Cash-strapped Montana will be the second state to implement new federal Medicaid work rules

Montana will be the second state to implement Medicaid
work rules. (Photo by John Kakuk, Unsplash)

Despite depleted coffers, Montana is moving forward with its rollout of Medicaid's new work rules beginning on July 1. 

The state will be the second, after Nebraska, to require its residents to "prove they’re working to keep their coverage," reports Katheryn Houghton of KFF Health News. "That’s six months ahead of the federal deadline for states to implement Medicaid work rules for millions of enrollees."

The new work requirements are part of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed in 2025, but the onus of implementation falls on state health departments. Houghton explains, "The federal spending law requires states to check every six months whether millions of Medicaid enrollees work, go to school, or volunteer at least 80 hours a month, or qualify for an exemption."

Adding new staff and technology infrastructure to prepare for and execute work checks "takes time and money," Houghton writes. "Health policy analysts say that Montana’s budget crunch is a hint of the challenges to come nationwide."

The OBBBA also cut federal Medicaid dollars flowing to states by around $1 trillion over 10 years. The lopped-off funds represent the "largest pool of federal funding for states," Houghton explains. Joan Alker, a researcher focused on health coverage, told KFF, "States are the ones that are gonna have to do the dirty work of implementing cuts."

To address its shortfall, Montana plans to "stall rate increases for healthcare providers that were due July 1," KFF reports. However, clinicians say they need the rate bump to address staffing shortages and growing patient waitlists, which they attribute to already low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Montana residents currently face long wait times to "access public assistance," Houghton adds. "And many can lose coverage at renewal time because of paperwork issues. … All these problems reflect a national challenge to connect people to care through strained public assistance programs."

Commentary: Why one journalist traded covering national news for a small-town newspaper in Big Sky Country

After he left a national media career to become editor of the Glasgow Courier in Glasgow, Montana, this journalist began to see his writing and the news differently, writes Skylar Baker-Jordan, reflecting in The Daily Yonder on his journey to a new career in the "middle of nowhere."

"Within my first few hours of being in Valley County, I learned people are hungry for local news. A new face in Glasgow, a town of 3,202 people, folks immediately asked what brought me, a born and bred Appalachian, to the high plains of Montana," Baker-Jordan writes.

Once Glasgow residents learned Baker-Jordan was the Courier's new editor, he was inundated with town gossip, juicy conflicts and events the paper needed to investigate. He writes, "That thirst for local news is not unique to Glasgow, but it is increasingly difficult to quench. . . More than 130 local papers ceased publication in the past year alone."

As smaller newspapers close, fewer towns can rely on local reporting, which the "middle of nowhere" towns need more than most. Baker-Jordan adds, "Moving here was my chance to use my talents in the service of a community that needed an editor to help its local paper avoid this fate."

Baker-Jordan didn't decide to switch careers in an instant, but over time, while he was working as an editor at 100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit newsroom managed by and for Appalachians. He writes, "Suddenly, I was writing about and reporting on regional matters I’d long overlooked, and the response was overwhelming. In my entire career, the most gratitude I received from readers – the highest volume of responses – was to stories I wrote about local and regional matters."

He began to think about his past journalistic efforts differently. Baker-Jordan explains, "The sheer vitriol of the partisan press began to make my screeds feel less like a righteous contribution to public discourse and more like the very thing eroding trust in media and our civic institutions writ large."

Baker-Jordan doesn't see his new editing gig or his town as lesser than his career in the bigger national news arena. He writes, "Small towns deserve to see themselves reflected and taken seriously every bit as much as large urban areas or Congress and Wall Street. They deserve reporters and editors who are dedicated to telling their stories, to establishing a public record of their history and people."

Battle over four-day school week, teacher shortages is fought in rural school district

Parent Jason Breckenridge testified to stop the Florence-Carlton 
shift to a four-day school week. (The Hechinger Report photo)

Facing ongoing teacher shortages, rural Montana school districts have offered a four-day school week as a recruitment and retention tool since 2005. Most Montana schools accepted the shortened schedule without controversy, but the Florence-Carlton district became a loud exception. Community discussions about the change became fierce faceoffs about educational achievement, convenience and priorities, reports Alex Mitchell for The Hechinger Report, which covers education.

