Crews from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently released nine bighorn ewes into the eastern Pioneer Mountains as part of a herd augmentation effort approved by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission in November.

The sheep were captured in the Missouri Breaks north of Winifred and released at the BLM Maiden Rock Fishing Access Site south of Butte.

All of the sheep were fitted with radio collars so biologists can monitor their movement in the area.

FWP contacted all area landowners to alert them to the augmentation effort.

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Years of legislative wrangling squeezed down to hours of last-minute negotiating to get a bundle of Montana land bills into the National Defense Authorization Act last week.

“We were not sure what was going to be in the package until 11 p.m. Tuesday night,” Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Friday. “There’s a lot of pieces in that package. It was late in the game before we could see what was going on.”

For Montana Democratic senators Jon Tester and John Walsh, the legislative work started in October. But the final horse trading took place just days before all three members of the congressional delegation stood together to announce their achievement on Wednesday.

And even after they shook hands, other national forces threatened to pull the omnibus apart before it can reach President Barack Obama’s desk.

“There are folks here that are still playing games,” Tester said Friday. “But we hope we can get this across the finish line.”

The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $495.6 billion in Pentagon discretionary spending and $63.7 billion in overseas contingency operations. Those dollars go to things like developing the F-35 fighter jet, maintaining nuclear weapons, operating aircraft carriers and paying military personnel.

That makes it “must-pass” legislation. Tester said two months ago, a group of Western state senators decided to combine all the public land management bills that had relatively wide support and amend the package to something that had to pass in the last days of the session.

The defense authorization act was the chosen pony.

The 70 smaller bills represent the most significant public lands management progress since the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

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Sales of leases on 8.1 million acres of federal oil and gas parcels — an area larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined — are on hold because of worries that drilling could harm greater sage grouse, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s delay on the parcels underscores just how much is at stake for an industry that finds its future inextricably intertwined with a bird once known primarily for its elaborate mating display.

The grouse’s huge range, covering portions of 11 states and an area more than four times as big as New England, includes vast oil, gas and coal reserves and the best type of windy, open country for developing wind power.

“We’re not real happy about it. It’s not even an endangered species,” said Rick Bailey, who runs an oil and gas lease brokerage, Nevada Leasing Services. He said he’s had hundreds of thousands of acres of potential leases put on hold.

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Kyle Ploehn is an artist, illustrator and writer living in Billings Montana. He likes to spend the few hours he isn't painting hiking the mountains of Montana.

When I moved from Billings to Seattle for school, one of the things that made me most homesick was the complete and utter lack of a Montanan winter season. It got gloomy and dark, but it never got cold and no snow fell. Winter had always been the herald for the cozy holiday season I adored spending in the mountains of the Little Snowies. Silent forests blanketed in thick muted white had been the backdrop to fire warmed cabins and endless hours of art my entire childhood. Upon returning to Montana, winter became a lost favorite season I greeted with open arms. Riders on the Storm was painted with the first major snow fall of the season as I watched the autumn colors blaze one final time before the winter swallowed them. I wanted to capture the melding of the seasons, while the last leaves still waver on the branches, but the storm above threatened and the glow of new snow fall makes the night sky orange. So the idea of horses driving at the edge of the season bringing the winter, but still being of fall, captured my interest and I began to do studies to compete with the impression I felt at the change of seasons. While winter is a silent and cozy time of holiday and family, it is also wild and beautiful.

The original is available for $1,200.

Prints are available. Contact me at [email protected], if you're interested in purchasing a print. Or stop by my website at http://kyleploehnart.com