Montana
Longer fire season in Montana means more days with low air quality
BILLINGS — Much of Montana might be covered in smoke and haze due to the wildfires in Idaho, but it’s something the state has seen all summer. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, wildfire season in Montana has grown longer, contributing to more days with lower air quality.
For Billings resident Holly Caufield, the hazy air meant a change in plans.
“We were going to go paddleboarding, but it was kind of gross and hazy, so we decided, I don’t know, it was just kind of depressing,” said Caufield at the Billings Rims Monday.
Mother Nature had different plans, which meant Caufield opted to walk her dog Maze on the Rims.
Justin McKinsey/MTN News
“Just kind of depressing. Gross, muggy, kind of makes us tired. Headaches,” Caufield said.
That’s true for people across much of the state with the smoke affecting communities from Missoula to Miles City.
“In the central part of the state, it’s at the unhealthy level right now… right now we’ve just moved into, we’re approaching unhealthy levels in the Billings area,” said Billings National Weather Service meteorologist John Wetenkamp.
Wetenkamp said longer fire seasons mean hazier skies in Big Sky Country.
“There’s been an uptick in fire activity, so yeah, most likely we’re experiencing more days of poor air quality than we have, historically, just do the uptick in wildfires,” Wetenkamp said.
Alina Hauter/MTN News
According to a study recently conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, fire seasons have grown significantly longer with the length of fire weather season increasing 18.7% from 1979 to 2013.
Some forests in Montana have seen fire season lengthen by 36 days on average each year. In Eastern Montana, including the site of this year’s massive Remington Fire, fire season is 42 days longer compared to 30 years ago.
“A lot of that has to do with changes in precipitation patterns, warmer temperatures, and also just us as a society becoming more vulnerable to wildfire and wildfire impacts as the population increases in some of the more fire-prone areas,” said Wetenkamp.
More fire means more smoke, and in the case of Caufield, more headaches, even though her dogs might not mind.
“They like it, they enjoy it, I don’t think it really bothers them,” Caufield said.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
Brian Miller won the Democratic primary Tuesday for the U.S. House seat in Montana’s eastern district.
The Associated Press called the race for Miller, an attorney in Helena, who fended off a challenge from state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, a longtime legislator from Box Elder, and Sam Lux, a farrier from Great Falls.
In the Republican and rural eastern district, any Democrat will be an underdog, and Miller will face off against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who was unopposed Tuesday.
Libertarian Patrick McCracken is also running.
In the primary, Miller took 58% of the vote. Lux took 27% and Windy Boy took 16%, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s website.
In April, Windy Boy paused his campaign amid “serious sexual abuse” allegations raised by the Montana Democratic Party — but Windy Boy restarted his campaign and later called the allegations “political attacks.”
Miller is representing the victim of the alleged abuse and her mother, although he said he didn’t take on the role until after Windy Boy initially suspended his campaign.
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