Idaho F&G may open hunt for escaped [domestic] elk, but owner says animals pose no threat

Rocky Barker has an article on the controversial elk escape in today’s Idaho Statesman. In Idaho when Barker writes a story, that means its big news. Story.

The Jungle fire burns rapidly north toward homes. Fire season to end soon?

This Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness wildfire, not far from the Derby Fire, could burn out of the Wilderness into the summer homes and residences that line the West Boulder River north of the Wilderness. Watching the satellite map yesterday, I could see it was putting up a huge plume, one as visible as the Derby Fire. Article on Montana fires north of Yellowstone Park.

The Bozeman Chronicle reports the flames were 200 feet high!

Detailed map of the Jungle Fire.

There is a cold front advancing into the Rockies. Today may be warm and windy, a very bad fire day, but by this weekend the fire season could be just about over.

Welcome to the conflicted West

The “new west” is the most densely populated part of the United States, and yet there are still vast wide open spaces. It’s a place where imagination of the concept of the West is more important than the reality we live in.

So says Hal Rothman in this essay for Writers on the Range.