"There were standing-room-only public meetings with community members threatening not to support future budget levies. Parents filed two formal complaints," Mitchell writes. "One family sued. Some are transferring their children to districts miles away next year or will take on homeschooling out of concern their kids would otherwise fall behind."

The battle over the fifth day of school highlights a "larger divide and uncertainty around the four-day school week, even as districts in Montana and across the country continue to march toward it," Mitchell explains. "A three-part study from the University of Montana painted a grim picture of the four-day school week’s outcomes for both students and their schools."

Bill McCaw, one of the study's authors, told Mitchell, "When I look at the news reporting and schools [that] are considering the four-day, there’s all these reasons, pros and cons. Student achievement is never part of the conversation. Day care, convenience, longer vacation — all that’s being discussed. But not student achievement.”

The parent who sued the district, Jason Breckenridge, didn't want his kids to be part of an educational experiment. "He felt the school district disregarded the negative aspects of the shortened week," Mitchell adds. "Virginia Mahn, a Florence-Carlton parent and graduate, brought a complaint against the school board, alleging district leaders failed to meet their required responsibility of ensuring a quality education."

The University of Montana's study wasn't the only one to call out student learning deficits linked to four-day school weeks. Mitchell writes, "In 2014, Tim Tharp, then a doctoral student at the University of Montana, assembled academic results of all of the state’s schools from 2006, when the four-day school week was first adopted, to 2013. He found that students in four-day schools had lower test scores than peers who attended school five days a week."

Tharp told Mitchell, “If you look back at it logically, it only makes sense. After a certain period of time, you’re losing days, weeks, months of instruction over the course of years. . . . The absolute best thing would be for the students to not only go 180 days, but [for the districts to] even consider making it longer.” Mitchell adds, "Tharp concedes his opinion is unpopular among friends and colleagues."

"A community survey showing that of parents and community members who responded, 51% favored a shift to a four-day school week," Mitchell reports. "The five-person board approved the model 3-to-1 in January, with one abstention. Starting this fall, the school day will be lengthened by 45 minutes, and schools will be closed on Fridays."

Without federal funding, humanities programs have an uncertain future. Rural places will feel the loss first.

A revitalized high school library funded by Humanities
Montana. (Humanities Montana photo via the Yonder)

Many rural states that depend on money from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund humanities programs have had those dollars cut by the Department of Government Efficiency, reports Nhatt Nichols for The Daily Yonder. The immediate loss of federal money has left communities in some of the most sparely populated parts of the country seeking private donor support, which adds another layer to their challenges.

Humanities Montana is one example of a statewide arts initiative facing the complete loss of NEH support. The program "is one of 56 regional humanities organizations that bring humanities programs to underresourced communities including in rural areas," Nichols writes. "In 2024, over 17,000 people attended a Humanities Montana program, with more than half residing in a rural county."

Montana isn't the only one. "In Alaska, a note on their program’s website states, 'Late on the night of April 2, the Alaska Humanities Forum received a letter from DOGE officials informing them that their NEH operating grant approved by Congress had been illegally terminated effective immediately,'" Nichols reports. "Wisconsin Humanities also has an announcement on its website, noting that 'the loss of NEH funding will likely result in Wisconsin Humanities closing its doors soon.'"

Finding donors within smaller communities will be an ongoing challenge for Humanities Montana. Nichols adds, "The NEH funding provided most of their operating budget; in 2023, the NEH made up 80.9% of their $1,011,229 budget."

Money isn't the only concern. The director of Humanities Montana, Jill Baker, told Nichols, "Our mission is to bring untold stories that can help bring people together and find the humanity in one another. At this moment, that’s a real challenge in and of itself. My worry is that without the public humanities, our divides will grow, we’ll have less opportunities to gather together and have simple civic conversations, to learn from one another.”

The presidential race isn't top dog in Montana; both parties have eyes and ads fixed on the state's U.S. Senate race.

Tim Sheehy

Montana's heated senate race between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) and first-time Republican candidate Tim Sheehy has put the presidential race in the rearview mirror. "The state is focused on a race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, and the next president’s ability to get their agenda through Congress," report Rhonda Colvin, Ross Godwin and Whitney Shefte of The Washington Post. "On the ground, it is still a door-to-door, vote-to-vote fight to the finish, with historical levels of ad spending and an intense focus on Native American voters and potential ticket-splitters."

