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Fire season beat us to it this year, but just barely.
Those of us who work at MTFP headquarters in Helena have been tracking the explosive emergence of the Horse Gulch Fire, near York, out our windows and in our social media feeds. An aerial firefighter has died fighting the blaze. Some of our neighbors have been evacuated. It’s a sudden reminder of how uncomfortably closely our lives and landscapes can become entwined with natural processes that quickly grow beyond human control.
Fire season is a given in the western United States, like hurricane season in the American southeast, but the date of its seasonal debut and its greater or lesser severity and its length and its costs are all unknowns until the last flames flicker out sometime come fall.
Like all Montanans, we’re always trying to be better prepared for it. In 2022 we launched the Montana Fire Report, a collection of resources and reporting aimed at delivering better access to the information Montanans want and need as they navigate the prospect and the presence of wildfire in our world.
Data wrangler/Deputy Editor Eric Dietrich, environmental reporter Amanda Eggert and inaugural summer fire intern Keely Larson were critical in helping get the project up and running. Last year, fire intern Bowman Leigh helped expand and refine the Fire Report. This year, newly hired data reporter/digital product producer Jacob Olness is cutting his teeth on a new Montana Fire Report that launched this morning. And 2024 fire intern Zeke Lloyd starts work from his new home base in Clancy on Monday.
Stay safe out there. We’ll do our best to report news you can use throughout the summer until those final flames flicker out again.
—Brad Tyer, Editor
Viewshed 🌄
Following the Law ⚖️
The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Held v. Montana, a high-profile constitutional climate case four years in the making.
Hundreds of onlookers attended the hourlong hearing in Helena, where attorneys for the state urged justices to keep climate adaptations within the purview of the nonjudicial governmental branches, describing climate solutions as “for better or worse, a political question.” An attorney for the plaintiffs, by contrast, underscored language in the state Constitution that its framers, they said, designed to give Montana the strongest protections for its “environmental life support system” in the country.
Much of the hearing was devoted to the question of separation of powers, whether plaintiffs have standing (a legal foundation to bring their claims), and whether the state Constitution’s “anticipatory and preventative” nature favors the plaintiffs’ approach.
Attorney Dale Schowengerdt, arguing on behalf of Gov. Greg Gianforte and a trio of state agencies, said the plaintiffs should orient their arguments “in the context of a permit,” rather than challenge state law as unconstitutional on its face. The law at issue is House Bill 971, which bars state agencies from incorporating climate impacts in the environmental reviews of the projects they permit.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Roger Sullivan countered that the Supreme Court is being asked to do precisely the job the institution was designed to do: determining whether a law complies with the Montana Constitution. In this case, Sullivan argued, the constitutional harms suffered by the plaintiffs are as clear as the state’s role in exacerbating the climate crisis by refusing to evaluate Montana’s contribution to it.
The hearing was related to a May Supreme Court proceeding involving a gas plant NorthWestern Energy has built near Laurel. The plant is expected to contribute 23 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere over its 20-year lifetime, and the constitutionality of HB 971 was foregrounded in that lawsuit as well. Justices have not indicated which case they’ll rule on first, but a ruling on one will almost certainly imply a ruling on the other.
READ MORE: Montana Supreme Court hears Held v. Montana youth climate lawsuit
—Amanda Eggert, Reporter
3 Questions For
Last month, Montana’s Office of Public Instruction announced another wave of federal COVID-19 relief funding aimed at helping schools support students who are experiencing homelessness. To date, the program has provided roughly $2.3 million to more than 40 districts across the state. Montana Free Press recently spoke with Sara Cole, assistant superintendent of the Kalispell school district, to learn about the funding’s impacts.
MTFP: What has Kalispell Public Schools been seeing in recent years as far as students experiencing homelessness?
Cole: In September 2023, we had 295 students who met eligibility under [the federal law] governing the rights for students living in homelessness or transition. By May 2024, we had 365 students, which is a huge jump.
Prior to COVID, even then the funding was inadequate. School districts were underfunded. The vast majority of our funding covered maybe half of the salary of our homeless liaison. So these funds have really helped us to not only have a point person to provide services, but to be able to meet student and family needs in a variety of ways.
MTFP: Kalispell got about $200,000 from that funding all told. Can you describe some of the ways the district has put the money to use in support of homeless students?
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