Montanans will continue to share the one area code for a little longer. The Montana Public Service Commission issued a press release saying the FCC has extended 406 as the exclusive area code for all of Montana.

Eventually, population increases will force the state to add a second three-digit code, but the PSC has delayed that by requiring mandatory number pooling by phone service providers in the state.

The FCC now forecasts that Montana will need another one in the year 2022, according to the PSC. The FCC requires planning for a new area code to begin three years in advance of the forecasted area code exhaustion date.

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A new study says grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park region are thriving and have the potential to continue to thrive in the long term.

The study by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team was published recently in Molecular Ecology.

It looked at 729 bears and found that estimates of the number of bears passing genes to the next generation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has quadrupled since the 1980s. Researchers also found that genetic diversity in the population was stable.

The genetic variations are important for continued survival of the bears and their ability to adapt to environmental changes.

Geneticist Pauline Kamath says that the results are good for the grizzly bears and highlight their restoration as a "conservation success."

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