Invasive weed workshop puts weevils to work, Forstag and Tester talk big money in politics | Intro

Happy Saturday, southwest Montana.

I was in the office with our Emma Jane Jackson on Wednesday afternoon before she headed out to cover an invasive weed biocontrol workshop at the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve.

“I don’t like bugs,” she told me with a sigh. “There’s probably going to be a lot of bugs.”

As it turns out, she was right. There were lots of bugs, but perhaps not the ones she expected to see.

During the workshop, Emma learned that some of Montana’s most effective weed fighters aren’t pesticides: They’re small weevils which destroy invasive weeds like knapweed from the inside out. Knapweed has a nasty habit of choking out native plants and degrading the land for farming and ranching — and currently, it infests an estimated two to five million acres across the state.

So, how could a small, non-native bug positively transform an entire landscape? Burrow into Emma’s story to find out.

Democratic congressional candidate Sam Forstag and former U.S. Senator Jon Tester met in Bozeman earlier this week for a town hall hosted by End Citizens United. During the event, the pair discussed how big money is weakening democracy and advocated for broad campaign finance reforms.

The event came just hours after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Forstag to its Red to Blue list, an initiative designed to help Democratic candidates flip competitive congressional seats.

Join our Dan Astin as he breaks down the town hall, Forstag’s push to get corporate money out of politics, the proposed Montana Plan ballot initiative and why campaign finance has become such a hot-button issue in Montana’s race for Congress.

Interested in getting your voice out there? Shoot any tips or tidbits to me at afulton@dailychronicle.com. Have a great weekend.