MISSOULA — Gov. Greg Gianforte praised the State of Montana’s fire response during the 2025 fire season on Wednesday.
Thanks to rapid response from the Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation (DNRC), 94% of wildfires on state-protected land were kept at or below 10 acres in 2025.
The state handles wildland fire protection for about 60 million acres of state, private and federal lands.
The DNRC has resources for both communities and individuals to prepare for wildfires and reduce risk.
But, when fires do happen, they work quickly to quickly detect and respond to new starts.
Montana saw 2,424 wildfires burn 75,099 acres in 2025, and of those, 32% were attributed to lightning and 68% were either undetermined or human-caused.
The DNRC’s fire response last year helped protect approximately $36.67 billion in value on private land and $424.49 million on other land, according to data from the Montana Department of Revenue.
- information from Caroline Weiss included in this report
