We hear a lot in the headlines this time of the year about conflicts with people and grizzly bears in Montana.

Multiple incidents of run-ins with bears have been reported, some involving early-season hunters running into bears. Others were hikers who inadvertently started a bear on a foggy mountain on the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park.

Not all of those end in the deaths of a bear in a self-defense situation, or in cases where FWP has to euthanize a bear that’s become accustomed to getting its food from people while packing on calories for the upcoming hibernation.

Now, the state is trying something different, to not only give people a better accounting of the numbers of the grizzlies that are dying but also to educate people on details so they can be more “bear aware”.

READ MORE: Advice on Staying Bear Aware During Hunting Season

This week, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is rolling out a new tool where the public can keep track of grizzly mortality.

The Grizzly Bear Mortality Dashboard is a new, online tool showing information as to what leads to a grizzly death, whether in a self-defense situation or where a “problem bear” had to be destroyed. It covers the entire state, outside of tribal lands. The agency’s idea is to educate people on how to prevent conflicts. The link is on the state’s Grizzly Bear Management page.

How the Montana Grizzly Mortality site will be used

“This dashboard allows us to be transparent with the public on what kinds of mortality we’re seeing and what the causes are,” explained FWP Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala.”It will also help reinforce our consistent message of securing attractants and being bear aware to avoid conflicts.” 

The site is also part of the state’s efforts to eventually take over management of the big bears if they are removed from the federal Endangered Species List. A final environmental impact statement explaining those plans was released earlier this month.

Fall is Best Season in Troy, MT

Miley Cyrus pulled double duty as Hannah Montana and Miley Stewart on Hannah Montana — but her salary was allegedly lower than both of the actresses who almost got the part.

Cyrus, 31, reportedly made $8,000 per episode for the first season of the Disney Channel show, according to author Ashley Spencer’s new book, Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire.

Taylor Momsen and Daniella Monet were the two other finalists for the role. Since both actresses had more “significant past credits” than Cyrus at the time, Momsen and Monet “would have earned $10,000 per episode,” the book claims.

Momsen, now 31, had already played Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and appeared in several other movies when she read for the TV role. (She landed the part of Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl one year after Hannah Montana premiered.)

Monet, now 35, made her TV debut with a 1997 episode of Pacific Blue and had recurring roles on American Dreams and 8 Simple Rules before starring on Listen Up from 2004 to 2005. When Hannah Montana didn’t work out, Monet became a Nickelodeon star, playing Trina Vega on Victorious from 2010 to 2013.

Cyrus, meanwhile, had only appeared on three episodes of Doc and played a young Ruthie in Big Fish before she read for Hannah Montana. The TV show marked her first lead role and shot her to superstardom.

While Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was already a big country star when she started acting, his name didn’t hold weight in her casting. “Miley being Billy Ray’s progeny hadn’t helped her get the part,” casting agent Catherine Stroud revealed in the book, which came out on Tuesday, September 24.

In fact, it was Miley’s mom, Tish Cyrus, who “floated the idea” of Billy Ray, 63, trying out to play Miley’s onscreen dad.

“Wanting to keep the mother of their new star happy, the network agreed to humor the Cyruses and allowed Billy Ray to read,” Stroud recalled, noting their perception of the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer changed when he arrived at the Burbank studio with his guitar in hand.

Stroud remembered thinking Billy Ray was “so over the top handsome” and couldn’t stop talking about his kids during the audition. “We were dying. It was so endearing,” he explained.

‘Hannah Montana’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

Miley Cyrus’ breakout role on Hannah Montana launched her into superstardom — and made big names of some of her costars. The Disney Channel series, which aired for four seasons from 2006 to 2011, starred Cyrus as regular teen Miley Stewart who has a larger-than-life secret: she’s also mega pop star Hannah Montana. The hit […]

According to the Disney High author, the Hannah Montana team “needed to rewrite Billy Ray’s character so that he had a reason to be home all the time” because he was such a hit with the writers. “His storyline would now be that of a musician who had given up his career to support his daughter’s dreams,” Spencer wrote, adding, “Art would soon imitate life.”

The father-daughter duo starred on Hannah Montana for four seasons before the show ended in 2011. Billy Ray later claimed that his time on the series “destroyed” his whole family. (Tish and Billy Ray share three children, Miley, Noah and Braison. Billy Ray also adopted Tish’s two eldest children, Brandi and Trace, from prior relationships.)

