Montana
‘Layered, adaptive’ wildfire insurance approach needed in Montana
Jordan Hansen
(Daily Montanan) Calling rising wildfire insurance rates an “urgent challenge,” a Headwaters Economics and Columbia Climate School report released this month points to potential approaches to address the financial burden on Montana property owners.
Nationwide, property insurance rates are rising — but they’re doing so even faster in areas with “climate-related perils” according to a report published by the U.S. Treasury Department at the beginning of this year.
Non-renewal of policies is also an issue and that same Treasury report found that in areas with “the highest expected losses from climate-related perils,” non-renewals of property insurance coverage were more common.
The Headwaters report looks at five strategies that could be employed to help communities in high-risk areas find insurance. These approaches include community risk pooling, ideas pulled from agriculture insurance and large-scale state reform.
According to the state’s insurance commissioner, James Brown, the state could see the fifth-highest state increase in property insurance increases this year, citing a National Association of Realtors report. Montana policy holders paid a little more than $4 billion in premiums in 2013, that number in 2022 was almost $7.4 billion, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
He pointed to escalating fire risk in a May letter as part of the problem.
“First, wildfires have become more frequent and intense. Nearly 70% of all wildfires recorded in Montana have occurred since 2000,” Brown wrote. “These longer-lasting, more destructive fires dramatically increase the risk to homes, pushing insurance rates higher. Second, Montana’s scenic appeal and lifestyle continue to attract new residents, inflating property values and replacement costs — thereby driving up premiums.”
He went on to write that half of all properties in Montana are “at risk of catastrophic wildfire damage.”
‘Ability to financially rebound’
About 75,000 acres burned in Montana this year with one main residence, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Fires involving large numbers of structure losses — such as the Eaton and Palisades fires around Los Angeles earlier this year — have become more common and the economic losses are staggering.
Montana has seen some fires that have destroyed homes, including the 2021 fire in Denton and the Bridger Foothills Fire in 2020.
According to a 2023 Department of Interior report, the annual burden of wildfires on the U.S. Economy was between “$71 billion to $348 billion in 2016 dollars ($87 billion to $424 billion in 2022 dollars).” The same report said there are “huge” data gaps around “property damage, loss of life, and healthcare costs.”
Tens of millions are spent on fire suppression and mitigation in Montana each year and nationally, suppression costs consistently ring in at well over a billion dollars annually.
But even with the suppression and mitigation efforts, communities can struggle when faced with a fire disaster.
“As the protection gap expands between those with insured losses and those without, a community’s ability to financially rebound is weakened, municipal revenue flows including property taxes may be diminished, and significant federal investment may be needed to offset recovery and rebuilding costs,” the Headwaters report reads.
It also cautions that no single strategy will solve all problems and goes on to say a, “layered, adaptive, and equity-focused framework,” will be needed to address insurance issues caused by wildfires. Additionally, the report does not cover renters nor the “unique” experiences of Native Americans living on tribal reservations.
“Land inside reservations may have unique ownership structures and be subject to federal oversight in ways that interfere with private sector insurance coverage, and tribes have long contended with additional administrative barriers to public support systems,” the report reads.
‘Reducing their own risk’
The report suggests five “new pathways” for insurance in the state, which are: voluntary certification programs, community-based catastrophe insurance, parametric policies, FAIR state plans (insurance of last resort), and state regulatory reform.
The report discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each approach, as well as examples from other states that have utilized some of those ideas. FAIR plans have been implemented in Florida, for example, while parametric policies essentially model agricultural drought insurance.
Voluntary certification is the idea that’s gained the most traction, said Kimi Barrett, a lead wildfire research and policy analyst at Headwaters. Barrett, along with Columbia Climate School’s Lisa Dale, authored the report.
Voluntary certification, where citizens do specific things to reduce fire risk on their property in tandem with others in their community, leans into the idea of home and community hardening, an approach conservation groups applaud.
