I’m Jon Tester. I’ve lived down a long dirt road outside of Big Sandy all my life, where I still farm the same land my grandparents homesteaded more than 100 years ago. For me Montana always comes first — and I’ll work with anyone, including Republicans, to defend our state.

Out here, your word is your bond, and you look out for your neighbors. A handshake still means something. And that’s why Montana is the greatest state in the greatest country on earth.

But that Montana that we know and love is changing, and the Last Best Place is at risk of being lost forever. I want to make sure Montana remains the place that we grew up in or made you want to move here, where you don’t need to be a millionaire to hunt, fish, or afford to live here. That’s why after talking with my wife Sharla, I decided to run for reelection — because the state we love is worth defending.

This is our last shot to protect Montana for all of us, not just multimillionaires, hedge funds, and big corporations. Wealthy outsiders are coming into our state, jacking up prices and trying to change our way of life. I won’t let them.

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My opponent Tim Sheehy is one of them. Here is a guy that moved here recently from the big city suburbs, bought up a bunch of properties across Montana, and then started charging folks $12,500 to hunt on his land. Sheehy is part of the problem, not the solution.

If anyone thinks Tim Sheehy will stand up to the out-of-state interests buying up our housing, I’ve got beachfront property in North Central Montana to sell them. If anyone thinks Tim Sheehy is going to protect our public lands, I’ve got an audio tape of him pledging to transfer them off so wealthy outsiders can buy them up for themselves. If anyone thinks Tim Sheehy would send the government packing when they try to interfere in our personal lives, just look at how he wants politicians to make health care decisions for Montana women, robbing them of their freedoms.

Those aren’t the Montana values we grew up with.

Here, we work hard for what we’ve got. We know that nothing is given, and everything is earned.

MONTANA SENATE RACE SHATTERS SPENDING RECORDS AT $309 PER REGISTERED VOTER

So every day, I wake up and go to bat to keep Montana the Last Best Place. And I’ll work with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to do it. That’s why former President Trump signed more than 20 of my bills into law to help veterans, crack down on government waste and abuse, and support our first-responders. That’s why I have repeatedly called out President Biden’s failed border policies, and am working to hire more Border Patrol agents to secure the southern border and shut off the deadly flow of fentanyl. It’s why I’ve stood tough against the Chinese Communist Party, holding them accountable for flying a spy balloon over my state and working to stop them from getting a foothold on American soil by banning them from buying up our farmland. It’s why I’m working hard to lower costs like housing, keep our public lands in public hands, and push back against one-size-fits all regulations from the Biden administration that just don’t make sense for rural America – like when they tried to strip funding from Montana schools over made-up D.C. hiring practices, or tried to undermine our Second Amendment rights and stop our schools from teaching hunter safety courses.

BILLINGS, MONTANA – SEPTEMBER 2: Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester speaks to and visits with union members at a Labor Day campaign stop where he was presented with an award from the Alliance for Retired Americans on September 2, 2024 in Billings, Montana. (Photo by William Campbell/Getty Images) (William Campbell)

The truth is that Montana’s way of life is on the line, and we have a choice. We can fight to protect our state and hold on to the freedoms that make it great, or we can let Tim Sheehy and his out-of-state, special interest backers turn it into a playground for the rich.

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If you want Montana to stay a place where you can afford to raise your family, where you don’t have to be a millionaire to hunt or fish or buy a home, and where our freedoms are protected, then this election is your last best chance to choose someone who will defend that Montana way of life.

For me, this has always been about Montana – and always will be.

The following is a news release from the Gallatin County, Montana, Sheriff’s Office, which concerns the investigation into the death of 35-year-old Dustin Kjersem. Kjersem’s friend found his bloodied body in a tent and thought Kjersem was the victim of a bear attack. Authorities are now saying Kjersem was murdered. Click here for more background on this story. We will post more details on this investigation as they become available.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office has identified a suspect in the Moose Creek homicide. The suspect is currently in custody on unrelated charges. The suspect is cooperating with our detectives and has led us to the evidence we have identified in prior press releases.

The investigation into this homicide continues. It is believed the suspect acted alone and there is no longer a threat to the community. Further details and charges are forthcoming, but it is important for this community to know they are safe to resume their outdoor activities. The Sheriff’s Office will have no further comment in regard to this investigation until charges are filed.

RELATEd | A 911 caller found his friend’s body in Montana and thought he was the victim of a bear attack. Police now say it was a homicide.

I want to thank the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office Detectives for their unrelenting pursuit of justice on this case. They have worked day and night for nearly three weeks with limited sleep, limited time with their families and limited time to themselves. They have prioritized the safety of this community and the need to locate Dustin Kjersem’s killer above all else. It is this type of dedication that makes the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office and all law enforcement officers special. This community should be proud of the men and women who have chosen a life of service to keep you, your families, and your friends safe.

I would also like to thank the multiple other agencies who have dedicated their time and energy into this case. The Montana Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI), the Montana State Crime lab, the Montana Department of Corrections, Probation and Parole, the Medical Examiner’s office, the Montana Highway Patrol, the Missouri River Drug Task Force, Jefferson County Montana Sheriff’s Office, Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Custer Gallatin National Forest and Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue.

Our thoughts and prayers continue for the family of Dustin Kjersem. We hope, by some small measure, our efforts can bring them a bit of peace during this horrific time. Our entire community mourns with you.

