Red Lodge Montana is beginning the slow process of recovery, while the state's governor remains in an undisclosed location out of the country.
Red Lodge under water
Video of Red Lodge flooding. Drone footage by Beartooth Slingshot Rentals.
Flooding closes Yellowstone, washes out Red Lodge
Flooding has closed Yellowstone National Park and has forced evacuations in Red Lodge. Swollen Rock Creek is flooding homes in Red Lodge and the town is now under boil order after city water had to be turned off temporarily.
Reporting from earlier Monday morning from the Billings Gazette.
Video on twitter suggests Main Street in Red Lodge is now part of the main channel for Rock Creek. The bridge to Bearcreek is either blocked, gone or both.
Calf eating griz killed
A male griz was killed by the Department of Agriculture after receiving approval from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The bear had killed and fed on four calves. It was a 3- 4-year-old bear, weighing 390 pounds.
The head and hide was salvaged for Choteau High School students who are constructing a target to use for bear spray training lessons.
The Wandering Wolf
Flathead Beacon Tristan Scott recounts the story of Wolf 57, collared in Canada near Banff National Park in 2001. The wolf's last transmitted location was in Alberta in 2003.
The story might have ended there, until a shed hunter found the collar near Little Bitterroot Lake west of Kalispell in 2021, 300 miles from where 57's journey began.
Bitterroot’s HD 270 exempt from single district rules for permit holders
While the FWP Commission was rewriting rules for hunting districts across the state, some more restrictive for hunters, one change opened things up in HD 270 in the Bitterroot's east fork. Ravalli Republic editor Perry Backus outlines the changes in this report.
Hunters still need to draw an unlimited bull tag to hunt the district, but now they will be able to hunt other districts earlier in the season, before the weather chases elk out of the Big Hole Valley to the east.
Up until now, HD 270 was the only district in the state that required hunters to obtain an “unlimited” bull elk permit to hunt there. To obtain the “unlimited” permit, hunters give up their opportunity to put in for a more coveted elk permit elsewhere in the state.
New Region 2 Commissioner, Jana Waller, made the motion to exempt HD 270 based on feed back she received from hunters.
“Unit 270 is a unique unit in terms of elk and geography,” Waller said Monday. “Originally a general unit, it was changed years back due to the bull to cow ratios dipping too low when early weather drives the elk into 270. For biological reasons it was changed to an unlimited-style tag.”
That gives hunters an option when milder weather allows elk to linger in the Big Hole.
It takes winter weather to drive elk over the Big Hole divide into the East Fork of the Bitterroot. Because of that, hunters with an HD 270 permit like the freedom to be able to hunt other general elk hunting districts in the state earlier in the season.
FWP commission scales back elk management changes
New elk regs were approved by the FWP commission Friday, but this report by Tom Kuglin of the "Helena Independent Record" indicates some of the proposals least favorable to in-state hunters were scaled back.
Spokespersons for both the United Property Owners of Montana and the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association were unhappy with some of the changes — especially dropping unlimited archery elk permits in many hunting districts. That suggests the commission adopted regs more favorable to private, in-state hunters. That's almost always a good thing.
Wolf hunts on Yellowstone border to end
Seventy-six wolves have been killed in Montana near Yellowstone National Park, nearing a preset quote of 82, so Montana FWP is preparing to close wolf hunts in Region 3 for the season.
Podecast on Hunting Reg Changes
Too much, too fast and geared toward private landowners at the expense of the general public and public-land hunters. Andrew McKean, Randy Newberg and Hal Herring discuss in this podcast.
Forest Service goes Crazy in the Crazies
The Forest Service's abandonment of its duty to protect public access to the Crazy Mountains is shredded in this column by Chris Hunt from hatchmag.com.