Some scientists have argued the root of the wildfire issue is actually a structural ignition problem and that losses could be lessened by better building codes and materials.
These types of policies have mostly been done in western parts of the country.
“It’s modeled off of what hurricane mitigation is required in places like Alabama and elsewhere, where it’s essentially a fortification of a home to that hazard,” Barrett said. “And in doing so, demonstrating to insurance providers that the risk has been reduced enough to meet criteria for insurance retainment moving forward.”
Colorado has modeled this policy, passing a statewide fire code this year that made a home-hardening inspection mandatory at point of sale. The report also found there are potentially psychological factors to consider within the voluntary certification program.
“Shifting residents’ current expectations of external support, including home protection from firefighters, disaster relief from FEMA, and insurance as a buffer from loss will take a concentrated effort,” the report reads. “When homeowners accept personal responsibility for reducing their own risk, they may find the costs associated with home hardening to be more acceptable. Fostering this mindset change will take significant public outreach.”
‘A house in the country’
However, population trends show that people keep moving to and building in fire-prone areas.
According to the Montana Environmental Information Center, the number of new homes built in wildfire-prone areas doubled between 1990 and 2020.
Areas like the Bitterroot and Flathead Valleys are particularly vulnerable, even as southwestern Montana has exploded in population. Grass fires in Montana are a concern too, as evidenced by the fire that swept through Denton in 2021.
“Everyone wants a house in the country, right? It’s beautiful, and yet we created the imperfect storm,” Dominick DellaSala, a conservation scientist, said to the Daily Montanan. “Because now the climate has shifted, the Forest Service can’t possibly put out all these fires that are increasing in speed, intensity and acres burning where all these houses were built. So what do we do about it?”
The state Legislature is looking at the broader issue of property insurance rates in an interim committee and there’s a wildfire study bill as well. Those discussions could end up becoming legislation during the 2027 Legislative session, and the hope from the Headwater Report’s authors is that it helps inform these discussions.
It’s also important to note what insurance companies are looking for, Barrett said.
“Insurance is spending money on homes getting damaged and destroyed by wildfire,” Barrett said. “What they need to see is risk reduction ahead of a wildfire to those homes and communities placed in high risk areas, and that forest treatments and fuels reduction of landscapes alone, will not get them there, nor will suppression and response. It requires addressing the built environment at the same level that we currently address suppression and forest treatments.”
Insurance advocates have pointed to low amounts of hazardous fuels work being done under the Trump Administration — possibly as much as a 38% drop in annual average of acres treated — and are looking to see more done.
“We’ve seen more evidence and more informative reports for policyholders and homeowners about what they need to do to help protect and defend their home and make sure that they’re safe,” said Jayson O’Neill, an insurance advocate. “We aren’t seeing this sort of same urgency from our regulators and our state insurance commissioner and our state legislators.”
MISSOULA — Four out of five members of Montana’s Public Service Commission were in a federal courtroom in Missoula Thursday morning, as the PSC’s former president challenges the disciplinary action taken against him earlier this year. Now, newly released documents are shedding more light on to what led up to this point.
(Watch the video for a closer look at the case.)
New documents shed light Montana PSC dispute
Commissioner Brad Molnar has sued President Jeff Welborn, Vice President Jennifer Fielder and Commissioner Annie Bukacek – the three PSC members who voted in May to require him to work remotely, after an investigation into complaints about his workplace conduct. Molnar has claimed he is being unfairly punished for constitutionally protected speech, and he asked Senior U.S District Judge Donald Molloy to allow him to return to the PSC offices.
Matthew Monforton, Molnar’s attorney, told the judge that barring Molnar from the building was limiting his ability to do his job.
“He has not been officially kicked out of office, but his voice has clearly been diminished,” said Monforton.
But Natasha Jones, an attorney representing the other three commissioners, said the findings were about behavior, not just speech, and that the PSC’s action was a reasonable response.
“These are serious concerns about a pattern of conduct that has made employees quit,” she said.