– Sheriff Dan Springer

Fire season in Montana still has not ended. Thirty-five fires continue to burn across the state, though the combined acreage makes up a small amount of the total burned this season. 

A continued drought in the east will help maintain fire-prone conditions through early November, though Monday night brought precipitation and cooler temperatures to western Montana, according to Dan Zumpfe, a meteorologist based in Missoula for the National Weather Service.

“Certainly for western Montana, it looks like we’re going to be out of fire season, for the most part,” Zumpfe said.

Along the Hi-Line, the weather service reported cold temperatures and even snow. Small amounts of precipitation in southwestern Montana, in addition to an oncoming cold front, dampened the state’s largest fires in Ravalli County. Meteorologists reported that central Idaho’s large fires received even more rain, supplying new optimism for Montana’s air quality.

“The nature of this cool-season weather system contributes to better air quality,” Zumpfe said. 

Wildfires spread faster during the day, so fewer hours of daylight reduce their growth rates. Decreasing temperatures throughout the early winter also combat rapid fire growth. But without enough precipitation to qualify as a “season-ending event,” wildfire danger persists across eastern Montana and low elevations of western Montana. According to Shawn Palmquist, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Billings, some parts of the state aren’t expecting extensive precipitation for the next eight to 14 days.

“Areas south and east of Yellowstone County are anywhere from moderate to extreme droughts,” Palmquist said, noting that snow is forecast at some higher elevations. 

A low-pressure system, a large area of low atmospheric pressure often accompanied by humidity and precipitation, over Idaho split in two, with one portion moving over Canada and the other through Wyoming. After moving inland from the Pacific Ocean, low-pressure systems often divide during their eastward journey from Idaho, leaving much of Montana without precipitation for extended periods.

This phenomenon had major impacts over the course of the 2024 fire season, according to the National Weather Service.

“Eastern Montana, especially far southeastern Montana, has had some of the driest areas that we forecasted over the last summer and into the fall,” Palmquist said. 

According to Cory Calnan, who serves as the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation deputy chief for the Fire Protection Bureau, southeastern Montana’s fire season has been marked by frequent and fast-paced burns. 

“We routinely have fire activity in that area, but just sheer volume, particularly in the Tongue River Basin, of acres burned and the impacts to the agriculture communities there are pretty notable,” Calnan said.

The Remington Fire, a late-August fire that blew northward from northeastern Wyoming, stands out as one of the largest Montana fires of the last decade. The Remington’s burn scar covers ranchland across three Montana counties, altogether accounting for roughly half of the 443,000 Montana acres burned by wildfire this season.

Without the Remington Fire, the number of acres burned this season would be relatively standard in comparison to the seasons of the past decade. But with almost 200,000 acres burned by the Remington Fire alone, the 2024 fire season instead ranks behind only two from the last 10 years: 2021 and 2017.

The 2024 fire season also saw fires more frequently in proximity to large urban areas than in previous seasons. The Horse Gulch Fire burned 20 miles north of Helena, the Miller Peak Fire burned eight miles southeast of Missoula and the Sharrott Creek Fire burned five miles west of Hamilton. Calnan highlighted the agency’s central mission to defend people and their residences from fire through a strict suppression policy. 

“For us in the state of Montana, and the values that we protect, rapid, safe, aggressive, initial attack is the best tool we have,” said Calnan, who also highlighted the more widespread use of infrared-equipped aircraft to firefighting crews.

“We call these Incident Awareness and Assessment Aircraft,” Calnan said. “We have a relatively high certainty where lightning strikes are occurring. We were able to fly that aircraft the morning after lightning and detect fires that had not yet been detected.” 

For land-managing agencies, the upcoming off-months offer opportunities to find other new technologies for the next season and review their firefighting strategies. And even without a substantial amount of the state burning, the fire season’s impact will stretch well into the winter. 

Agencies are still finalizing their cost analyses of fire season, agreements that allocate large sums of money and sometimes spur contentious correspondence. On Oct. 9, Gov. Greg Gianforte shared a letter rebuking the Forest Service over a potential cost-sharing breakdown for the Horse Gulch Fire, a late-July blaze that cost more than $14 million to fight.

Montana reinvested in firefighting resources during the 2023 legislative session. In a July interview with Montana Free Press, Gianforte highlighted legislation that introduced more than $100 million for firefighting-related expenditures, including “fire suppression costs,” “fuel reduction and mitigation” and “forest restoration.” Firefighters at the state level say they see its impact on the ground.

“In Montana, we’re very fortunate for House Bill 883 and the ability to invest in state-controlled resources and assets to help us respond to fires,” Calnan said. 

Though this season’s fires did not stretch the state’s resources, out-of-state blazes kept much of Montana’s sky hazy throughout the summer. Wildfire smoke poured in from Canada throughout July. Wyoming, Washington and Idaho fires exported unhealthy air over Montana later in the fire season.

As winter weather clears away smoke across the region, prescribed fires are again on the docket for land-managing agencies across the state. Pile burning, a type of prescribed burn featuring forest debris that’s been organized into well-separated clumps, will begin when snow falls at lower elevations around the state. 

“Pile burning activities, those are done when there’s adequate snow on the ground — that’s a low resource requirement and low resource input impact there,” Calnan said. “So we’ll see those start as we see the conditions moderate even further.”