HELENA — Despite a strong storm that brought snow to Helena Wednesday, Montana’s wildfire season isn’t far away. State, federal and local administrators met in Helena to talk about their preparations, in Gov. Greg Gianforte’s annual fire season briefing.

“It’s a great day to have a fire briefing, given the weather outside,” Gianforte joked.

Leaders met at the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s fire aviation support hangar at the Helena Regional Airport. There, DNRC maintains firefighting helicopters before they’re sent into the field ahead of the start of the season.

Matt Hall, chief of DNRC’s Fire Protection Bureau, said the department plans to hire just over 100 seasonal firefighters this year. He said they’ll be able to offer an entry-level wage of $19.05 – higher than previous years – because of the new state employee pay plan.

“I know we have a number of open fire jobs still posted today, but anticipate over the course of the next few weeks filling those positions fully with all of our seasonal staffing,” he said.

DNRC also cooperates closely with local firefighters. Hall said they’ve built 14 new wildfire engines this year, and they’re distributing them to agencies in Beaverhead, Blaine, Cascade, Chouteau, Custer, Fergus, Gallatin, Golden Valley, Meagher, Musselshell, Phillips, Powder River, Sweet Grass and Stillwater Counties.

In addition, Hall said DNRC is planning to contract for another “Type 1” helicopter – a heavy helicopter that can carry around 2,000 gallons of water.

“Today we are on track to have firefighting resources ready and available for the 2024 fire year, and we look forward to working with our partners across Montana to increase wildfire readiness, to better serve the citizens of Montana,” he said.

Jonathon Ambarian

“Partnership” was a key word for all the agencies in attendance Wednesday. Tim Garcia, deputy regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Region, talked about their close cooperation with the state on work like Good Neighbor Authority forest management projects.

“That foundationally is based on and built on the trust and the relationships that we have with our state DNRC partners,” he said. “We encourage and direct our line officers to really make sure that we’re having those people – having everyone – at the table as we go into fire season so that, again, we have that early and often communication.”

Garcia said the USFS is also optimistic they’ll get close to their goals for firefighter staffing this year, despite challenges like the cost of housing.

Leaders said it’s still early to know what kind of fire season Montana could see this year, but they’re prepared.

“People always say, ‘Well, what’s the fire season going to look like?’ And we oftentimes say, ‘Well, we’ll tell you in October,’” said Adriane Beck, director of Missoula County’s Office of Emergency Management and representative for the Montana County Fire Wardens Association. “I say that with some confidence, in that, whatever this fire season brings, know that your counties are ready. Your county fire wardens are working year-round in coordination with the state.”

Jonathon Ambarian

Since taking office, Gianforte has repeated two main priorities for the state’s wildfire response: aggressively attacking fires from the early stages to keep them small, and expanding the scale of active forest management work. He reiterated both points Wednesday.

“Together, we can continue to build healthier, more resilient forests, but it will take all of us,” he said.

May is also Wildfire Awareness Month. State leaders encourage residents to take steps to get themselves “fire-ready.” You can find more information at mtfireinfo.org.

“We can’t stop every wildfire from starting, but we can control our actions and our preparedness,” Gianforte said.

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) – Following his visits to the Missoula airport, the CSKT Reservation, and lots of travel time seeing the beauty of western Montana, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg granted me an exclusive nearly 13-minute live in-studio interview in the KGVO Radio studio on Wednesday afternoon.

Secretary Buttigieg first described his reaction to the additions to the Missoula Airport, including the many new carriers recently added to carry travelers around the nation and the world.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Provides an Exclusive Live Interview

“The added capacity at the airport means more airlines and more flights can serve this region,” began Buttigieg. “That means helping to keep air fares under control, because I know affordability is a real concern. So seeing that we were not just creating a better day-to-day experience, but a more competitive landscape was really encouraging for us. The other thing I loved seeing there is that the first phase of that project came in under budget, which is what I’d love to see more of because usually with infrastructure, it tends to happen in the opposite direction.”

Secretary Buttigieg also referenced his visit to see the planned expansion project between Missoula and East Missoula.

Buttigieg Praised the Project Linking Missoula to East Missoula

“Everything we’re doing is going to make a difference in day-to-day life,” he said. “The Safe Streets for All Grant that we’re working with Missoula and funding to connect East Missoula even though it’s only three miles away, is really cut off by the way that the highways run,” he said. “That’s a big project for us, too. It’s on my radar, even though it’s one of many in that program because we really believe that that part of what we can do with our generation’s worth of infrastructure is make sure that it really is connecting and not what you had sometimes in the past, because dividing a highway shouldn’t stand between you and where you need to be.”

The discussion then led to electric vehicles and the necessary infrastructure needed in a state the size and population of Montana.

“It’s the same way that when you go out on the road now,” he said. “You know there’s going be a gas station when you need it. We’ve got to make sure we get to the same place when it comes to EV (Electric Vehicle) charging. We’re not just urging states to do that; we’re funding states to do that. Every state has submitted a plan, making sure you’d never go more than 50 miles without coming to a charger. It’s going to take a few years to put those up, and this is pretty new for us as a country, but we got to make sure we get that done.”

READ MORE: Dangerous U.S. 93 Gets Big Dollar Fix North of Missoula

Buttigieg said Eastern Montana Can Look Forward to More Electric Vehicles

Secretary Buttigieg gave his view on how people in lightly populated eastern Montana might be able to look forward to having more electric vehicles.

“People here are more likely to live in single-family homes which means you already have some kind of charging infrastructure in the form of a plug in the wall,” he said. “That’s what we do at our house in Michigan. But also, the more you drive, the longer distances you cover, and the more of your money you’re spending on gas and diesel; you’ll find it’s cheaper to fill up a car with electricity than it is with gas and diesel. Provided we can make sure that the chargers are there when you need them, which is a big project for us, and also keep fighting to get the sticker price of those EVs down. I think there are a lot of people in these less dense areas who are going to find it’s the right answer.”

CNA Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 08:00 am

Montana’s Catholic bishops have issued a joint letter denouncing a proposed pro-abortion constitutional amendment they say would pave the way for late-term abortions, partial-birth abortions, and an elimination of the state’s parental notification requirement for minors in Montana.

In their May 3 letter, the bishops called the initiative an attack on the “recognition of the infinite dignity enjoyed by all persons” that fails to respect “life as a precious gift from God and recognize our sacred duty to nurture and protect every human life.”

“This recognition of the infinite dignity enjoyed by all persons informs our understanding of the basic rights and protections to which all human beings are entitled,” the letter stated. “When those rights are threatened, the Church must speak up with clarity and boldness.”

The statement — signed by Bishop Austin Vetter of Helena and Bishop Jeffrey Fleming and Bishop Emeritus Michael Warfel of Great Falls-Billings — urged Catholics in the state to refrain from signing the petition and to pray for the initiative’s defeat.