Native Americans comprise the sparsely populated state's largest minority voting block, but many are not registered voters. Ronnie Jo Horse, executive director of Western Native Voice, a statewide social welfare nonprofit, told the Post, "I think they are getting to know their power. We have 37,000 unregistered voters. Once people find that out and know that Montana wins elections on 3,000 votes, you can see their eyes get big and surprised.”

Jon Tester

Tester won the state's last three elections "partly because of support from Native voters and this year, the Montana Democratic Party announced a multimillion campaign focused on keeping their support," Colvin, Godwin and Shefte explain. "But Native turnout in the state has seen a downturn in recent elections" Republicans see Sheehy "as one of their best chances to unseat a Democrat and add to their numbers — and recent polls suggest they have some momentum."

Meanwhile, the intense campaigning has left some voters worn out from constant political chatter. "Montanans have been under a deluge of inescapable appeals for their vote. . . . The total ad spending from both sides in the race since January 2023 and planned until Election Day will come in at $275 million," the Post reports. Ad-weary Montana voter Machaela Goggins told the Post, “It feels like borderline psychological abuse. . . . I think people are just ready to have an answer one way or another."

New Bureau of Land Management rule puts conservation work 'on equal footing' with commercial land uses

Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management via the Montana Free Press

Five years ago, leasing land for conservation purposes wasn't allowed, but leasing it for commercial uses was. A new Bureau of Land Management rule has changed that dynamic. "The BLM adopted a long-awaited rule that aims to put conservation initiatives 'on equal footing' with oil and gas leasing, grazing and other commercial uses of federal land," reports Amanda Eggert of the Montana Free Press. "This shift by the country's largest land manager has been applauded by conservation and environmental organizations and criticized by oil and gas and agricultural groups."

The rule intends to "allow the BLM to lease land for 'restoration' and 'mitigation.' The agency said these leases will help it meet water security, biodiversity and climate objectives," Eggert writes. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said in a release, "From the most rugged backcountry spots to popular close-to-home recreation areas, these reforms will help deliver cleaner water, healthier lands, abundant wildlife, and more recreation opportunities for all of us."

The Business for Montana's Outdoors and The Wilderness Society applauded the rules, while the Western Energy Alliance criticized it as government overreach. WEA President Kathleen Sgamma told Eggert, "There are hundreds of millions of acres set aside for wilderness and national parks. . . . But there are also working landscapes all across the West that provide food, fuel and fiber for all Americans." Eggert adds, "She anticipates her group will file a lawsuit to overturn the rule."

Eggert reports, "The BLM manages more than eight million acres in Montana, making it the state's second-largest land manager behind the U.S. Forest Service. . . . The agency received more than 216,000 comments on the proposal during a 90-day public comment period it initiated last spring."

In Montana, the cost of living and lack of affordable housing and child care contribute to growing workforce shortages

Rural Montana is a 'canary in the coal mine' for severe 
 labor shortages in needed sectors. (N. Fouriezos photo)

Across the country, the need for a younger workforce to fill a wide range of positions is reaching a critical point, but particularly for rural areas. Students and potential workers face a range of obstacles that prevent them from filing those roles, reports Nick Fouriezos of The Daily Yonder. In Montana, medical, academic and labor professionals are working to address these issues.

Lindsey Flather from Bitterroot Valley, Montana, is the kind of student Montana's new strategies aim to help. Fouriezos writes, "A working mother in her thirties, Flather decided to pursue a new career in health care. . . . And she is urgently needed. In Montana, 52 of 56 counties — including Ravalli County — are considered medically underserved, and nearly half of the state’s nurses say they plan on retiring or leaving the profession in the next five years."

Like many of her fellow students, Flather has faced long commutes for classes, a lack of child care options, and juggling to make work and school mend together. "At the same time, employers are desperate to get more people through these workforce pipelines," Fouriezos explains. "They, too, are challenged by geography, says Rebecca Conroy, the chief transformational officer at Bitterroot Health, a regional hospital in western Montana."

Yet even when needed professionals, such as medical assistants, graduate they often can't afford to live in the county where they are needed most. "The median rent in Hamilton, Bitterroot Valley's biggest town, is now $2,087, up 30% over the previous year," Fouriezos reports. "The lack of affordable housing makes it almost impossible to recruit out-of-towners, and the in-town workforce is drying up. The talent pipeline is thin, Conroy says. And the pressure is only growing."

