Montana’s 2025 fire season is expected to be pricey — between $50 and $70 million — driven largely by a complicated wildfire near Drummond earlier this year that’ll likely come out to be the most expensive suppression effort in state history.

A state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation official said during the Oct. 23 Environmental Quality Council meeting that 2,303 fires burned 75,000 acres in Montana this year.

This was one of the lowest acreages burned in state history, which Gov. Greg Gianforte has repeatedly pointed to and praised DNRC for its work.

DNRC’s fire management manual says that under state law, the department is required to perform aggressive initial attack on all fires and keep them “as small as possible.”

“Under Montana Code Annotated 76-13-104, the DNRC

See Full Page