The issue of wilderness designation in the Custer Gallatin National Forest has been percolating for several years following the proposal of a group called the Gallatin Forest Partnership. The proposal is being replayed this spring. Many of us found that the GFP proposal fell short of projected needs in numerous...

A new study highlights Yellowstone National Park as an example of the impact tourism is having on carbon dioxide emissions, citing that park visitation produces more than a megaton of CO2 emissions annually. The average American emits roughly 900 kg of CO2 per year; the average Yellowstone visitor, however, emits 479 kg of CO2 during their park visit alone, the bulk of emissions coming from travel to and from the destination.

Advocates see Madison-Gallatin National Wildlife Monument as path toward permanent environmental protections for Greater Yellowstone. For decades, conservationists have fought to protect the wildlands surrounding Yellowstone National Park. There have been great successes, such as the Wilderness Areas that share borders with Yellowstone, but permanent protections for large portions of the Madison and Gallatin ranges have been harder to secure.

Wyatt Penfold’s basement is a place you’d like to hang out. The potato and grain grower’s pool table, foosball table and projection TV invite leisure time, but on a wet February afternoon, the farmers, hydrologists and environmentalists assembled here were not playing games. Seated on a semicircle...

Since late last December, 10 wolves, captured in eastern Oregon and transported to Grand and Summit counties by plane, have roamed western Colorado. They’re among the first of their kind to inhabit the Centennial State since the 1940s, when wolves were exterminated to make room for livestock. All wear satellite collars, which broadly tell biologists where the animals have been headed since their release: west into Moffat County, and north toward Wyoming. Sightings have been scant, but presumably they’ve been chasing elk through snowdrifts, scrounging rodents and other small prey, howling across sagebrush steppes and pinyon forests. In short, they’re being wolves.

To connect—whether with people, wild nature, or a work of art—invites an opening into bliss. Bliss: it’s a word I don’t often use to describe my state of mind. Delight, enjoyment, contentment, yes. Often. But like awe, bliss arrives rarely, unbidden and unexpected. Joy bubbles up from inside as a reaction to a pleasant experience, but bliss feels as if it comes from far beyond the self.

Looking west from the high ridge of the Bridger Range, the vast expanse of the Gallatin Valley rolls out in front of you. From that great height, the staggering majority of the landscape appears undeveloped, much of it still agricultural, and some of it even wild. But change is afoot.

Twenty days doesn’t give the Wyoming Legislature much time to waste. But during its contentious 2024 budget session that concluded earlier this month, it passed more than 100 bills and fulfilled its one key objective: pass the state budget. But just barely. Nearing the session’s end, the chambers still...

In the fall of 1879, Philetus W. Norris was hunting on the back side of Bunsen Peak, south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Norris, 57, wore a gray beard and fringed buckskin. Alone on his horse, he gave off an air of self-confidence and prided himself on his frontiersmanship. He was the kind of self-mythologizer who wore gaudy buckskins even for formal portraits. He saw himself on par with the men who “discovered” Yellowstone, the likes of Nathaniel Langford, Truman Everts and Ferdinand Hayden.

New campaign launched in support of retaining growth policy in face of repeal effort. In southwest Montana, paradise has been found. And for more and more people, it looks a lot like Park County. As is so often the case, this outside interest is leading to rapid change, but a citizen-led initiative is hoping to keep guardrails around runaway development.

On the night of January 23, a recently captured one-year old wild horse died trying to escape a Bureau of Land Management holding pen in northwestern Wyoming. Wild horse advocates immediately decried the incident, lamenting the loss of the sorrel filly, with her blonde mane and white blaze exactly like her mother and grandmother, and the destruction of this tightly knit family band.

Arnold “Smoke” Elser is a storyteller, but he’s not a big reader. In his office, tucked into a faded red barn built around 1900 in Missoula, Montana, an entire wall of shelves contains binders and books on wilderness policy and regulations. They’re more work than pleasure for Elser; he waves them off with an air of modesty. It’s the mules strolling by the barn window that give him pleasure. The mules are a big part of why Elser was able to travel as much of the Bob Marshall Wilderness as he did, providing companionship and comfort to outfitters and guests alike.

Last month marked the latest chapter in the wolf wars of the West saga, a history punctuated by massacres, lawsuits, acts of Congress and political horse-trading. On February 7, the Western Environmental Law Center notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of their intent to sue in response to the “not warranted” decision regarding the relisting of western gray wolves as an endangered species.

When severe flooding in 2022 wiped out Yellowstone's North Entrance Road, the park built a temporary fix. Now officials seek public input for a permanent solution. CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, Cam Sholly was incorrectly referred to as Sam Sholly. The error has been corrected below. by Julia Barton.

Six wildlife experts say Montana isn't ready to remove grizzly bears from the Endangered Species List. EDITOR'S NOTE: In the following open letter, six wildlife experts write how the Montana Legislature along with Fish, Wildlife and Parks lack the necessary measures and regulations to appropriately protect grizzly bears if they're delisted from the Endangered Species Act.

She’s beautiful. She’s prolific. But most of all, she’s highly intelligent. It’s not surprising to hear a celebrity described in those terms. Unless that celebrity is a grizzly bear. However, almost everyone who’s seen her agrees that 399, the matriarch of Grand Teton National Park, is far from an ordinary bear.

In the wilds of Yellowstone, a photographer captured a mighty standoff, an illustration in imagery of the beauty and unforgiving reality of a cyclical ecosystem. An injured bison stood on the far side of the Firehole River. It was hulking and still, showing flesh wounds on the hind quarters. He appeared to be an older bull, according to our guide, Julie, who said it had likely been injured or sick before it was stalked by the wolves.