"Employers like Conroy are the canaries in the coal mine of a growing talent shortage nationwide. So smoothing the route to jobs like medical assisting has become a key focus of Montana’s government and educational infrastructure," Fouriezos writes. "The state’s colleges recently partnered with the national nonprofit Education Design Lab to interview Conroy and local business leaders statewide about how they might create new educational opportunities, like a set of micro-credentials to allow people to build key skills in shorter courses over time."

Station in chain buying Tribune TV stations refused to share reports on Gianforte's assault on reporter

Greg Gianforte (Billings Gazette photo)

U.S. Rep.-elect Greg Gianforte and Republican leaders are trying to move on after Gianforte admitted to attacking a reporter on the eve of Montana's special election, and one media conglomerate is helping.

Gianforte apologized during his victory speech on Thursday, as he kept Montana's sole House seat in Republican hands. He faced misdemeanor assault charges for allegedly throwing the Guardian's Ben Jacobs to the ground and breaking his glasses, James Hohmann writes for The Washington Post. After his victory, Republican leaders such as Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump stood behind Gianforte.

The Montana NBC affiliate reportedly refused to cover the Gianforte story at all on Wednesday night, Hohmann writes. Sources at the network appear to have contacted New York magazine’s Yashar Ali to complain: "KECI news director Julie Weindel was called by NBC News to see if KECI would cover the story or had any footage of the Gianforte incident that NBC News and its affiliates could use. ... She was unyielding in her refusal to share any footage she may have had access to, or run a report on the story. ... Weindel said that they weren’t covering the story, though it was running in outlets across the country at the time, explaining, 'The person that tweeted [Jacobs] and was allegedly body slammed is a reporter for a politically biased publication.' Weindel then added, 'You are on your own for this.'"

Conservative media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcasting acquired the station last month. Sinclair recently struck a deal with Tribune Media to buy dozens of local TV stations. "Already, Sinclair is the largest owner of local TV stations in the nation. If the $3.9 billion deal gets regulatory approval, Sinclair would have seven of every 10 Americans in its potential audience," Margaret Sullivan wrote in a Washington Post column May 21. That would leave Sinclair with 215 stations, including some in big markets such as Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago. To date, it has 173 stations. "There’s no reason to think that the FCC’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, will stand in the way. Already, his commission has reinstated a regulatory loophole — closed under his predecessor, Tom Wheeler — that allows a single corporation to own more stations than the current 39 percent nationwide cap," Sullivan explains.

"When Sinclair bought Washington’s WJLA-TV in 2014, the new owners quickly moved the station to the right," Sullivan writes. "It added conservative commentary pieces from a Sinclair executive, Mark Hyman, and public affairs programming with conservative hosts. And Sinclair regularly sends 'must-run' segments to its stations across the country. One example: an opinion piece by a Sinclair executive that echoed President Trump’s slam at the national news media and what he calls the 'fake news' they produce."

Many of Sinclair's stations are in small or medium-sized markets in battleground states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, even bragged, according to Politico, that the campaign cut a deal with the media conglomerate for uninterrupted coverage of some Trump appearances.

Montana Interstate highway speed limit increasing from 75 to 80 mph

Beginning on Oct. 1, Montana drivers will be permitted to drive 80 miles per hour on Interstate highways in the state because Gov. Steve Bullock signed a bill increasing the limit from 75 mph, Mike Dennison reports for The Billions Gazette. Most of its adjoining states, including Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota have increased their Interstate highway limits to 80 mph as well.

Although Dennison writes that drivers will have to pay higher fines for exceeding the speed limit, the head of the Montana Highway Patrol, Col. Tom Butler, said he doesn't think the higher speed limit will change how the patrol enforces it. "[Traffic stops] all have their own unique set of circumstances," he said. When asked whether the new speed limit will allow a person to get away with driving 85 mph without being pulled over, Butler said, "The sign says 80 miles per hour."

The speed limit will still be 65 mph in urban areas with more than 50,000 citizens and 70 mph on two-lane highways. Some stretches of interstate highway that go through mountain passes or narrow canyons will still have a 75 mph speed limit. Fines will increase from $20 to $40 for driving 10 mph over the speed limit on the interstate, from $40 to $70 for driving 11-20 mph over the limit, from $70 to $120 for driving 21-30 mph over the limit, and from $100 to $200 for driving more than 31 mph over the limit. (Read more)

Montana may open more of state's coal reserves

UPDATE 12/23: The Montana Land Board decided Dec. 22 to put the tracts up for bid and "said it will demand top dollar for the coal," Matt Gouras of The Associated Press reports. "Observers said the state may be asking too much."

