Here are some of the headlines from this past week in the Missoulian. To read the full stories, click the link on each headline:
On the morning of March 14, there were two large wood products businesses operating in Missoula County, the last remaining vestiges of a timber processing industry that powered the region's economy for a century and a half.
Within the span of six days, both Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake and Roseburg Forest Products' Missoula particleboard plant had announced they were shutting down permanently and eliminating a combined 250 jobs.
The closures mark the final knockout punch locally to an industry that helped build Missoula and put food on tables here for over 150 years.
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The settlement of the Hellgate Trading Post was renamed Missoula Mills in 1866 due to the importance of logging and the mills in what is now Bonner and Milltown.
Tipi burners were once common in the Missoula Valley, large metal structures belching smoke that were used to burn the waste from mills.
Black and white photos from the 1800s and early 1900s show the Blackfoot River near Milltown choked with logs floated from upstream forests to the workers waiting to process them at the mill.
Like oil is to Texas or mining is to Butte or wheat is to north-central Montana, timber was the backbone of commerce here and almost everyone had some sort of connection to it.
But economics are constantly changing.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
When wildfire smoke chokes Montana's air and turns the sky unnatural hues of orange and gray, public health experts issue familiar advice: Stay indoors.
But what if the air inside isn't really that much better than the smoky, lung- and eye-irritating mixture circulating outside?
According to a panel of experts and officials who met in Missoula Thursday morning, recent data from inside Missoula buildings shows that's the case. While inside air may be cooler and seem less smoky, it often still has harmful levels of smoke particulates. That's because it came from outside.
"One of the struggles with this is that HVAC systems take outside air and then put it inside," said Sarah Coefield, an air-quality specialist with the Missoula City-County Public Health Department. "There’s more smoke coming inside than you would hope."
— Joshua Murdock, joshua.murdock@missoulian.com
Back-to-back calls left the Missoula Fire Department without available units to respond to new emergencies on Thursday morning, something that’s become a consistent problem in the department as its resources are spread thin.
Crews were dispatched to a CPR call and minutes later a structure fire call in the Lewis and Clark neighborhood came in, said Missoula Fire Department Assistant Chief Philip Keating. He was headed into work when the calls showed up.
“Every engine in the city was tied up on a call,” he told the Missoulian on Friday.
CPR responses require one battalion chief and two engines, Keating explained. MFD was left without enough personnel to provide a full structure fire response, which is usually three engines, a ladder truck and a battalion chief. It took about 15 minutes until crews arrived on scene and determined there weren’t any active flames, which is when MFD started to clear up staff for other calls.
“If there would’ve been another call during that same time frame (on Thursday), we didn’t have any more resources to send,” he said.
— Zoe Buchli, zoe.buchli@missoulian.com
Representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office joined Lake County commissioners and other local leaders earlier this week to discuss the “uncharted territory” they now find themselves in when it comes to law enforcement on the reservation.
The meeting was about Public Law 280, which was enacted in 1953 and grants certain states criminal jurisdiction over some reservations.
Of the 12 tribes in Montana, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are the only group to opt in to Public Law 280. That means on the Flathead Reservation, felonies committed by tribal members are handled by local county law enforcement — not the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs or FBI.
Since 1990, CSKT has been prosecuting misdemeanor crimes committed by tribal members on the reservation — helping shoulder the burden of jurisdictional responsibility.
— Nora Mabie, nora.mabie@missoulian.com
HERON — When Melissa Atkinson was postmaster of the small U.S. Post Office here, she wanted to put a couch in the lobby. She wanted to let people come into the office to visit, or use the bathroom or telephone.
But she couldn't, save for the occasional emergency phone call, because after all it was a post office. Such were Heron's glaring but unfulfilled needs during Atkinson's tenure from 2018–22 — four years when the small lower Clark Fork town near the Idaho border had no public businesses aside from the post office and a marijuana dispensary. That's not to mention the homebound seniors and low-income folks with no way to reach the nearest grocery store, across the bridge over the Clark Fork and miles either way on Highway 200, or people who just needed a gallon of milk.
The void in public places meant that the small federal building on the west end of Heron was the de facto gathering place for the unincorporated town's roughly 170 residents, plus another 200 or so in the surrounding mountains and valleys also served by the post office. The previous longtime local store, last named the Heron Store, closed in 2017 and burned in 2018. It was not rebuilt.
