Montana

Phil Taylor of the New York Times writes about an ensuing battle between a Montana wind power transmission project, backed by eminent domain rights, and Montana landowners, fighting for cultural conservation of their land.

An 84 foot tall cell tower, disguised as a giant pine tree, sparks controversy in Bozeman, Montana.

The Economist reports "a case of favoritism towards electricity generated by federal dams" in the Columbia River basin, a stretch of land that encompasses Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, and western Montana.

Dave Stauffer was a planning commissioner in Red Lodge, Montana before taking a job as a city planner. Wayne Senville talks to Dave about making the switch.

A third-grader in Missoula, Montana has successfully rallied her city to build a new bike lane near her busy street.

When Borton and Welsh found 90 acres bordering a national forest near Whitehall, Montana, they parked a trailer, dug in, and began building Sage Mountain Center, a combination of cordwood and straw bale, powered off-grid by the sun and wind.

Montana is flush with wind power capacity and the state's governor wants $15 billion in federal funding to build the infrastructure to transmit it. But some worry the proposed grid would also expand coal-based energy production.

A deal between a Montana timber company and conservationists to preserve 320,000 acres of forest is the largest land conservation in U.S. history.

Gallatin County, Montana, has experienced 20 percent population growth over the last eight years, and officials are hoping that the adoption of smart growth principles will help guide the rapidly developing area towards a sustainable future.

The population shift from rural to urban areas is making big changes in the Great Plains. While many rural small towns are disappearing, the shift is opening new doors for business and preservation.

Writer–on-the-Range Alan Kesselheim describes the most hazardous activity in Montana -- driving, with a particular focus on Hwy 191 through Gallatin Canyon. Every western state has a similar, hazardous route.

A new vision of development in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is taking shape.

Community activists and designers have made a deal with local officials to reuse construction materials from a demolished fire station to build an amphitheater in a local park.

Open space in Flathead County, Montana, has been steadily decreasing for years, and a recently approved growth policy emphasizes development and the economic benefits that follow rather than farmland preservation.

The state legislature is moving to place explicit limits on local government's power to take private land in response to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo ruling.

Motels fill a critical housing niche in Montana's booming mountain resort region known as "Big Sky" outside Yellowstone Park: they house area workers as well as guests. While the rooms are shared to reduce costs, dangerous commuting is eliminated.