Montana lawmakers are expected to vote on a proposal to open the state's substantial coal reserves in the nation's largest coal basin even as coal prices drop amid heavy supply. The state's 616 million tons of recoverable reserves in the Otter Creek region are interspersed among 731 million tons of private reserves which Arch Coal Inc. announced last week it had acquired leases for, Mark Peters of The Wall Street Journal reports. (Gazette graphic by Victor Ady)

Montana coal production has been overshadowed by neighboring Wyoming, which shares the Powder River Basin. Company officials and state lawmakers say declining production at existing mines elsewhere in the country, new power-plant construction, technological advances at existing plants and possible exports to Asia should boost demand for Montana coal in the coming years. The development isn't without its obstacles, Peters reports. Montana coal generally has higher sulfur content, limiting the plants that can burn it, and an estimated 90 miles of new railroad tracks are needed to connect the Otter Creek region in southeast Montana with the existing lines. (Read more)

Today's vote will come from the state Land Board, which will decide whether to go forward on accepting bids on the state coal or delay its decision, while allowing more public comment. Even if the state decides to move ahead with development, it would be years before any mining or development occurred, Dennison reports. Six environmental and conservation groups sent a letter to the Land Board this week asking for an additional 60 days to examine and comment on the lease documents. (Read more)

Montana program helps farmers find land to buy

A new program in Montana is hoping to connect new and expanding farmers with farmland that might be for sale. Land Link Montana, part of Missoula's Community Food and Agriculture Coalition, hopes to counteract a growing loss of arable land by making it easier for farmers to find those who want to sell their farmland.

Paul Hubbard, director of the program, says that western Montana has less fertile land, making it harder to find available and appropriate property. But, he says, "keeping farmland in agriculture is vital to Montana's economy and legacy."

"The majority of agricultural land in the U.S. is farmed by someone other than the owner," said Dan Huls, a fourth-generation dairy farmer. "A clearinghouse for people to connect is critical - current farmers, wannabe farmers, and landowners." The Prairie Star, a Montana agriculture newspaper, notes that the program will also connect people to "resources that can assist with financing, business planning, land transfer arrangements, local marketing, and legal issues." (Read more)

Montana legislator wants a horse slaughterhouse

After the last horse slaughterhouse in the U.S. closed two years ago, horse owners have had few options when their animals become sick or injured. But one Montana legislator says his state is uniquely poised to host a new equine slaughterhouse, and has introduced legislation to help establish it.

Supporters told a legislative committee that "without slaughterhouses owners are forced to pay to have horses euthanized and disposed of, shoot them and bury them on their property, or illegally abandon them. Several county commissioners said that abandoned horses are creating serious problems in rural counties," writes John S. Adams for the Great Falls Tribune. Opponents say slaughterhouses encourage inhuman treatment, especially in transport, and that the medical treatments horses receive during their lifetime make the meat unfit for consumption.

The sponsoring legislator's name? Rep. Ed Butcher. (Read more)

Developer drops bid for change that would have let federal forest roads be paved for development

We recently reported on controversial plans by the U.S. Forest Service to change its road easements, allowing the paving of logging roads through naitonal forests for residential development on adjacent tracts. But today, The Missoulian reports that the developer pushing for the change has backed off, citing public opposition as the primary factor.

“Although we continue to believe that the easement amendment would be beneficial to the general public, given the lack of receptivity, we have decided not to go forward with the amendment,” Plum Creek Timber Co. President and CEO Rick Holley wrote in a letter to Montana's Missoula County. The company had been working with Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey to amend the company's easements, which traditionally have been understood to allow roads only for timber transportation.

"The argument over the scope of the easements, in fact, remains far from resolved," writes Michael Jamison. County Commissioner Jean Curtiss "said Plum Creek has removed the urgency created by Rey's departure," which will come as the Bush administration ends. Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Plum Creek's move will help create a more transparent process in deciding on how to interpret the easements: “If this is a good deal for the public, then there's no harm in taking the time to work through it properly." (Read more)

Interior secretary says he will propose easing ban on guns in national parks

"In a victory for gun-rights advocates, the federal government is preparing to relax a decades-old ban on bringing loaded firearms into national parks . . . in states with few gun restrictions," report Richard Simon and Judy Pasternak of the Los Angeles Times. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne responded to pressure from members of Congress, including 50 senators. "Senators from both parties have backed a drive to repeal the ban, which has been in place in some parks for at least 100 years," the Times notes.

