Editor's note: Mountain Journal is affiliated with the Montana Free Press.

The pressure of changing seasons hits hardest in fall. Squirrels cache pine nuts. Hyperphagic grizzly bears eat anything they can find or catch. Ranchers scramble to finish maintenance chores before snow flies.

On one Madison Valley ranch west of Yellowstone National Park, a fencing project nearly stalled when the federal government missed its Sept. 30 deadline to approve the 2026 fiscal budget. Volunteers had to scramble when a scheduled Bureau of Land Management work crew was furloughed.

An estimated 700,000 federal employees have been sent home and another 3 million are working without pay as Congressional Republicans and Democrats push clashing spending plans. The Republican-controlled House of Representati

See Full Page