale occurred in January 2021, according to Vertz.

Ongoing flooding in northwest Montana makes the area particularly vulnerable to high-wind hazards, like saturated soil around tree roots, according to Bryan Conlan, a weather service meteorologist based out of Missoula.

“Anywhere within western Montana at this point, with these strong to damaging winds, trees could blow over,” Conlan said.

Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday requested President Donald Trump issue a presidential disaster declaration in response to the flooding in the northwest part of the state.

As even more ocean moisture makes its way from the Pacific Northwest into Montana via “atmospheric rivers,” precipitation is likely to continue in western Montana.

“One of the differences between this and the prior system is there will be a very strong cold front that’ll be coming along,” Conlan said.

A cold front on Wednesday will mix with moisture from the atmospheric river, producing a combination of rain and snow. Cold air also leads to winds aloft descending, resulting in strong wind across high elevations in western Montana. On Monday night, winds in Glacier National Park reached almost 100 mph.

“This is going to be a fairly strong event,” Conlan said.

Nora Mabie contributed to this reporting.

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Montana

Montana Morning Headlines: Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Published

14 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

WESTERN MONTANA — Here’s a look at Western Montana’s top news stories for Tuesday.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office reports the suspect in last Thursday’s attempted kidnapping at a Kalispell gas station has been identified and arrested. The incident occurred at Woody’s gas station at Highways 35 and 206, where a man allegedly attempted to rob and kidnap a woman sitting in her car. (Read the full story)

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The Bureau of Land Management is offering $1 permits for people to cut their own Christmas trees on public land, with options including Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and western larch. Harvesters must stay at least a quarter-mile from roads and rivers, with BLM encouraging people to target overcrowded areas where thinning would benefit forest management. (Read the full story)

Bureau of Land Management offering $1 Christmas tree permits

Two reindeer from a farm in Washington brought Christmas magic to Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply in Missoula on Dec. 6, featuring 10-year-old Candy and 1.5-year-old Elsa posing for photos and meeting dozens of families. The reindeer, raised by Jordan Duncan at Reindeer Express near Spokane, spend their off-season splashing in water and munching grass before returning to holiday duties. (Read the full story)

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Montana

Montana-Montana State’s FCS semifinal get-in ticket prices surpass College Football Playoff games

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Montana-Montana State’s FCS semifinal get-in ticket prices surpass College Football Playoff games

Montana-Montana State, known as the Brawl of the Wild, is one of the best rivalries in FCS. This year, more than bragging rights are on the line, as the matchup will take place in the FCS semifinals.

The high stakes and relatively smaller seating capacity have made this game the most expensive entry-level ticket in college football this weekend, including the first round of the College Football Playoff.

The cheapest ticket for the game at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman, Montana, is $675 on Gametime Tickets compared to about $350 for the Miami at Texas A&M game, which is the most expensive of the four first-round College Football Playoff matchups. The most expensive ticket for the FCS semifinal is a sideline seat priced at $1,152. The Miami-Texas A&M game has Founder Club tickets listed at $2,484.

The seating capacity for Bobcat Stadium is 20,767, compared to more than 102,000 at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field. The other three CFP games this weekend will be hosted by Oklahoma (capacity 80,126), Ole Miss (64,038) and Oregon (60,000).

Next year’s Montana-Montana State matchup starts at $876, with some tickets listed as high as $1,359.

Montana State is the No. 2 seed in the playoffs at 12-2 after defeating Stephen F. Austin 44-28 in the quarterfinals this past weekend. Third-seeded Montana is 13-1 and beat South Dakota 52-22 in its quarterfinal. Montana leads the all-time rivalry 74-44-5.

Montana State has won the last two matchups between the teams, most recently winning 31-28 at Montana on Nov. 22. At least one of the teams has appeared in the FCS championship game in three of the past four years. Montana’s last national championship came in 2001, while Montana State’s came in 1984.

Montana is led by head coach Bobby Hauck, who is the second-winningest active FCS head coach and one of the top 10 winningest active coaches overall in Division I football at 151-42. Montana’s key players are quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat, running back Eli Gillman and wide receiver Michael Wortham.

Montana State is led by head coach Brent Vigen. Key players for Montana State include quarterback Justin Lamson, running back Julius Davis and wide receiver Taco Dowler.

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