Mountain Journal

A multiyear project conducted by nonprofits and agency partners restored portions of the Judith River that had been damaged and degraded by OHV crossings. Management in the area could also change as part of a proposed rescission of the Roadless Rule. This story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative. You would not want to be a cutthroat trout in the Middle Fork of the Judith River before 2023.

Cam Sholly has served as superintendent of Yellowstone since 2018. Now, after leading the park through multiple trying events, Sholly is moving on. After eight years at the helm of Yellowstone National Park, Cam Sholly is leaving his post. As Yellowstone’s superintendent, Sholly helmed the park’s efforts as it contended with the COVID-19 pandemic, record-setting visitation, a 500-year flood and escalating tensions with the state of Montana over bison management.

The 28,000-acre Centennial Mountain Range, a wild part of southwest Montana that forms the boundary with Idaho. Last month, a hiker on a high-alpine plateau just beneath the summit headwall of the highest peak in Montana made a painful calculation. David Cifaldi had taken a fall on his way to Granite Peak in the Beartooth Mountains, near the Montana-Wyoming border, and ended up with the sharp end of a trekking pole driven through his torso.

A grizzly bear crosses the Moose-Wilson Road in search of chokecherry and hawthorn berries. (Jackie Skaggs/NPS) EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published at WyoFile, a nonprofit, non-partisan agency focused on the people, places and policies of Wyoming. Even though the 7.1-mile Moose-Wilson Road represents a sliver of the 310,000-acre Grand Teton National Park, its fate has fueled years of debate.

Smoke from the Aspen Acres fire billows skyward near Colorado City on July 2, 2026. The four-day-old fire has consumed over 50,000 acres and has destroyed as many as 200 structures. Evacuations of towns along the breadth of the Wet Mountains have continued as well.

In the eyes of a wolf. A new Montana population estimate found nearly 370 fewer wolves in the state than officials previously thought. The Fish and Wildlife Commission on Wednesday reduced the number of wolves that can be killed. After a half-decade push to reduce Montana’s wolf population through increasingly permissive hunting and trapping rules, the Treasure State is reversing course. Officials are reducing the number of wolves hunters and trappers can kill this season.

Michael Meeks pushes cattle up-valley along the Green River Drift route north of Cora on June 17, 2020. EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published at WyoFile , a nonprofit, non-partisan agency focused on the people, places and policies of Wyoming. Environmental watchdogs have launched a legal challenge against the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to OK cattle grazing on allotments squarely within the most conflict-prone portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for grizzly bears.

Maverick Mountain’s only chairlift sustained “extensive damage,” according to the ski area’s co-owner Erik Borge. “[It] will most likely be inoperable for this coming ski season.” The Sand Creek Fire burned over the southwest Montana ski resort and, at 31,652 acres, is the largest wildfire in Montana. A moist weather pattern hit Maverick Mountain late last week, but it didn’t arrive in time to save its patrol shack.

Montana’s Crazy Mountains are home to nearly 95,000 acres of roadless areas. This story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative. The Trump administration is proposing to rescind the Roadless Rule, a 25-year-old policy that bars development like road construction and logging on nearly 45 million acres of national forest land, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.

Recent smoke in Greater Yellowstone from Spokane has mixed with smoke from fires in Canada or Oregon, as well as fires in the Idaho Panhandle and across Montana. This story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative. For the past several weeks a familiar, albeit unwelcome, summer guest has settled into Montana. Despite a slower start than expected, fire season is here.