Montana
Preparing for fire season in Montana
With fire season rapidly approaching, it’s important to be prepared whether you live in a city or in a rural area.
“In wildland we have a saying ‘if you own the fuel, you own the fire,’ so what we want you to do right now, I mean right now, is starting with mitigating the fuels around your house. Getting those piles of firewood from against the house, clean up underneath your decks, keep your grass cut short, or trim back, and keep it watered, if you can. That’s buying us time to help you guys out,” said Ken Hanks, assistant fire chief for Vaughn Fire.
North-central Montana saw a few showers in May, which allowed for a decent amount of precipitation, but with June being drier, the grass around central Montana is beginning to dry out.
Lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Great Falls, Jim Brusda, said Great Falls is currently listed as abnormally dry for this time of year.
There are several things we can do to help prevent fires including practicing safe outdoor cooking, following city and county burn ordinances, and having safe backyard campfires at least 15 feet away from homes.
“Going into summer, we have had a kind of a relatively wet spring, which means a lot of the fuels, lightweight fuels, meaning grasses, shrubs and those types of things in town and surrounding town; they grew very well, now they’re drying out at a rapid pace, so they’re going to be fire ready. One hot day is all it takes and everything’s ready to burn,” said Bob Shupe, assistant fire chief for Great Falls Fire Rescue.
The grass around central Montana is drying out and with dryer, warmer, and windier conditions, fires are more likely as we go into July.
“To prevent a big wildfire season, we need rainfall over the next few weeks. We do have a weather system coming in next week that has potential to give us some rain, but we need a good half of an inch to even up to an inch and a half of rain to make a difference, to have a good impact on our fire season that’s been coming up,” Brusda added.
Click here for more information on current drought conditions.
Montana
Montana Governor and Park Superintendent clash over Yellowstone Bison
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Yellowstone National Park published its bison management plan for the coming years this week to both praise and condemnation. Parks superintendent Cam Sholly is reacting to some strong criticism from Montana Governor Greg Gianforte.
“This comes down mostly to population,” said Sholly.
He added, “We’ve tried to strike a balance, listen to various stakeholders, cooperating agencies, tribes, the general public, to come up with a balanced plan that’s by far not perfect.”
Yellowstone bison, have always elicited a strong response from people. Some want to see a lot more, others want to see a lot less. The state of Montana is among the latter. It has almost always advocated for fewer bison.
Sholly says reducing the herd too much could jeopardize the population. He said, “People remember the 2022-23 season. We had almost 4,000 bison out of the park. We had to capture almost 1,000 and hold them for almost two months to prevent a massive starvation situation, which no one wants.”
That season the herd dropped from about 5,900 animals to about 3,700 in just a matter of months.
“If we had only 3,000 bison as a state as requested in the population and we had another migration out like that, then what?” Asked Sholly.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said the state has legitimate concerns about the bison population and claims that the Park Service is refusing to listen. He said in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that Montana was shut out of the conversation. He wrote, “The NPS did not solicit meaningful input from, or collaborate with, my administration prior to the publication of its January 28, 2022, Notice outlining the alternatives for consideration.”
Sholly maintains that’s not what happened. He said, “I offered for the state to present its own alternative that we would include in the analysis that didn’t happen.”
Sholly claims the park’s efforts to protect Montana’s cattle from brucellosis are successful.
“There’s been elk transmitting to cattle. There’s not been a documented bison transmission. That’s because we maintained that separation successfully,” said Sholly.
But Gianforte says facts are on his side. in the letter, he writes the state was, “Given only 15 days to review a 230 page document.” He added that on May 1 he was given until May 24th to schedule a meeting with the park. He wrote, “Unable to accommodate such a short and impromptu comment timeframe… I declined YNP’s offer to meet.” He also said the state asked for a 60-day extension of the comment period but the park only extended that time by 15 days. Sholly maintains the state’s desire to have a fixed population of 3,000 bison is not realistic.
“You can’t manage a wild species to a static population target. Even the state just changed, from their elk objective of 2005, which was somewhere around 92,000, to a range last year, which is like 96,000 to 140,000, because they were over their objective in multiple areas in the state, including North of Yellowstone,” said Sholly.
Gianforte concluded his letter by writing there is a new day in the West and closed with an ominous note, when he wrote, “Repeated and continuous procedural abuses, like those outlined above have hardened those who once believed in fair play. Instead states like Montana will now show up prepared for marginalized participation, short-changed processes, dishonest brokerage and ultimately, litigation.”
“So it’s pretty easy just to come out against everything. It’s another thing to come up with solutions to managing the species successfully,” said Sholly.
Sholly said the park works successfully on bison management with many agencies, plus the public and Indian tribes.
NPS announces decision on bison management plan in Yellowstone National Park
Rare, sacred white bison has not been seen in Yellowstone since birth
Yellowstone National Park calls for more bison in new plan
Buffalo Field Campaign reacts to NPS Bison management plan
Montana
Gianforte declares disasters in Missoula and Mineral counties after extreme thunderstorm
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte declared disasters in Missoula and Mineral counties Friday.
Thousands are still without power after an extreme thunderstorm swept the area Wednesday night.
The governor’s declaration could make state money available to aid in restoration efforts if the counties need it. Wind that whipped up to 80 miles an hour downed trees and power lines across the counties. The full extent of the damage is not yet known.
Gianforte’s declaration noted the counties are reporting emergency costs to repair critical infrastructure. That includes water treatment, city buildings and traffic control systems.
Missoula declared its own state of emergency Thursday morning.
Montana
Unemployment claims in Montana declined last week
Initial filings for unemployment benefits in Montana dropped last week compared with the week prior, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 403 in the week ending July 20, down from 447 the week before, the Labor Department said.
U.S. unemployment claims dropped to 235,000 last week, down 10,000 claims from 245,000 the week prior on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Texas saw the largest percentage increase in weekly claims, with claims jumping by 24.9%. Kansas, meanwhile, saw the largest percentage drop in new claims, with claims dropping by 68.7%.
The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment insurance claims report.
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