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Shortly after arriving in Birney to report on water-quality issues in the Tongue River Valley, I found myself bumping along a dusty, terracotta-colored county road with Art Hayes, a Rosebud County cattle rancher who has become something of a self-taught hydrogeology and water-quality expert.
Our trip to the Tongue River Reservoir had dual purposes for Art, who is better known as “Bunny,” on account of his Easter birthday. In addition to pointing out some of the enduring effects of coal mining and coalbed methane development on regional water supplies, Hayes had dam-related business to attend to: As the longtime president of the Tongue River Water Users Association, he was at the reservoir that morning to direct the local damkeeper to release stored water.
Mark Van Haele, the Tongue Reservoir damkeeper, chatted with Hayes about the dismal snowpack in the Big Horn Mountains, the 12,000-foot peaks visible in the distance that still, miraculously, held snow on that mid-May day. Van Haele told Hayes that he didn’t anticipate his mower would get much use this summer. “Maybe it’ll cut the tops off,” he quipped.
Van Haele worked his magic on an electronic control panel, and one of the dam’s tunnels opened wide enough to permit about 200 cubic feet per second of water through the dam. Hayes estimated that water would reach Miles City, nearly 200 river miles away, within the next day or two. Along the way, it would pass through pretty, rural country to cattle, antelope and turkey vultures, cottonwoods, cedar and conifers.
Back in his truck, Hayes mentioned that Van Haele used to work at the Decker Mine. I remember thinking that Van Haele’s employment history served as a tidy illustration of two of the dominant forces that have shaped the Tongue River Valley: the fossil-fuel extraction industry enabled by underground coal seams and methane fields, and the agricultural industry reliant on healthy soil and clean water.
To Hayes’ frustration, the two industries are often at odds, and farmers and ranchers are frequently on the losing end of the battle. That’s especially true in the Tongue River Valley, which has highly saline groundwater that’s hell on crops, dam infrastructure and fish. Decades of coal mining and methane drilling have brought that high-sodium groundwater to the surface, where it’s accumulating in the reservoir and evident in the ever-expanding salt flats that Tongue River irrigators are contending with.
You can read my report about what that all means for the multi-generational ranches of southeastern Montana here.
— Amanda Eggert
By the Numbers 🔢
The number of homeless people counted in Montana in late January 2025 as part of a national tally.
As homelessness decreased nationwide for one of the first times in years, Montana swung the other direction and saw an increase in the number of homeless people, according to recently released federal data.
From 2024 to 2025, Montana saw a nearly 13% increase in the unhoused population, trailing only seven other states where homelessness rose.
Montana was again among the states with the highest increase in homelessness from 2007 — when the numbers began being collected — to 2025 at 97%, the fourth-highest increase during that time. The Treasure State trailed only New York, South Dakota and Vermont.
This report from the federal government is released annually and uses a “point-in-time” count, in which volunteers tally the number of homeless people on the street, in cars and in shelters on a given day in January. The data does not include people who are unhoused but staying with family or friends, meaning it’s likely an undercount.
Drilling down into specific demographics, Montana was one of just a handful of states that saw an increase in excess of 15% in the number of homeless families with children. The state is home to one of the highest per capita veteran populations in the nation, and 23 states and the District of Columbia saw a decrease in the number of homeless veterans, a list that included Montana.
The Trump administration made a notable change to the report: The data did not break down the demographics by the number of unhoused men versus women, as it had in the past, nor did it include data on transgender homelessness.
— Victoria Eavis
The Gist 📌
The Trust for Public Land and its local partners broke ground this week on a new trail that will span the length of the Paradise Valley.
Once complete, the 56-mile trail along an abandoned rail line will connect the Yellowstone National Park gateway community of Gardiner to Livingston, Park County’s largest town.
“Communities thrive when everyone has access to the outdoors,” Erica Lighthiser with Park County Environmental Council said at the groundbreaking on June 24. “We need safe spaces, like the Yellowstone Heritage Trail, where people can walk, scoot, roll and bike — spaces that connect us to the places we want to go, but also to nature and to each other.”
The first segment of trail construction, a 3-mile segment near Emigrant, was a decade in the making, according to reporting by KBZK.
— Amanda Eggert
For the Record 📣
With rising production costs and globally low prices, it’s a difficult time to grow wheat. The commodity’s low profit margin is particularly bad for Montana, where farmers plant about 5 million acres of the crop each year.
“If the farm sector is hurting, all those small businesses across these rural communities across the state are also hurting. And so it just kind of trickles down to everyone, because ag really is the center of our rural economy,” Andrew Swanson, a Montana State University professor of agricultural economics, told Montana Free Press.
A recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which Swanson said provided “benchmarks for the cost of production,” indicates that it’s getting more expensive to grow most crops nationwide, including wheat. Swanson is hopeful that easing tensions around the Strait of Hormuz might lower the cost of fertilizer and diesel fuel.
But even more pressing for the state’s wheat farmers, Swanson said, are the low prices. In May 2026, wheat sold for about $220 dollars per metric ton, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In 2022, the price was more than twice that.
“We really need a pretty strong price increase to flip the narrative here,” Swanson said.
Australia, Argentina, Russia, Eastern Europe and Canada appear primed to produce another bountiful wheat harvest, which keeps prices down. And although Western Europe’s farms are lagging because of a heat wave, it’s not enough to substantially increase the value of Montana’s high-protein wheat.
