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MT logging projects challenged over bears
Seattle Times
11/18/2009
An environmental group is seeking to stop three logging projects on several thousand acres in northwest Montana, arguing that the timber sales would harm the area's fledgling grizzly bear population.
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Record number of Montanans seek food aid
Missoulian
11/17/2009
In the past year, record numbers of western Montana residents have turned to local food pantries and shelters for help. Agencies at the forefront of this unwelcome trend believe more people can't find work in this tight labor market and can't afford regular meals.
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To serve (food) and protect (the soil)
Missoulian
11/15/2009
The call for local food is loud and growing. At the same time in Missoula, some of the land that produces those vegetables, that meat, is more valuable once it's been developed. Now three local forces are at work on that problem that's led to the incremental loss of agricultural lands.
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Is U. of Montana green enough?
New West
11/11/2009
The University of Montana has launched its new Climate Change Studies minor program, the first of its kind in the nation. But its commitment to sustainability is evident in other ways: a greenhouse gas inventory, energy audits, an interdisciplinary curriculum on climate issues and a student-created revolving loan fund to pay for energy and waste saving projects on campus.
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Can Montana's local food system be saved?
Billings Gazette
11/08/2009
There was a time when 70 percent of what Montanans ate was produced in state. They grew watermelons in Whitehall, green peas in Bozeman, beans in Glendive. Now there's a push to return to those days, but it's been so long since Montana fed itself, the burning question is whether it still can.
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Missoula ordinance targets sidewalk sprawlers
New West
11/05/2009
Once Missoula’s pedestrian interference ordinance takes effect on Thursday, less space will remain available for sidewalk sprawlers. The ordinance itself does not expressly target homeless people but debate leading up to the vote pit downtown commercial interests against advocates for the homeless.
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Baucus votes against climate change bill
Missoulian
11/06/2009
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the only Democrat on Thursday to vote against a climate change bill that Democrats rammed through a Senate committee - but said he still supports the effort to limit greenhouse gases and pass a bill.
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US pledges overhaul of tribal recognition system
Seattle Times
11/04/2009
With some American Indian groups waiting decades for formal recognition from the US government, federal officials pledged to overhaul the process but cautioned the changes could take two years to go into effect.
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Views: Libby finally gets aid for asbestos
Spokesman Review
11/05/2009
Libby, Mont., is finally getting substantial help for its sick and dying residents. Triggered by the federal government's unprecedented declaration of a public health emergency, money from a $6 million health care grant will start flowing to the town this month.
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Poaching in Montana's first wolf-hunting season
Missoulian
11/01/2009
When a Columbia Falls man pleaded guilty last week to poaching two wolves just outside Glacier National Park, many thought the area's wolf-hunting quota would be adjusted accordingly. They were wrong.
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Western lawmakers collaborate on climate
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10/27/2009
Lawmakers from many western states agreed Monday that they should consider collaborating on developing technology to capture and store the carbon gas that's generated from burning fossil fuels.
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Model of efficiency in Missoula
Missoulian
10/23/2009
A model home in Missoula is likely the most energy-efficient house ever built there. How efficient is it? Think $25 monthly heating bills, on average, over a year. In Montana.
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UM launches climate change degree program
Missoulian
10/16/2009
The University of Montana debuted its climate change studies minor degree program with presentations from the Pew Project on National Security, Energy, and Climate.
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Game meat to go: Mobile butcher processes hunter kills
Missoulian
10/15/2009
The Montana Mobile Meats Ltd. rig has attracted a small but growing crowd of hunters who appreciate his skills turning big hairy carcasses into neat white packages.
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MT stops wolf hunt near Yellowstone
Seattle Times
10/13/2009
Montana wildlife commissioners shut down gray wolf hunting Tuesday in the backcountry adjacent to Yellowstone National Park after nine of the predators were killed there in recent weeks. Commissioners, however, kept the statewide kill quota at 75.
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Are NW conservation goals realistic?
Missoulian
10/14/2009
Proposals to forego future fossil fuel power plants and wring more conservation savings out of the Pacific Northwest electricity market please many in Missoula. But local utility manager worry a draft five-year regional electricity plan sets unreasonable conservation targets and failed to consider Montana's rural nature.
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Wolf quota eyed after nine shot near Yellowstone
Seattle Times
10/12/2009
Wildlife officials in Montana will consider changes to the state's inaugural wolf hunt after nine of the predators were shot in just three weeks along the border of Yellowstone National Park. All but two of the 11 wolves killed in Montana came from a small portion of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, along the northern border of Yellowstone.
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New "green" high-rise opens Tuesday in downtown Missoula
Missoulian
10/13/2009
The architect Kent Bray has designed enough buildings to no longer be surprised when they rise from drawings to finished projects.
But something about Missoula's new First Interstate Bank, which opens downtown on Tuesday, hadn't fully caught his eye.
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Better mountain bikes, fewer mountain trails?
New York Times
10/11/2009
As the number of mountain bikers has soared in recent years, the bikes have become lighter and more nimble - to the benefit of riders and the detriment of forest lands recommended for wilderness designation, according to the US Forest Service, which is looking to keep bikers off hundreds or thousands miles of trails.
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Look to energy efficiency retrofits first
Oregonian
10/01/2009
The Pacific Northwest is primed to lead the development of green-collar jobs but should focus immediately on energy efficiency retrofits to homes and commercial buildings, according to a report released by Sightline Institute.
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Wilderness-and-logging bill meets with skepticism
Missoulian
09/29/2009
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, pitching his large forest bill to a packed room at a Montana courthouse, said it needs to both create more logging and more wilderness area in order to get enough political support to pass. Tester said his plan will break through years of gridlock over logging by mandating Forest Service action.
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The squeaky wheel gets the bike path
Missoulian
09/27/2009
Nine-year-old Elli Giammona just wanted to ride her bicycle to school. President Barack Obama just wanted to jump-start the economy. Missoula Public Works director Greg Robertson just wanted to find a quick project that fit the stimulus bill. Their wishes converged, and a bicycle and pedestrian pathway is on its way.
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Views: Grizzlies, back on the list
New York Times
09/28/2009
Last week, a federal district judge in Montana put the grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone National Park area back on the endangered species list. The ruling makes it clear that saving a species like the grizzly isn’t just a matter of counting bears. It is also a matter of saving habitat.
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Last trainload of toxic mud leaves MT Superfund site
Missoulian
09/24/2009
In a cleanup milestone for the Clark Fork River Superfund site, the final trainload of arsenic-laced dirt left Milltown on Thursday. The rail cars have removed 3 million tons of toxic sediment from the former reservoir.
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New groups revive climate change debate
Washington Post
09/24/2009
In Montana a new advocacy group led by a former oil industry executive that's opposed to climate legislation called C02 Is Green is taking aim at the next big battle for Congress.
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