When it comes to analyzing dangerous wildfires, could a sensor attached to a drone ever replace a human eye connected to an intellect shaped by experience and intuition?

That’s one of the many questions federal wildland firefighting officials are asking as drones become increasingly popular in warfare and commerce.

The wildfire drone conversation comes on the heels of a national reminder about the human cost of firefighting after one of the deadliest seasons in recent memory. Nineteen firefighters died a year ago Monday at the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona. In all last year, 38 firefighters were killed in the line of duty as fire burned 4.1 million acres and more than 1,000 homes.

Drones with infrared capability could help where thick smoke keeps manned helicopters from gathering fire information. They also could keep people out of risky situations, provide real-time information to firefighters on the ground and alert officials when conditions change or the fire jumps the line.

While drones have been used in rare cases already, managers with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service say the headlines are ahead of technology and the agencies’ comfort zone and pocketbooks.

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Organizers of the Montana Folk Festival in Butte are gearing up for their seventh annual event which promises to be the biggest music festival yet.

This year's folk festival will include 21 musical groups performing on six different stages around the Uptown area.

Crews were already getting tents and staging areas set up this morning for the three-day music event that begins on Friday and also features arts, crafts and food. Event coordinator George Everett said the free festival will include a wide range of roots-style music.

"Traditional genres, so there's blues, there's Cajun, there's zydeco, there's reggae this year, we haven't had since 2008, there's all kinds of different music and somethings, Mariachi music with an all-female Mariachi band that's going to be a lot of fun," said Everett.

The event is expected to draw about 150,000 people from around the region and Canada. A list of performers can be viewed at the Montana Folk Festival website.

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Angela Jamison is a native Montanan and she grew up in beautiful Bozeman. I'm the mother of two girls and write a blog about our life here and taking in the simple pleasures of family and food.

The time has come.  The garden is in and thanks to a warm June is growing happily.  The Bogert Farmer’s Market fills the park on Tuesday evenings while the Gallatin Valley Farmers Market takes Saturdays.  Local produce is popping up at the grocery store and food is getting colorful.  We may not get a long growing season here in Bozeman, but we take full advantage of the months we have.  And with planning and taking the time to preserve your harvest you can be eating zucchini and tomatoes months past the growing season.  Nothing makes a cold December day better than opening the freezer and using garden tomatoes in your pasta sauce.  It has taken some time, but we have found a way to eat only fresh, local produce during the summer months. 

It began when my husband took an interest in gardening.  The first year was a couple tomato plants on the side of our deck.  The next year it was moved to a bigger part of the yard and cucumbers joined in.  Each year the garden has doubled as has the variety of produce.  And, we didn’t stop there…raspberry bushes and strawberry plants joined in on the fun.  We tried blueberries, but they didn’t dig the cold winters around here so it was replaced with an apple tree.  Thanks to the husband our garden produces an abundance each summer.  Our kids stop mid-play to run over and grab a few peas or a handful of raspberries to snack on.  In the fall we have enough pumpkins to share with cousins and friends.  And of course we save a few for pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. 

Gardens are funny things…once you start you are no longer satisfied with vegetables that traveled miles to get to the grocery store.  You can taste the difference in a tomato fresh off the vine and one that was ripened in a box.  Suddenly waiting for our garden to produce wasn’t good enough.  We wanted it sooner.  Luckily, Bozeman is awesome and there are several CSA’s with greenhouses where shares begin as our garden is just being planted.  CSA’s are amazing things…you get a share each week with what is freshest at the time of picking.  It’s a surprise every week and this makes cooking and eating creative.  I never knew until our CSA how delicious brussel sprouts could be or what an amazing vegetable kale was.  I never knew there were so many things you could do with cabbage and what a garlic scape was.  It was a whole new world of vegetables and I was thrilled to be exploring it. 

This year is the first we decided against a CSA.  As much as we love them our garden and that of some family has grown enough we are hoping for an over abundance without one.  Luckily, in the meantime we have the choice of two fantastic farmers markets to go to.  And going to the farmer’s market becomes a family event.  Tuesday nights at Bogert are filled with dinner at the park, live music and ice cream while picking out our veggies for the week.  I hold this farmer’s market close to my heart because I have been going since I was a child. 

We may not get a long growing season here.  And we may long for the taste of a fresh tomato in the middle of February and sadly know we are months away from it.  But the one thing we do is make sure to take full advantage of the months we have.  And that makes it taste that much sweeter. 