The National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment groups praised the action as common sense. ""If you're hiking in the backcountry and there is a problem with a criminal or an aggressive animal, there's no 911 box where you can call police and have a 60-second response time," Gary S. Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, told the Times.

Erika Bolstad, Washington reporter for the Idaho Statesman, offers another rural viewpoint and a summary of current rules: "It is common for outdoorsmen to carry guns in the backcountry for hunting and self-protection, and citizens can carry loaded guns on most federal lands. Sometimes, people must stop, break down a gun and stow it in a carrying case when they cross from state lands to federal lands. ... Generally, people who carry or transport guns in national parks or wildlife refuges must render them inoperable. However, there are some exceptions, especially in national parkland in remote parts of Alaska. Loaded guns also are allowed in some national parks and refuges where hunting is permitted." (Read more)

Some park rangers and advocates say "permitting firearms would be dangerous for visitors and wildlife and would alter the national park experience," Simon and Pasternak write. Thomas Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said the move was "alarming" and "a blow to the national parks and the 300 million visitors who enjoy them every year." (Read more)

Secretary says VA must do better for rural veterans

Since hospitals can be far way and doctors sparse, rural veterans face challenges their urban counterparts do not when it comes to health care. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. James B. Peake spoke in Helena, Mont., this week and promised to improve the care rural veterans receive, reports Eric Newhouse of the Great Falls Tribune. (Newhouse also took the photo of Peake, speaking, and Sen. Jon Tester, who invited him.)

"Peake, who was appointed to the post by President George Bush two months ago, said that more than one-third of Montana's vets live in extreme rural conditions, compared to about 1.7 percent of vets nationwide," Newhouse writes. Earlier that day, Peake announced the creation of a rural health advisory committee to advise senior leaders of the agency about health care issues affecting veterans in rural areas.

"Rural environments make it a challenge to hire mental health care professionals, as you have found in Montana," Peak said during the meeting with veterans. Peake mentioned the VA is "exploring making greater use of tele-health care for some conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder," Newhouse writes.(Read more)

A news release from the VA offers an overview of the advisory panel's goals. The VA's Web site also links to a 2004 study comparing rural and urban veterans, which "shows those in rural areas are in poorer health than their urban counterparts."

W. Va. lawmakers, reacting to decline in hunting, want optional gun classes in high schools

For more than a decade, two West Virginia lawmakers have tried to make a gun safety course part of the high school curriculum. Unsuccessful so far, they are making progress with their latest attempt, in which "gun safety" becomes "hunter safety," veteran statehouse reporter Mannix Porterfield writes for The Register- Herald in Beckley.

Sens. Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming County, and Shirley Love, D-Fayette County, introduced the bill that would compel the states' schools to "offer the optional instruction period" for a "two-week, 10-hour course that dovetails with graduation requirements for physical education classes," Porterfield writes. Bailey said the bill could help address a decline in hunting because young people would be able to gain hunting certification from the state's Department of Natural Resources. Currently, new hunters have to take a three-hour evening class to get that license. No live ammunition would be on school campuses and only teachers will handle disabled guns.

The idea has drawn attention from national and international media, and other states such as Colorado, Montana, Texas and Vermont are considering similar bills. (Read more)

New federal rules ease restrictions on wolf hunting

The endangered gray wolves of the Northern Rockies are thriving, and that's bad news for the area's elk herds. (At left is a gray wolf in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo.) The wolves are considered one of the main reasons the elk herds of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are smaller than the USFWS would like, so new federal rules have enacted to make killing wolves easier, reports the Billings Gazette.

"The rules, expected to be published in the Federal Register on Monday and take effect in late February, make it easier for state wildlife agencies, livestock owners and others to kill wolves if they're affecting elk populations or are seen attacking dogs, horses and other stock animals," Mike Stark writes for the Montana paper.

