Tristan Scott

To the untrained eye, Viking Creek is easy to overlook. Hemmed in by the busy boulevard connecting downtown Whitefish to its namesake lake and ski resort, the little wetland off Wisconsin Avenue borders deluxe lodging accommodations, a private luxury golf club, municipal and residential infrastructure, and a host of growing neighborhood subdivisions. But as one […]

Montana’s general deer and elk hunting season opened Oct. 25 with nearly 2,000 hunters stopping at mandatory check stations in northwest Montana over the weekend, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials. That figure includes 10.6% of hunters who reported success. All told, 1,195 hunters checked 300 animals over the opening weekend as […]

A project to permanently protect 53,000 acres of private timberland in Flathead and Lincoln counties cleared a final hurdle on Oct. 20 when the Montana Land Board delivered a 4-1 vote in favor of a conservation easement that has earned plaudits from a wide-ranging alliance of stakeholders, including the wood products industry, the conservation community, […]

Private landowners and a pair of nonprofit organizations on Oct. 10 announced they’d reached a new conservation deal to protect 140 acres of undeveloped wildlife habitat on Big Mountain. The conservation easement sits on private land near Whitefish Lake and the Whitefish Mountain Resort ski area on Big Mountain, and is flanked on two sides […]

You’d be hard pressed to assemble a team of mountain athletes that can keep up with the U.S. Geological Survey’s cohort of super-scientists who, in addition to traversing Glacier National Park’s rugged and remote terrain, also perform cutting-edge research at the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center. In fact, most prospective recruits would turn tail before […]

The most severe floods in northwest Montana’s history devastated rural communities spanning the Continental Divide in June 1964, killing dozens of people, injuring hundreds and displacing thousands as recovery efforts stretched on for months. The toll of the 500-year flood would be magnitudes greater today, while the conditions that triggered the deluge — warm temperatures […]

Updated at 3:30 p.m. Glacier National Park officials on Oct. 4 closed the alpine section of Going-to-the-Sun Road as winter weather buffeted the scenic highway’s upper reaches over the weekend, blanketing the Logan Pass area in snow and rendering it impassable to motorists between Avalanche Creek on the west side and Jackson Glacier Overlook on […]

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation (BMWF) is hosting its annual gala Oct. 10 at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, featuring live music, dinner and drinks, wilderness-themed games and activities, plus raffles and auctions to raise funds for the foundation’s stewardship and education programs across the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. As the nonprofit’s annual fundraising event, ticket […]

After a prolonged heat streak wrung the last droplets of moisture out of summer, the crisp weather of a Flathead Valley fall is a welcome atmospheric mood shift. Alongside its orange-tinted trees and pumpkin-flavored coffee drinks, autumn in the Flathead Valley means events for the whole family. Here are a few upcoming highlights. The Great […]

Road construction crews are preparing to conduct drilling and rock blasting along the U.S. Highway 93 corridor west of Whitefish between mile markers 130 and 131 and on Antler Ridge Road. Drivers should expect temporary road closures of up to one hour starting Friday, Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. The blasts will occur only once per day […]

By failing to apply for any building permits, a California couple bypassed environmental review and evaded public input when they constructed a home on the banks of McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park. Rather than force the homeowners to comply, however, “the federal government has essentially abdicated their duty by failing to make and publish […]

By the time the snow flew in Glacier National Park’s high country last fall, subduing a stretch of late-summer weather that afforded motorists snow-free access to Logan Pass until late October, nearly 3.2 million people had visited northwest Montana’s premier outdoor attraction during the first 10 months of 2025. Through November and December, park officials […]

Organizers of the upcoming Whitefish Trail Blazer have plenty to celebrate as they prepare for the upcoming two-day trail-running event’s 16th edition next month. Not only are they on track to draw the largest field of participants in race history, but they’ve got a new presenting sponsor, a rock-solid coalition of partners, a series of […]

State wildlife managers suspect a viral outbreak of hemorrhagic disease is responsible for killing localized populations of white-tailed deer in the Eureka and Plains areas, according to a Thursday press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP). On Friday, an FWP spokesperson also confirmed a suspected outbreak in the Marion area west of Kalispell. […]

The existential threat to public lands and the federal agencies that manage them has grown to dizzying new heights this year. Using its flood-the-zone playbook during the first half of 2025, the Trump administration issued a flurry of new orders and initiatives ranging from workforce reductions at national parks and forests to the repeal of […]

As predicted, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum this week issued an order implementing changes to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the popular bipartisan funding apparatus that uses offshore oil royalties to support conservation projects. And while Burgum’s Secretarial Order 3442 was less sweeping than conservation and outdoor recreation groups had warned it would be, […]

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has denied a petition by the board of commissioners in Lincoln County seeking to loosen the state’s site-specific regulatory cap on the mining byproduct selenium, which is leaching out of coal mines in British Columbia and contaminating the international watershed at Lake Koocanusa, as well as further downstream […]

On Nov. 9, 2020, less than 90 days after President Donald Trump signed the largest piece of land conservation legislation in a generation into law — a measure that guaranteed full and permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and included a strategy to clear the backlog of deferred maintenance in national […]

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Aug. 21 endorsed a project to permanently protect 53,000 acres of private timberland in Flathead and Lincoln counties, voting unanimously to support a conservation easement that would keep the forest in timber production while guaranteeing public access and preserving wildlife habitat. Called the Montana Great Outdoors Conservation Easement, […]

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday raised the state’s wolf hunting quota by about 37%, approving new regulations that cap the number of wolves that hunters and trappers can kill annually at 452 while stopping just shy of adopting a statewide quota. The seven-member commission formalized the new rules after a full afternoon […]