Changes to Missoula County's solid waste regulations will widen the bear buffer zone around the city limits and phase in the requirement of bear-resistant trash bins over the next three years.
The 2021 Montana Legislature passed several bills increasing the length of season, types and uses of traps, snares and hunting aids to kill wolves and black bears. Trappers can now use neck snares in addition to leg-hold and Conibar body-squeezing traps.
Conservationists are asking Montana's governor to veto a bill expanding ranchers' opportunities to kill grizzly bears once the species is removed from the Endangered Species List.
Missoula federal district Judge Dana Christensen ruled a permanent injunction was justified to delay the 56,000-acre Knotty Pine Project while a lawsuit against the Kootenai National Forest proceeds.
Montana Senator Steve Daines pressed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland at a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Friday to finally remove grizzly bears from two ecosystems from the Endangered Species Act.