A USFWS official told Stark the new rules would not reduce drastically the area's wolf population, which is estimated at more than 1,500 and growing 24 percent per year. Last year, 26 percent of adult wolves were killed by hunters, and environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife say the new rules could mean hundreds are killed this year. The groups plan to challenge the rules in court and they oppose the USFWS plan to remove the wolves from the endangered-species list next month. (Read more)

For more on the wolves, check out the post by Andrew C. Revkin on the Dot Earth blog of The New York Times.

Montana school cancels Nobel winner's climate talk

The small farming town of Choteau, Mont., is the latest hot spot in the debate over global warming. Steven W. Running, a professor of ecology at the University of Montana and member of the United Nations panel that shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore, was scheduled to speak to the student body of Choteau High School (130 students) about his career and climate change, but some residents complained and forced a cancellation of the talk, reports Jim Robbins of The New York Times. Running (in a photo by Kurt Wilson of The Missoulian) did go ahead with his scheduled talk in the evening for the general public. A local high school basketball game, however, kept the crowd light for that event.

"Those who complained misunderstood the content of the talk, (school superintendent Kevin) St. John said, but there was no time to explain to all of them that Dr. Running was a leading scientist rather than an agenda-driven ideologue," Robbins writes.

“Disbelief was the primary reaction,” Running told Robbins. “I’ve never been canceled before. But it was almost comical. I had a pretty candid discussion with the superintendent and the school board, and they said there were some conservative citizens who didn’t want me to speak.” (Read more)

Nancy Thorton of the Chonteau Acantha, the 1,900-circulation weekly, reports that 140 people came to the evening talk, where Running spoke about the record-setting summer in Missoula and other climate issues. On a lighter note, Thornton writes that when Running discussed the shrinking of an Arctic ice pack, kindergarten student said to a first grader, "Santa Claus is in trouble." (Read more)

Proposal to close off-road trails in western Montana national forest sparks unruly public hearing

Debate over the environment often inspires emotional responses on both sides. In the case of Bitterroot National Forest in western Montana, the talk at a public hearing went too far. U.S. Forest Service officials held a meeting Jan. 10 in Darby, Mont., to allow public comment on proposals to change the forest's travel management plan, which included the closing of trails that allowed ATVs and other motorized recereation. A crowd 0f more than 200 turned out — with the majority in favor pro-motorized recreation — and things got out of hand, reports Perry Backus of The Missoulian.

"The Bitterroot National Forest abruptly canceled a public meeting in Stevensville on updating its travel management plan following a crowded and sometimes unruly meeting on the same topic the night before in Darby," Backus wrote. "People cursed during the Darby meeting, and the U.S. Forest Service is following up on reports that a man suggested someone 'put a bullet in her head' as a woman spoke."
People were "aggressive, belligerent and angry. ... The 'f-word' was used more than once in comments," Friends of Bitterroot President Jim Miller told Backus. Miller also said it was the "ugliest meeting" he had attended. While Dan Thompson of the Ravalli County Off-Road Users Association agreed some comments were inappropriate, he said it was important for motorized recreationists to "break up that cozy little club." The next meeting on the subject is tomorrow at the Bitterroot River Inn in Hamilton. (Read more)

Candy man Mars loses fight to stop drilling in Mont.

The wishes of a candy billionaire were not enough to overcome the rule of split estates or slow the race to tap coal-bed methane in Montana. Forrest E. Mars Jr., the owner and former CEO of candymaker Mars Inc., had fought companies seeking to drill for natural gas on his cattle ranch (in a Billings Gazette photo by Larry Meyer), but thanks to a court ruling, one company started drilling this week, reports Jim Robbins of The New York Times.

"The conflict is the latest skirmish in a long war between ranchers and energy companies over a natural gas known as coal-bed methane," Robbins writes. "Technology created in the 1990s allowed producers to cheaply tap natural gas that occurs near the surface in underground coal deposits. That prompted a boom in the West, especially in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming."

The legal battle hinged on the split estates created by the Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 which gave ranchers the land, but the federal government the right to minerals below it. The government has leased those rights to companies, such as Fidelity Exploration and Production and Pinnacle Gas Resources, which have the rights to the resources under Mars' 82,000-acre Diamond Cross Ranch in the northern part of Montana.

Worth about $14 billion (according to Forbes magazine), Mars had fought the drilling quietly, until his ownership of the property and his role in lawsuits against the energy companies were revealed when The Associated Press reviewed a December court affidavit. (Read more)