"We have the senior center, which is open sometimes, and the library, and I think there’s a workout room that they open once in a while," Shawn Atkinson, Melissa's husband, said, "but no place that’s open enough that people can actually go and gather. Most people run into each other at the post office."
— Joshua Murdock, joshua.murdock@missoulian.com
Montana Sauna Co. has a new permanent location, Rock Creek Lodge in Clinton is expected to reopen this spring and a Mexican restaurant is expanding.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
Now through March 26, Missoulians with outstanding fines in municipal court can pay their balances down by donating food items to a community pantry.
Anyone with a fine in Missoula municipal court (which sees only misdemeanors within city limits) is eligible for the drive. Each nonperishable food donation knocks $10 off fines accrued, up to $200 total.
“We’re going to build a pantry, or have a pantry of all the food we raise, and then people are able to just take what they need,” Jennifer Streano said. Streano is one of three Missoula municipal judges, along with Jacob Coolidge and Eli Parker.
They said it’s often they see people in court with accrued balances from cases that have been sitting for years. Fines are assessed most frequently for regulatory traffic offenses, rather than criminal offenses, Streano explained. A ticket for not having car insurance runs about $250, and DUI fines start at $600.
“Fines are a really challenging tool to use when like 95% of defendants are indigent,” Coolidge said, adding fines as a mechanism for criminal punishment disproportionately affects low-income people.
“So I think this (food drive) kind of mitigates that to a degree, because it also contributes to something that can be immediately given back to the community,” he said. “It’s kind of taken on a life of its own, which I think is really beneficial for agency and other things that have a mitigating effect on criminality.”
— Zoe Buchli, zoe.buchli@missoulian.com
A man is suspected of dying by suicide during an altercation with Flathead law enforcement on Wednesday evening, according to authorities.
At about 10:07 p.m., Flathead sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a disturbance with a weapon call on the 100 block of South Hilltop Road in Columbia Falls, according to a news release from the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.
“Deputies were advised a subject had come to the residence and shot at them before leaving the residence,” the news release stated. Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino didn’t immediately return a call to clarify who the suspect allegedly shot at.
Officials found a suspect vehicle at the 500 block of 10th Avenue West North. The suspect allegedly refused to talk with deputies when they contacted him, the news release stated. Law enforcement received information that there were several firearms in the residence, according to the news release, and the man made statements about intending to “shoot it out with police,” the release said.
— Zoe Buchli, zoe.buchli@missoulian.com
Montana utility regulators and NorthWestern Energy failed to follow state law requiring the development of community renewable energy projects, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
For years, Montana’s Public Service Commission gave NorthWestern a pass for not building or buying community renewable energy projects for its generation lineup. At one point, the PSC granted waivers to NorthWestern five years running.
Tuesday, the Montana Supreme Court faulted the PSC for not enforcing the law, including one year when commissioners indicated they were doing so to “send a message” to the Legislature about the law that had been on the books for about a decade. Commissioners will now have to revisit a waiver granted to NorthWestern for 2016 and determine whether the company was compliant with its legal obligation for that year.
The lawsuit was brought by the Montana Environmental Information Center.
— Tom Lutey, tlutey@billingsgazette.com
While saying the requirements of a broad new law on land use planning can improve how communities in Montana grow, local officials from around the state worry about the costs of complying with it.
Some cities also said they might struggle to meet the deadlines in the law. The representatives from cities including Belgrade, Columbia Falls, Laurel, Missoula and Whitefish spoke Wednesday to an interim legislative committee that’s monitoring how the law is implemented.
The law is also the subject of litigation that’s so far succeeded in a temporary pause on two other housing bills passed last legislative session, throwing a bit of uncertainty about its future into the mix. The bills were brought last legislative session and passed by a Republican-majority Legislature in an attempt to ease the rapidly rising cost of housing in Montana. The legislation followed the work of a task force formed by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte to look at housing prices.
— Holly Michels, holly.michels@lee.net
A home-grown tradition returns with Rock Lotto, Tell Us Something takes over the Dennison, and standup comedy at the Zootown Arts Community Center are just a few of the events on tap this week in the Garden City.
— Cory Walsh, cory.walsh@missoulian.com
If you were to form a band to perform songs from an iconic ’90s record — say, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” — you’d likely find a guitarist, a funk-ready bass player and drummer, and an extroverted vocalist fluent in rhythmic speak-singing.
