Chris Peterson

6 days ago | hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson

Columbia Falls firefighters responded to a fire in the hot oil room of the Weyerhaeuser MDF plant early Thursday morning. An oil circulation pump seized and caught on fire, Columbia Falls Fire Chief Karl Weeks said.  Fortunately the plant’s fire suppression system did a good job of knocking down the fire, Weeks said and there was minimal damage to the plant. No one was injured. The initial call was that a 5,000 gallon tank of oil was on fire, but fortunately that was not the case, Weeks said.

6 days ago | hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson

Glacier National Park plow crews are about three miles from Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Crews have started on the Big Bend and are down to pavement at Grouse Point. Snow depths are four to eight feet, Park spokeswoman Gina Icenoggle said. Hikers and bikers can go as far as the Loop on the west side; Grizzly pullout on the east side. The Grizzly pullout is about six miles up the road from Rising Sun.

1 week ago | hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson

Columbia Falls is at a key point in its housing situation, consultant Wendy Sullivan told the city planning commission last week. “You’re in a pre-emptive spot,” Sullivan said. The city is still poised to be able to mold its housing into forms that could support the middle class as well as market rate buyers, she noted. Sullivan and her staff recently completed a housing study for the city and surrounding area.

1 week ago | hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson

Otto Anderson had a bike helmet and a skateboard he picked up for 8 bucks at the thrift store. Still, he was loving the new skate park in Columbia Falls, which opened earlier this month. “If this had been here in middle school, I probably would have been here every day,” the Columbia Falls senior said. As it was, this was his third day ever skateboarding, but an avid skier, he was catching on quickly. Ditto for River Wolford. “It’s sick,” Wolford said of the new park.

1 week ago | hungryhorsenews.com | Chris Peterson

Glacier National Park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have withdrawn a plan to stock native bull trout into Gunsight Lake, an iconic high mountain lake in the park on the east side of the Continental Divide. Biologists from both agencies used rotenone, a common fish poison, to rid the lake of non-native rainbow trout in 2023. Rotenone’s effects are temporary and a lake can be restocked shortly after treatment.