Jonathon Ambarian
On Tuesday, Molloy ordered the release of redacted versions of two full investigative reports into Molnar’s conduct – more than 100 pages of documents. Monforton had moved for the full reports to be made public, and Molloy ruled attorneys for the other PSC members hadn’t shown a compelling reason to keep the documents under seal as long as the names of people involved in the investigation were obscured.
While the names remained redacted in the investigation reports, the attorneys for Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek also filed additional documents – including a public declaration from Bukacek and from former PSC executive director Alana Lake, providing information about their allegations against Molnar.
The two reports, from an outside investigator, cover Molnar’s alleged actions over two periods: the first from February to August 2025, and the second from August to October 2025. The investigation began after the first formal complaint, filed by Bukacek in May 2025 – though the reports say employees had been bringing up concerns about Molnar’s behavior informally for several months prior.
Bukacek’s complaint claimed Molnar had repeatedly made what she called “sexualized and demeaning comments.” The examples she cited included saying the PSC should replace “Taco Tuesdays” with “Topless Tuesdays,” reminiscing about watching girls in bikinis as a teenager, and commenting about the beauty of women in areas of China who didn’t get “old and wrinkly.”
In her declaration, Bukacek also claimed Molnar had “maliciously disseminated false information” about her and “engaged in behavior that was dismissive, derisive and otherwise abusive.”
“My primary concern now is not for my safety nor my feelings, but for the rest of the staff who may not have the temperament to speak up or may feel too intimidated to speak up given concerns over job security,” Bukacek said in her declaration.
MTN News
The investigators determined Molnar had violated the PSC’s code of conduct by making comments of a sexual nature, and that it appeared his behavior had continued for some time after he was warned about it. They also found he had behaved unprofessionally and in a belittling manner toward Bukacek, though they said Bukacek herself had at times used “language that could be considered inappropriate” in emails to staff or other commissioners. Bukacek told MTN she “readily self corrected” any behaviors that were brought to her attention.
The investigation also found a violation in connection with a complaint from a PSC staff member, who said he “felt bullied” by Molnar when the commissioner sent an email complaining about his team not being “people with competence.”
However, much of the first report and the entire second report was focused on conduct after the initial complaints, when Molnar was accused of retaliating against people who participated in the investigation. Lake said in her declaration that she saw “an immediate and significant change in his behavior toward staff involved in the process.” She claimed he said he would use an attorney and private investigator to go after people who filed complaints, and she accused him of publicly criticizing her in interviews and removing her job responsibilities because of her handling of the investigation.
Lake said Molnar’s actions led to “declining morale within the agency,” undermined staff members’ ability to do their jobs and damaged her reputation. She said that led her to resign as executive director.
“I believe no employee should be forced to choose between reporting misconduct and protecting their career, reputation, or personal well-being,” she said in her declaration.
Lake has since become Helena city manager.
Jonathon Ambarian
The report said there was evidence to show Molnar had retaliated, including by “making disparaging statements about investigation participants” including Lake, by sending an email warning he could file complaints of his own against people involved, and by taking other actions investigators said could dissuade employees from reporting behavior in the future.
Monforton said during Thursday’s hearing that the initial comments Bukacek complained about were jokes Molnar had admitted were inappropriate, that he regretted saying them, and that he hasn’t made any similar comments in about a year. But he argued the vast majority of the findings against Molnar were about retaliation – and that those were primarily based on speech that the other commissioners don’t have the right to interfere with.
Monforton said it’s unreasonable to punish Molnar for what he said in the July news conference where he announced he was under investigation, in interviews with the media or in commission meetings. He said Molnar’s conduct doesn’t rise to the level of actual retaliation.
“This is an elected official, engaging in speech in his forum,” Monforton said.
He said Molnar may have made harsh comments toward staff, but that he had the right to raise objections about the way the agency does business.
