environment

An effort to purchase 480 acres on Marshall Mountain took another step forward on Tuesday when Missoula County approved an option agreement with Five Valleys Land Trust.

Invoking a recent Montana climate court case, many western Montana residents are calling for NorthWestern Energy to redo its energy management proposal for the next 20 years.

Over the past decade, the City of Missoula has taken the lead in Montana with local plans to address the climate crisis, including clean electricity, zero waste and eliminating tailpipe emissions from the city's fleet of vehicles.

With persistent heat and little moisture, Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday asked the federal government to declare a drought disaster for 11 parched Montana counties, including Missoula and Ravalli.

The impacts of an increasing homeless population and urban camping along the water is taking a greater toll on the Clark Fork River.

While households work to cover a 19% rate increase from NorthWestern Energy, the City of Missoula also is facing rising electrical costs, and a portion of that will be passed on to residents within the city's 52 street lighting districts.

The option agreement approved on Tuesday sets the purchase price for the 160-acre Izzy Dog parcel at $1.8 million.

The record low lake level this year is part of a pattern of anomalies in runoff and water supply that is hardly new, according to Energy Keepers, Inc., which manages the Salish Kootenai Dam in Polson, on the south end of the lake.

An effort to go green and reduce its carbon footprint has earned Missoula County a top designation from SolSmart for encouraging solar energy at the local level.

Representatives for the Montana Association of Counties, Wild Montana, and the Montana Wildlife Federation this week lauded legislators’ override of Gianforte’s veto of the appropriations bill.

One attorney says the state had not shown any compelling interest as to why it should be allowed to continue ignoring greenhouse gas emissions from energy projects.

Missoula County this week took the initial steps in a months-long process to determine if Marshall Mountain will become public property and if the county is the right entity to manage and operate the facility.