wildfire

A collaborative group aiming to keep women in firefighting jobs has been halted by the Trump Administration.

It's week 13 for the 69th Legislature. Proposals to regulate the judiciary are seeing limited success. And a public utility is seeking legislative protection during wildfire season. This is The Session, a look at the policy and politics inside the Montana statehouse.

More than half a million acres in southwest Montana have been impacted by conifer expansion. It used to be that fires would come through these landscapes and burn back the trees, but that natural cycle isn’t happening anymore. Now, more trees are encroaching into traditional sagebrush habitat, and that has impacts on our water supply.

Land management agencies across the state are starting on prescribed burning projects across western Montana. Prescribed fires reduce hazardous fuels and can be beneficial to forest ecosystems.

Montana's largest utility company wants less liability if its equipment, like power lines, starts a wildfire. The State Legislature is considering a bill to protect utilities from those costs.

As summer heats up in Montana, so does wildfire season. This raises the question, does winter snowpack really correlate to the severity of the wildfire season? And what does a 'normal' fire season mean?

At Neptune Aviation, an aerial firefighting company based in Missoula, maintenance crews work throughout the winter to keep their fleet ready to deploy across the country.

With the core wildfire season in the rear view mirror, fire officials are taking stock of the summer’s activity. It was marked by intense heat, fast initial attacks on new starts, and a tragic reminder of the dangers associated with fighting fire.

Within the past few days firefighters have responded to three small wildfires in western Montana.

As wildfire seasons change, more people are exposed to more intense fires and more smoke. Public health researchers from across the West met last week to discuss how to prepare for a future with fire.