staircase Escalante monument

Trump administration tears down regulations to speed drilling on public land-2/1/18

By Darryl Fears February 1 The Trump administration is aggressively sweeping aside regulations protecting public land to clear a path for expanded oil and gas drilling. A memorandum from the Interior Department, made public Thursday, directs its field offices “to simplify and streamline the leasing process” so that federal leases to the oil and gas industry can be expedited “to …

oil rig

Interior rolls back oil drilling policies for federal land-2/1/18

  The Interior Department implemented a new policy Thursday aimed at streamlining the oil and natural gas drilling process on federal land by cutting back on the opportunities for drilling opponents to slow down the process. A memo signed Wednesday and released Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) states that it is the agency’s policy to “simplify and streamline the leasing …

hunting field with elk

Sportsmen seek protections for BLM backcountry-9/13/14

Karl Puckett, Great Falls Tribune Published 10:15 p.m. MT Sept. 13, 2014 | Updated 11:13 a.m. MT Sept. 14, 2014 Flat crop country begins to give way to the contours of sharply rising and falling coulees that spread from the Missouri and Musselshell rivers like spider veins. The working landscape, which includes roads and cattle ranching, is not quite wild …