Poor ranching practices drive eastern Montana wildfires

Eastern Montana is ablaze because it’s overrun with dry invasive cheatgrass but as a Republican stronghold avoids criticism from Republicans. Explosive tall grass, brush and ponderosa pine understory are driving wildfires on private ground in a region where bison would have been clearing fine, flashy fuels just 150 years ago. The nearly 50,000 acre Huff Fire burned through the white supremacist town of Jordan, known as the home of the Montana Freemen. The Bobcat fire near Roundup in Musselshell County is estimated to be 41 square miles in size. Rain and snow are expected to slow or even stop the spread but forecasts project warm weather is expected to return to the northern Rockies.