This weekend's hot summer weather also included a bit of smoky haze over both the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys, reminiscent of last year's wildfire season.
After the historic 2017 wildfire season that burned over a million acres of forestland as well as private property, officials with the DNRC are advising residents in the wildland urban interface to prepare their properties for fire.
Wildfire experts are saying the upcoming fire season will be ‘above normal’, meaning more than 300,000 acres burned, due to hotter, drier conditions through September.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, whose world headquarters are in Missoula, will present their annual convention, known as ‘Elk Camp’, in March near Phoenix, Arizona.
This week, U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on their bipartisan bill to reverse the ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. U.S. Forest Service.
Congressman Greg Gianforte told the House of Representatives yesterday that he believes Montana's wildfires are just as devastating as a hurricane in Texas or Florida.
As the fire season has ravaged parts of western Montana, it has also affected the real estate market, in that some insurance companies are refusing to offer policies in some zones affected by wildfires.