That would be predictable, though, which is not the point of Missoula Rock Lotto.
At this annual local tradition, bands are assembled through a nearly random drawing and assigned covers. On Saturday at the Wilma, six groups will perform tunes from 1991 rock albums, along with some extra hits from that year, to raise money for Missoula Community Radio, KFGM 101.5.
Due to the nature of the lottery, this particular group, the Red Hot Flashes, has eight members instead of four. Two of them are trained opera singers, one of whom is picking up percussion for the first time since she was a teenager, all for the sake of the adventure.
— Cory Walsh, cory.walsh@missoulian.com
The slapstick independent film features a man up against an army of beavers — played by actors in beaver costumes.
— Charlotte Macorn, for the Missoulian
SEELEY LAKE — Pyramid Mountain Lumber may still have a chance to stay open, but it would take nothing short of a miracle.
The company, which announced its impending closure on March 14, said it needs one of two things to stay in business: tens of millions of dollars in investment into automation, or roughly 50 more employees to return the mill to full operational output and increase revenues. The closure will affect about 100 employees and their families.
While the money for automation is non-existent within the company, the lack of employees stems from Seeley Lake's longtime standoff with the county government over a community sewer system that's stifling affordable housing.
"Without a sewer in this town, (housing) is not a real addressable issue," Pyramid Plant Manager Todd Johnson told the company's contractors during a meeting on Tuesday.
— Griffen Smith, griffen.smith@missoulian.com
Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula, a huge factory that has produced particleboard for many decades and employs around 150 workers, will be closing permanently on May 22.
Most salaried employees were told the news on Tuesday, and non-salaried employees were given the news in a morning meeting on Wednesday. Most were blindsided, according to fiber buyer Eric Jacoby.
Roseburg Forest Products is headquartered in Oregon. The Missoula particleboard plant was built in 1969, and Roseburg purchased the plant from Louisana-Pacific for an expansion of the company's composite panel business. Roseburg purchased the Missoula factory in 2003. The facility is located on 200 acres at 3300 Raser Drive, near Interstate 90 on Missoula's Northside.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
A Washington state man accused of helping kill thousands of birds is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to shooting eagles on an American Indian reservation in Montana and selling their feathers and body parts on the black market.
The prosecution over golden and bald eagles killed on the Flathead Indian Reservation underscores the persistence of a thriving illegal trade in eagle feathers despite a law enforcement crackdown in the 2010s that netted dozens of criminal indictments across the U.S. West and Midwest.
A grand jury indictment last December quotes defendant Travis John Branson saying in a January 2021 text that he was going on a "killing spree" to obtain eagle tails. Branson and a second defendant, Simon Paul, killed approximately 3,600 birds, including eagles on the Flathead reservation and elsewhere, according to the indictment. Federal authorities have not disclosed how all the birds were killed, nor where else the killings happened.
— Associated Press
A threat from a student was reported in the Charlo School District late Tuesday, prompting more law enforcement patrols on campuses through Wednesday.
According to a Facebook post from Superintendent Steve Love, school authorities were alerted on Tuesday afternoon to a concerning note with threatening statements made by a student. Law enforcement was notified and started an immediate investigation. The post didn't specify the nature of the threat.
Charlo School District was to have increased police presence on Wednesday, the post stated. School authorities are also doing their own investigation and following policies in place for when such threats emerge.
— Zoe Buchli, zoe.buchli@missoulian.com
A smoldering separation-of-powers dispute between the state's legislative and judicial branches got new life Monday, as Senate Republicans denounced recent judicial rulings on the veto override process.
The dispute at hand has drawn all three branches into a disagreement about the Legislature's ability to override Gov. Greg Gianforte's veto of a widely popular bill, a matter that's been under litigation for almost a year.
Court decisions thus far have meant to close loopholes precluding the Legislature's authority to overturn vetoes and have maintained twice that an override poll would be initiated Tuesday. But a majority of state senators, all Republicans, on Monday lashed out at the court for treading on their proceedings.
In separate letters, one to the Montana Supreme Court and the other to the governor and secretary of state, Senate President Jason Ellsworth expressed concerns he and 27 other GOP senators hold.
"The Legislature will not participate in an unconstitutional poll," Ellsworth wrote.
— Seaborn Larson, seaborn.larson@missoulian.com
A group of city officials visited three Western states this month to learn about the potential impact of rapid transit systems across Montana — and, in Missoula, to address connectivity in the city's midtown area.
Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis and city council members Mirtha Becerra and Mike Nugent, along with Montana Department of Transportation officials and city staff, looked at different systems in cities similar to Missoula, while seeking information about how to develop a rapid transit hub along Brooks Street.
The fact-finding team visited Fort Collins, Colorado; Vancouver, Washington; and Eugene, Oregon.
"Imagine the opportunity that can be opened up for Missoulians when there is actually a bus line running up and down one of our busiest streets," Davis told the Missoulian. She visited only Colorado because of time restrictions. "People would not only be able to walk from adjacent neighborhoods, but then also access retail and businesses by the same means."
— Griffen Smith, griffen.smith@missoulian.com
Missoulians can enjoy the first days of spring recreating on a portion of Mount Jumbo that's closed through the winter to protect the mountain's elk herd.
Jumbo's South Zone, which includes all points south of the Saddle Road, opened on Tuesday, according to a Missoula Parks and Recreation news release.
The North Zone, which includes all areas north of Saddle Road, will remain closed until May 1 or later.
The closures allow the elk herd to continue its natural movement from lower elevations in early spring, to higher elevations into summer.
— Missoulian Staff
Snowpack this winter continues to be at an all-time low across several river basins in western Montana, indicating that this year could see water shortages, according to recent projections from the Montana Climate Office.
The MCO is based at the University of Montana in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. MCO produces daily summaries of drought conditions for the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB), Washington, Oregon and Idaho to help state and local governments make timely and informed decisions about drought.
“At this point in the season, we don’t anticipate a recovery in many locations,” said Kyle Bocinsky, MCO director of climate extension. “The public should know that it really is not looking good for our water supply going into the spring and summer.”
He said this is especially true in basins experiencing the most significant snowpack deficits, including the Blackfoot, Middle and South Forks of the Flathead and Sun and Smith River basins.
— UM News Service
The city's Parks and Recreation Department is seeking community input on a proposal to install a privately funded sculpture walk in Silver Park.
"We believe this is a fantastic opportunity to provide accessible art for our community in a fiscally responsible way," said the department's systems and services manager David Selvage. "We're eager to hear residents' thoughts on enriching Silver Park through sculpture. Community feedback is crucial in determining if there is enough support to advance the proposal for further public discussion and city council consideration."
The sculptures would be funded through grants and donations. The city is working with the nonprofit Arts Missoula and the city's Public Art Committee on the project.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
Missoula's local governments benefited from more than $37 million in direct federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, but its sundown this fall could cause budget declines at the city and county level.
The city of Missoula could face its worst budget dropoff in several years after the council allocated all ARPA funding by its fiscal year 2024 budget, including almost $1.7 million to offset its general fund last year. In total, the city received $14 million.
Meanwhile, Missoula County also obligated all of its ARPA money, but documents provided by the county show it still has $11 million to spend, which will go to ongoing projects through 2025. In total, the county received $23 million.
— Griffen Smith, griffen.smith@missoulian.com
Tim Hofer was a mainstay on the pickup basketball scene in Chester for a couple years during his teens. He’d commute nearly an hour from the farm where he was living and working in the Sweetgrass Hills to make the games.
Raised Hutterite on the Eagle Creek Colony roughly 80 miles northwest of Havre, Tim left his lifelong home to see what else was out there and found joy chumming it up with his fellow pickup players who lived about 20 miles away in the town closest to the colony. He felt like they were real friends.
When Tim returned to the Hutterite community after his three-year dalliance with life on the outside, he described relations with his non-Hutterite neighbors as positive. They’d tow one another's trucks when they got stuck in billowing snow banks, provide repairs for heavy machinery and strike deals over gravel and grains.
“You were a good neighbor because you had good neighbors,” Tim said.
— Carly Graf, carly.graf@missoulian.com
Missoula's downtown parking could see some major changes in the next three years — including fee increases, parking meters on the Hip Strip, and extended payment hours — all things the director of parking said are needed to manage a growing city and increase employee parking downtown.
The city's parking commission presented an 89-page draft plan this week that Parking Director Jodi Pilgrim said has a new structure that will thrust the city into the 21st century of parking, as she said high-demand areas and the need for lease permits has grown for decades.
"Missoula right now is a much different place than it was 50 years ago," Pilgrim said Tuesday at a public meeting with the Missoula Downtown Association. "With all of the change in the population in Missoula, the parking commission needs to be in a position of change as well."