“I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just everybody be OK, safe and sound and happy and normal would have been fantastic,” he told GQ in 2011. “Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.” (Tish, for her part, made it clear in a “Call Her Daddy” interview earlier this year that she didn’t agree with Billy Ray’s remarks.)

Miley and Dad Billy Ray Cyrus’ Ups and Downs Over the Years

Sorry Hannah Montana fans, Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus don’t appear to have the same tight relationship that they portrayed on screen for years. Billy Ray and ex-wife Tish Cyrus welcomed daughter Miley (born Destiny Hope) in November 1992. While Billy Ray had a career of his own before his association with his daughter — […]

More than a decade after the show wrapped, Billy Ray and Tish, 57, filed for divorce in April 2022. The split was not their first breakup, but both Tish and Billy Ray have since moved on. (Tish married Dominic Purcell in August 2023. Billy Ray wed Firerose in October 2023, but the pair announced their divorce in June.)

Billy Ray and Miley have also had their ups and downs in recent years. Miley unfollowed her father on social media amid his divorce from Tish in 2022. The rift grew when Miley attended her mom’s wedding and seemingly didn’t support Billy Ray’s union with Firerose.

When Miley won Record of the Year at the 2024 Grammys, she didn’t thank her father in her acceptance speech — but she did give a shout-out to her mom.

“He’s almost given me this map, and it’s a map of what to do and what not to do, and he’s guided me on both,” Miley said of Billy Ray during a June appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. “Without my dad, I know … who I am as a person wouldn’t exist. Because my dad as a creative and like, as an artist, and the way his brain works has always made me feel safer in my own mind.”

Despite tension with her father, Miley couldn’t be happier about her time on Hannah Montana and how it has shaped her career. “I stand here still proud to have been Hannah Montana,” Miley said in August after being named the youngest ever “Disney Legend” at D3 2024: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.

“In so many ways, this award is dedicated to Hannah and all of her amazing loyal fans, and to everyone who has made my dream a reality. To quote the legend herself, ‘This is the life,’” Miley added.

Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire is out now.

Montana has been a rodeo country for as long as anyone can remember, and that’s certainly true with the major upgrades to the Darby Rodeo arena.

But even all the television coverage and prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars didn’t top what happened here this past weekend.

And it may be just the spark to become a regular event, and an inspiration to the next generation of Montana rodeo stars.

An unbelievable turnaround

Darby Rodeo Association President Cal Ruark says it was the “challenge of all challenges”, when the group decided to start revamping the area 15 years ago, starting with a $10,000 “winner-take-all event.”

“We had to cut the entries off,” Ruark recalls, remembering the huge crowds. “The crowd had their nose stuck through the fence.”

How did “Yellowstone” impact the Darby Rodeo

When Paramount shifted its production of the TV series “Yellowstone” to the Bitterroot, it brought additional attention, contacts, and bucks. Now, the “Yellowstone Darby Xtreme Bareback”

is huge, drawing the best riders from all over the country.

“It’s on the Cowboy Channel live, and it just became the place to be in the rodeo world,” observes Ruark, noting it was the community that “made it happen.”

READ MORE: How Darby Developed the Best Bareback Rodeo in Montana

One idea that didn’t happen until now

Yet, for all the success of being a non-profit, Ruark and the others had one more idea.

“I feel bad that I’ve let this go this long,” Ruark told me Saturday, as we watched the youngest cowboys and cowgirls at the 1st annual Darby Kids Rodeo.

For four hours, enthusiastic kids from 15 down to just 3 years old got their chance for applause and cheers, as they competed in easier traditional events like barrel racing, calf riding and steer riding.

But when the little ones took to the arena for the stick horse barrel racing, and goat “underrating”, it was obvious the Rodeo Association had a hit on its hands.

“Brings tears to my eyes,” Cal told me, confident in the knowledge that there’s another generation to carry on the rodeo tradition.

“You never know which one’s going to be a future world champion. You just don’t know.”

“What more could you ask for than what we’re seeing here today?”

Are you listening PRCA?

While events like “mutton bustin’” have been a part of bigger rodeos for years, this fun afternoon under a perfect Bitterroot blue sky showed the kids should have their own event.

“The rodeo world is different as far as sports go,” notes Ruark. “Football, basketball, all that. People at a rodeo, one thing they do that they don’t have to do is take care of an animal. Whether they’re riding, running barrels, or whatever. They’ve got an animal int eh equation which is different than any other sport.”

The Association is hoping to repeat the success “3 or 4 times” in 2025.

Tell those TV cowboys to leave the kids some room.