Triple Creek Ranch in Darby has been ranked as the top hotel worldwide by the Travel and Leisure Magazine’s reader survey.

The five-star luxury resort located in the beautiful Bitterroot Mountains offers world-class accommodations, fresh elegant cuisine and year-round outdoor activities.

“We are so excited to have been named the No. 1 Best Hotel in the World by Travel and Leisure this year, and the No. 1 Inn and Small Lodge in the Continental US for the fifth year running,” said Jennifer O’Donohue, Triple Creek marketing and sales director.

Coming in second to Triple Creek Ranch is Nayara Springs in La Fortuna, Costa Rica (a luxury resort in Arenal Volcano National Park in the Rainforest) and ranking third over all is the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace, Budapest, Hungary (a rejuvenated palace originally built in 1906).

Triple Creek Ranch is owned by Craig and Barbara Barrett.

“This prestigious endorsement from well-traveled, discriminating readers confirms our belief that today’s sophisticated traveler is looking for active getaways offering upscale accommodations and thoughtful food in inspiring places,” said Barbara Barrett. “We don’t feel like we own Triple Creek Ranch. We believe we have temporary custody of a national gem with the responsibility to conserve, improve and appreciate it.”

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1:32 a.m. A Bigfork woman found one of her rings at a local pawn shop. She suspects that her friend stole it, and probably other things, when she was over for dinner.

3:19 p.m. A Hungry Horse man saw another vehicle cruising around with what looked like his missing wheels.

3:28 p.m. A Bigfork resident is missing a saddle, some tools, and an auger.

3:43 p.m. Someone on Foxtail Drive found a chocolate Lab and locked it in their garage.

4:07 p.m.  A woman on Lone Star Trail cannot find her horses. She suspects that the neighbor has taken them.

4:11 p.m. A Blaine View Lane man reported that two stray retrievers just ran through his yard.

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While Glacier National Park offers visitors a suite of gentle hikes and bikes, a panoply of beach sides, car rides and campsites accessible to all comers, many of its most prized geological features, its grandest two-mile-high views and its steepest headwalls, lay off the beaten path. They are best experienced away from the crowds, high above the roads and the riff raff, off-trail and in the midst of the Crown Jewel’s wild, inhospitable terrain.

These hikes and climbs are neither for the faint of heart nor the ill prepared, and this list is by no means a guide. Interested parties should consult a guidebook, procure a map from the ranger station, and travel with experienced hikers.

But in the immortal words of Edward Abbey: “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

During the summer any excuse to get out on the river is a good one whether it is for fishing or perhaps a national competition.  Some 25 miles past Bonner on the Blackfoot River was the site for the Open Canoe Slalom National Championship.

The sport of canoeing is alive and well as the event got underway Friday and will run through Sunday.Over 70 competitors from all over the globe were riding the rapids along with a "citizen's class" that got to experience the river Saturday.  Some go in tandems, others will ride solo; either way you're guaranteed to get wet as the high water level along with the difficulty of the course is presenting quite the challenge this weekend.

"The general consensus with most people is this is pretty big for them," said race coordinator Brandon Salayi.

"It's definitely challenging the competitors and pushing them to different levels and getting them to try things. Its been really fun, there's been a lot of action there's been a lot of really good paddling, a little bit of chaos here and there, but its really fun to watch," Salayi concluded.

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Researchers conducted a study of the new technique from 2007 to 2012. The new method, called patch occupancy modeling, uses deer and elk hunter observations coupled with information from radio-collared wolves. The statistical approach is a less expensive alternative to the old method of minimum wolf counts, which were performed by biologists and wildlife technicians. The results of the study estimate that for the five-year period, wolf populations were 25-35 percent higher than the minimum counts for each year.

“The study’s primary objective was to find a less-expensive approach to wolf monitoring that would yield statistically reliable estimates of the number of wolves and packs in Montana,” said Justin Gude, FWP’s chief of research for the wildlife division in Helena.

Counting predators in remote and forested areas is notoriously difficult and expensive. FWP submits a required yearly wolf report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based on the exact number of wolves observed through tracking by FWP wolf specialists. Biologists track wolves with on-the-ground and aerial surveys, radio collaring and denning confirmation. The minimum count has hovered around 625 for the last three years.

MORE>>>Prairie Star