Jonathon Ambarian
Monforton also argued the retaliation claims no longer justify keeping Molnar out of the office, since Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek voted to remove him as president in October and he no longer has the authority he’s accused of misusing. He said there haven’t been further complaints about his behavior since that time.
“We’re not asking for the moon and stars, we’re asking for the status quo as it existed for the last seven months,” he said.
Jones said there is enough evidence to show Molnar would have been punished regardless of whether any protected speech was excluded.
“This is not about a couple of jokes,” she said.
Jones said Molnar made maliciously false statements about people like Lake, and that type of statement isn’t covered by free speech protections.
She also said Molnar’s exclusion from the PSC offices is temporary, and that the PSC will reconsider whether to let him return if he apologizes for his actions, accepts the agency’s code of conduct and undergoes training.
Molloy indicated he saw indications that there was “acrimony” on both sides of the situation, and said he was skeptical it would be resolved easily.
“It would be nice if instead of juvenile behavior, there was professional behavior,” he said.
However, the judge said there was an avenue for Molnar to pursue if he wanted to reach a resolution.
Molloy took no immediate action Thursday. He told the parties he would rule as quickly as he could.
Carrie Gilbertson has been executive director of Cancer Support Community Montana for just under two months, stepping into the role in April with more than 15 years of nonprofit experience and a lifetime of Montana roots.
The organization provides psychosocial and mental health support to anyone affected by cancer — not just those with a diagnosis, but also family members and others walking alongside them.
WATCH: Meet the new leader of Cancer Support Community Montana 🎗️
Cancer Support Community Montana names new executive director
“This mission of providing psycho-social supports and mental health supports for anyone impacted by cancer, not just that person who has the diagnosis, but also family members, anyone who is walking alongside someone as they experience that often scary diagnosis, that’s just something that’s important to me,” Gilbertson said.
Gilbertson’s role extends beyond the Bozeman office. Cancer Support Community Montana’s Missoula location is already up and running, and a Helena location is expected to be operating soon. Each presents its own set of challenges.
“Each hospital is different. They might have different resources. Their social workers might be connecting to things in a different way. So understanding what those hospitals need, what different participants need in each community, is going to be different just because the communities are different, resources are different,” Gilbertson said.
The Bozeman office has been operating for more than 20 years, providing a foundation that supports the organization’s broader statewide efforts.
“I think this is a crew that looks at what does this community need what do our participants need what are some of the changing landscapes in cancer care what things are the gaps that we see that we can maybe just jump right in and you know let’s see if we can provide that for people so that’s something I really love about this crew that I work with and just this mission that there is some flexibility in being able to adjust and adapt as we learn more,” Gilbertson said.
Those adaptations show up in unexpected ways. The organization converts its parking lot into a pickleball court every Friday morning.
“I didn’t know there was a pickleball court. I pulled in actually with my daughter pulled in and she was is that pickleball court and I was like oh, it kind of looks like it is so yeah that’s fun, every Friday morning we clear out the parking lot and put up the net and I haven’t played yet I’ve been watching just to kind of see how that game works but they take it pretty seriously,” Gilbertson said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
-
Wyoming3 minutes agoGordon hosts panel on New World screwworm; no outbreaks in Wyoming
-
Crypto6 minutes agoBest Crypto Recovery Law Firms in 2026: Leading Cryptocurrency Lawyers for Asset Recovery, Fraud Investigations and Digital Asset Disputes
-
Finance11 minutes agoHomegrown Music Festival looks to right finances, hire new leadership
-
Fitness18 minutes agoWhy this unexpected exercise is most effective for building arm muscle in your 50s – and how to do it properly
-
Movie Reviews26 minutes agoThe Beautifully Handcrafted Rose of Nevada Is a Ghost Story Like No Other
-
World36 minutes agoOn the South Lawn, a UFC fighter’s victory frames an unusual White House scene
-
Politics48 minutes agoVideo: Demining the Strait of Hormuz
-
Health1 hour agoVideo: Wii Bowling Takes Over Tulsa Retirement Homes
