Author Archive

Report says climate change will cut farm, ranch earnings

Great Falls Tribune: A new report highlights economic threats faced by Montana's farmers and ranchers as average temperatures rise and growing conditions change. The report, "The Impacts of Climate Change on Montana's Agriculture Economy," was completed for the Great Falls-based Montana Farmers Union, a 100-year-old statewide farmers group. "You have to know what you're facing, and you need education from somewhere, which is why we've done some research to help people plan," said Chris Christiaens, project specialist...

Coal, climate change clash in Colstrip

Great Falls Tribune: Ashley Dennehy, 24, left this town of 2,300 to go to college, but coal and the quality of life it fuels brought her back. Schools are great. A stone's throw from the Yellowstone River, recreational opportunities abound. Then there's the jobs. Dennehy's husband, a mechanical engineer at the Rosebud Coal Mine, earns more than $70,000 a year. That's more than the state's median household income of $46,230, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. "Where are you going to find that?" said Dennehy,...

Report: Climate change could cost 11,000 outdoor jobs

Great Falls Tribune: The cost of unabated climate change in Montana could be 11,000 jobs and $281 million in labor earnings by 2050, according to a new report that attempts to quantify its economic impacts on the state's outdoor economy, including hunting, fishing, skiing and snowmobiling. The report, released Tuesday, was completed by Donovan Power Consulting, a Montana-based economic consulting firm headed by the former head of the economics department at the University of Montana, at the request of the Montana...

Climate change good, bad for spring wheat

Great Falls Tribune: Spring wheat planting in Montana is slightly late this year, but that goes against the grain of a long-term trend of earlier planting caused by rising temperatures, which could threaten and benefit the state’s top export commodity, according to researchers at Montana State University. MSU wheat breeders documented the warming trend by looking at weather and crop data kept at agriculture research stations in Bozeman, Havre, Sidney, Creston, Moccasin and Huntley from 1950 to 2007. Over the 58...