Swanson said the low wheat prices are “the give and take of having these big global markets.”
“It’s an opportunity for us to expand our production, to expand our reach and expand our markets. But at the same time, it also means that we’re exposed to supply-and-demand shocks,” Swanson said.
Right now, those shocks spell bad news for Montana.
“It can filter down to rural people all across the whole state. And even in some of the bigger regional centers, like Great Falls,” Swanson said.
— Zeke Lloyd
Verbatim 💬
“It’s a lot. It’s definitely something where you take a step back and say, ‘Man, I’m in charge of the most powerful weapons system on the planet.’ But it’s very humbling.”
— First Lt. William Van Beek, a missileer out of Malmstrom Air Force Base
The Air Force’s $140 billion Sentinel missile project has been big news in central Montana. The project will eventually replace the current arsenal of about 150 land-based nuclear missiles kept on continuous alert at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls.
Sentinel is still in the early stages. On May 28, officials broke ground on the first official construction project related to Sentinel: a commercial entry gate. In the meantime, the Air Force will keep the current Minuteman III missile fleet at the ready during the transition, a significant logistical challenge. Earlier this month, Malmstrom’s public affairs department hosted local media members to see some facilities and meet some of the people who have helped keep the country’s nuclear arsenal on continuous alert since the 1960s.
We visited the MAF designated as B-01, which sits among the coulees east of Geyser and has a wonderful view of Square Butte on the horizon to the north. Below ground, roughly 100 feet down, the “missileers” have worked in pairs on 24-hour shifts, on alert every minute since 1962.
The job involves a lot of diagnostic testing and security surveillance of missile sites, but in general, missileers are there waiting for the order of nuclear launch that hopefully never comes.
No cameras, phones, key fobs or other electronics were allowed below ground in the MAF control center. It’s a small, underground capsule that’s floating on a suspension system that guards against earthquakes or nuclear strikes. There, missileers check the status of 10 missile sites using rudimentary equipment and trade sleeping shifts on a bunk nearby. There are board games, books and a single screen to watch movies or TV.
It can be mundane work, but Van Beek said the continued diligence has helped establish the weapons system as a military deterrent.
“You are that kind of line in the sand that prevents our adversaries from thinking twice about trying to attack us,” Van Beek said.
— Matt Hudson
Say Again? 🤔
Max Croes of Missoula has attended more than 80 U.S. Men’s National Team games over the last 20 years. Over the last three weeks, he went to three more as part of his mission to attend every USA World Cup match this summer. At each one, he wears a “Montana 41” jersey, a nod to the state being the 41st to enter the union.
“It’s an amazing way to meet people from all over the country with Montana ties or people that have lived in the state,” Croes said.
Croes spoke with Montana Free Press by phone from Los Angeles on Thursday before he watched the U.S. lose to Turkey, 3-2
Croes is a member of American Outlaws, a coalition of fans aiming to grow support for both U.S. national teams. He has organized soccer watch parties across the state. He can rattle off the best spots for watching soccer across Montana — The Celtic Cowboy in Great Falls, Hooligan’s Sports Bar in Billings and the Thomas Meagher Bar in Missoula.
Croes remains optimistic that soccer’s popularity in the country — and in Montana — is finally getting a shot. He acknowledged that watching soccer “is not the most mainstream thing, certainly in a place like Montana,” but he pitched the men’s and women’s national teams as casual avenues for patriotic expression.
“We’re asking folks to come join us, have a couple drinks, have some food [and] make some friends,” Croes said.
Even though other sports have dominated America’s TV ratings for decades, Croes points out that, like the U.S. Men’s National Team in the World Cup, American soccer is an underdog. And after 20 years of attending matches, Croes has learned to love an underdog story.
“That’s being a sports fan,” Croes said.
— Zeke Lloyd
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
• With more retirees and fewer children, Montana’s population is getting older at a faster clip than expected.
• Coming to a ballot near you: Groups behind three initiatives say they have garnered enough signatures to qualify for the November election.
• The Anaconda bar owner shot and killed last weekend was trying to make his community a better place.
On Our Radar
Nick — Montana Shakespeare in the Parks recently began its 54th summer of bringing free performances to Montana cities and towns, big and small. My wife and I recently took in “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Montana State Duck Pond and came away feeling fortunate that such an organization exists in our state. What a gift. The troupe’s full schedule is available here.
JoVonne — I recently watched Steven Spielberg’s latest film, “Disclosure Day,” and I have to say, it is probably one of my favorite all-time alien movies. I won’t give anything away, but it joins my list of top extraterrestrial shows, right behind M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival.” I like the concept that if aliens visit Earth, they will either help us or fight us.
Zeke — I don’t spend enough time outdoors. At least, that’s what all my friends tell me. But to be honest, I don’t really know how. That’s why I’m so excited about a new U.S. Forest Service app, which helps novices and experts better plan and appreciate nature.
Matt — During a day off at Holter Lake Wednesday, I saw a four-person team paddling to beat a speed record along the 2,341-mile length of the Missouri River. The current record was set in 1980 and is 33 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes. The team portaged 18 miles around Great Falls (a well-known task in local history) and was back on the water today. You can follow the team’s progress toward St. Louis here.
Programming note: Lowdown will not publish Friday, July 3, to accommodate Montana Free Press’ summer break. We will return to our regular publication schedule July 10.
Lowdown is edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy editing by Mara Silvers.