Jon Tester for U.S. Senate

HELENA – In an exchange with U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his agency has no plans to create a new national monument in Montana or buy up private land in the Missouri Breaks area east of Fort Benton.

“There have been no directions from the White House that we move forward on monument designation,” Salazar told Tester at a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee.

The exchange stems from publicity last week over an Interior Department internal memo on potential monument designations and acquisitions, part of which was leaked last week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clean water goes down easy; it’s the bill that’s hard to swallow.

Few in Circle would have disputed that the town’s water was bad. The salt content was so high it killed grass; the fluoride so concentrated it discolored teeth.

But when the Safe Drinking Water Act forced the community to do something about it, Circle’s 365 bill-paying customers took a big gulp. The solution was a $2.82 million reverse-osmosis treatment system to pull out the fluoride salt and other elements of concern.

Read the rest of this entry »

No plans are in place to create a national monument in Montana, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana during a Senate hearing Tuesday.

Salazar also confirmed that there are no plans for the government to pursue land purchases along the Missouri River Breaks.

Tester questioned Salazar during a Senate hearing, asking about a recently leaked Interior Department memo which listed possible ideas for monument designations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Jon Tester and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “saw every tree in Montana” during their effort Saturday to promote a collaborative approach to forest restoration and job creation in the state.

After stops in Helena and Deer Lodge, they sat down in front of a crowd of over 100 people at Longfellow Elementary School to discuss the Farm to School program, which is designed to bring healthier foods and an understanding of local agriculture to schools across the country.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reference Jennifer McKee’s Feb. 21 report concerning the current public perspective on U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s proposed Forest Jobs and Recreation Act (S1470):

McKee’s report indicated that some Montanans believe we do not need the Tester bill. These folks believe that the Forest Service 2008 revision of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan adequately deals with forest health, wildlife needs, water, soil and water quality needs, wildfire fuels reduction needs, and the economic and sociological needs of the natural-resource-dependent communities as required by the 1976 National Forest Management Act.

Read the rest of this entry »