Hiring consultants and using supply and demand data, the parking commission considered regional transport and transit plans, active transportation and land use, and consulted with development and housing agencies to create the draft, called the "Missoula Parking Commission Expansion and Optimization Implementation and Action Plan."
The plan could be approved at the commission's regular board meeting next month, but many of the changes would still need Missoula City Council approval.
Additionally, the new structure would be incrementally introduced, with most of the changes at least one year out.
— Griffen Smith, griffen.smith@missoulian.com
Toby's Tavern came into Noxon on a flatbed railcar from Thompson Falls in 1922. It went down in flames in 2024.
The bar in the heart of the small lower Clark Fork town burned early in the morning on Feb. 27 alongside the adjacent Angry Beaver General Store and Noxon Mercantile & Cafe. The fire gutted the core of the former railroad and logging town, leaving its 250-or-so residents suddenly without their only tavern, grocery store and cafe. All that's left is a hardware store, an unstaffed laundromat and a post office. Now the nearest local bar is in Trout Creek, about a 20-minute drive away on high-speed, two-lane, wildlife-filled Highway 200.
But Toby's was far more than just the local bar. In interviews with more than a dozen current and former Noxon residents and others in the lower Clark Fork region, every person used the same word to describe the small green bar facing the river at the corner of Railroad Road and Broadway: "museum."
— Joshua Murdock, joshua.murdock@missoulian.com
An aging hot water heater sitting next to electrical equipment in the Lodge Grass Health Clinic on the Crow Reservation. A broken pipe dumping sewage into the pharmacy of one Billings-area Indian Health Service facility. “Obsolete” optometry equipment and a malfunctioning dental X-ray machine in the Northern Cheyenne Health Center.
These are just some of the findings revealed last fall in a Government Accountability Office report on Indian Health Service — the federal agency responsible for providing health care to 2.8 million members and descendants of federally recognized tribes.
Indian Health Service (IHS) is chronically underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced. In its last budget report, IHS said it would need nearly $50 billion to be sufficiently funded. The Biden administration last year allocated $9.3 billion to the agency — $40 billion short of the request, yet still the largest investment in the agency to date.
— Nora Mabie, nora.mabie@missoulian.com
The Bureau of Reclamation and Blackfeet Tribe on Thursday signed a contract that aims to improve water access and distribution across the reservation.
The contract agreement, valued at $2.2 million, will allow the tribe to strategize, design and implement essential water diversion and delivery infrastructure, according to a news release. Origins of the contract date back to the 2016 Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement, which seeks to equitably resolve long-standing water rights claims in Montana.
In January, a broken part at a water treatment plant left Browning residents without water for five days, causing schools, businesses and tribal offices to close. While a Hutterite-owned electric company ultimately saved the day, Blackfeet officials said they planned to inspect the water treatment plants to avoid issues in the future.
— Nora Mabie, nora.mabie@missoulian.com
A formerly polluted Superfund industrial site on Missoula’s Northside will soon be home to the largest collection of income-restricted Community Land Trust dwellings in the city's history.
On Thursday, city leaders, developers and other partners on the Scott Street-Ravara Development project held a groundbreaking ceremony for what will become more than 300 housing units and approximately 35,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction is set to begin later this month, with the first homes coming online in 2025.
The 9-acre property, just off Scott Street north of the train tracks, has sat vacant for many years. It was once home to the White Pine Sash wood treatment facility and the pollution from that business had to be cleaned up to residential standards.
— David Erickson, david.erickson@missoulian.com
A vast majority of Montanans agree that earning a college degree will lead to greater economic opportunity and job growth in their future. But even more people in the state believe college is too expensive for most of their community.
Data collected by the state's higher education entity found that 84% of Montanans believe "education beyond high school offers pathways for upward economic mobility," and 72% think "a college degree leads to a better career." Officials say this bucks the national trend of an increased skepticism about the value of a college degree.
Thanks to the first-of-its-kind survey of Montana residents, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education can now better understand what’s keeping people from pursuing a two- or four-year degree, and figure out how to use policy to make it more accessible.
“We do see some differences, and those differences are important,” said Crystine Miller, director of Student Affairs and Student Engagement at OCHE. “But we also see that Montanans have perceived and experienced real barriers to realizing that value.”
— Carly Graf, carly.graf@missoulian.com