A break in the trees along MT Highway 83 offers a brief view of the Swan River National Wildlife Refuge, but only by taking the short drive down a one-lane dirt road can visitors experience the grandeur of wild Montana. The 1,568-acre floodplain of the Swan River was acquired in 1973 under the authority of […]

HELENA – A proposed change in rules governing microbrewery tap rooms has created a brouhaha among Montana brewers. State law allows breweries to serve beer between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Breweries must shut off the taps by 8 p.m., but many tap rooms allow customers to stay longer to finish their […]

HELENA – Montana’s average volunteer rate from 2005-07 was 38 percent, ranking it No. 5 in the country, a new report shows. On average, Montana’s 284,000 volunteers dedicated 35.3 million hours of service per year. That service was valued at nearly $684 million, the Corporation for National and Community Service study said. The report, based […]

CHICAGO – With 100 days remaining in the race for the White House, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama says he has succeeded in expanding the electoral map in his race against John McCain, principally in southern and southwestern states but also in Montana and North Dakota. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to win all those […]

RED LODGE – A fire 12 miles west of Red Lodge in the Custer National Forest has grown to more than 1,500 acres, prompted evacuation of more than 90 homes and burned five structures in the historic Camp Senia area. Fire officials said Sunday the fire has been difficult to fight because of the rugged […]

FERNDALE – Loon Lake Pottery and Garden is tucked away down a long gravel road in the middle of the woods, but still it has managed to blossom. “We used to measure how good a garden day we had by how few wheelbarrows of rock,” says Gayle Prunhuber. More than 20 years ago Prunhuber and […]

Press play or the photo above to see an audio slide show on the 2008 Federation of Fly Fishers Conclave at Whitefish High School featuring local fly tyer Jim Johnson from Bigfork.

Forty years ago, “The Population Bomb” by biological scientist Paul Ehrlich was published. At the time, the book caused a considerable stir with its warning that overpopulation could put the future of civilization in grave doubt. Lately, though, a “baby gap,” a “birth dearth,” a “population bust” have been popular topics. That’s primarily an issue […]

Members of the Rocky Mountain Street Machines, a local car enthusiast club, thought they would be lucky to successfully enter one car to compete on the national television show “Pinks: All Out.” Instead, they got three. “I couldn’t believe it; I mean, we watch that show every week,” Kavin Morsette, the club’s founder and president […]

The Columbia Falls Farmers Market isn’t just a weekly event every Thursday evening from 4 to 7:30pm, it’s a destination as well. Each week the crowds grow. Some folks come to shop, some for the music, some to eat dinner and some to shoot the breeze with friends they haven’t seen in a week or […]

Environmentalists claim that capping greenhouse-gas emissions and creating a market for emissions trading – a policy prescription called “cap-and-trade” – would reduce carbon dioxide output and with it the risk of global warming. But it could achieve the opposite. Here’s how: By turning carbon emissions into commodities that can be bought and sold, cap-and-trade policies […]

“They’re putting their pontoon boats out on the water and just sitting there, but we don’t see as many skiers,” said Bob Stoick of Valley Boat Sales in Polson. The wind rustled in the cottonwoods on a picture-perfect afternoon on the shores of Flathead Lake earlier this month. Few boats plied the wide-open water, which […]

Good morning. Today is the birthday of Louise Joy Brown, the first baby conceived by in vitro fertilization. She was born in Oldham, England in 1978. On the Beacon this morning, high gas prices are slowing some of the good times on Flathead Lake. Three members of the Rocky Mountain Street Machines, a local car […]

Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus recently allocated $16 million in federal funding for transportation, housing and economic development projects in Montana. Among those projects is the U.S. Highway 93 bypass in Kalispell. The senators reserved $3 million for the bypass. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill in […]

The First Best Place Task Force is holding an open house this Saturday at the former Glacier Bank building in uptown Columbia Falls to showcase plans for the Glacier Discovery Center. The task force, a Columbia Falls grass-roots volunteer organization that formed in 2006 to focus on community revitalization projects, purchased the former bank building […]