Record-breaking subzero temperatures have gripped the state this week, causing schools to close temporarily and residents to bundle up or hibernate until warmer weather arrives this weekend.

The National Weather Service reported the state's low temperature Thursday morning was 50 below at Elk Park north of Butte. Wind chills dipped as low as minus 56 in Livingston.

Several record cold temperatures of at least 30 below were reported across the state, including in Bozeman, Dillon, Fort Benton, Great Falls, Lewistown and West Yellowstone. It fell to 34 below in Great Falls, shattering the old mark of 28 below set 121 years ago in 1893. West Yellowstone's minus 47 tied a 100-year-old record.

Kalispell hit 21 below, breaking the previous record of minus 18 set in 1975. Missoula was 23 below, breaking the 1899 record of minus 17. Butte plunged to negative 36, five degrees colder than the 1933 record for Feb. 6.

MORE>>>Flathead Beacon

The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars trying to save more than 1,500 animal and plant species listed as endangered or threatened.

A group of House Republicans say that’s translated into just 2 percent of protected species taken off the list. They called Tuesday for an overhaul to the 1973 Endangered Species Act, giving states more authority over imperiled species and limiting litigation from wildlife advocates.

Here’s a look at five species and how they’ve fared since being added to the list:

Grizzly bear

Grizzlies were listed as threatened in the Lower 48 states in 1975 after being nearly wiped out over their historical range. But the bruins have been coming back, particularly in and around Yellowstone National Park, where they number more than 700. They’re doing so well, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering removing federal protections for the Yellowstone grizzlies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. But some scientists warn against it, saying climate change has devastated the whitebark pine trees that provide a key food source for the bears. Another 1,000 grizzlies live outside of the Yellowstone area, while 30,000 of the bears in Alaska have never been listed as threatened.

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On this early morning, Bob Danley takes a minute to gaze out his office window at a pond covered in ice and the distant mountains just beginning to show through a swirling mass of steel-gray clouds.

The Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge’s outdoor recreation planner finds himself thinking of the Japanese and Muir.

In Japan, researchers have made it a point to learn just what a walk through a wildlife refuge can mean for human health.

They took blood pressure measurements of people just before they entered and then again when they left.

Danley wasn’t at all surprised to read what they learned.

“It’s a very healthy experience for people,” he said. “They have real data to back it up. Going into wild places is healthy and not only physically, but I think spiritually too.”

“Muir was right,” Danley said.

In all of the lower reaches of the Bitterroot Valley, there’s nothing quite like the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge for the common man.

MORE>>>Ravalli Republic

MISSOULA — Western Montana has a new fish.

The cedar sculpin won’t be showing up in anglers’ creels any time soon, except perhaps in the form of some bigger trout’s lunch. But biologists at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula consider it a significant step in understanding how our river systems work.

Fisheries biologist Michael Young said the cedar sculpin looks similar to the well-known shorthead sculpin, but has clear genetic differences. It lives in the Clark Fork River basin, as well as the drainages feeding the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers in Idaho. They are often the only fish to inhabit the upper headwater streams of those rivers and provide a food source for larger fish.

“Recognizing species of sculpins is a challenge because even distantly related species look very much alike,” Young said in an email. “So rather than taking a morphological approach to identification, we used genetic methods to delineate the species. It’s really exciting to find a new species of fish. It’s something you might expect in more remote parts of the world, but not in the U.S.”

MORE>>>Independent Record

Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) today announced that United Airlines will offer new, non-stop seasonal summer flights to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas.  These new non-stop flights provide easy passenger access to/from the greater Houston metropolitan area with convenient connections at United’s IAH hub to other destinations in the airline’s global route network.

SkyWest Airlines will operate these flights as United Express using Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet aircraft with 66 seats; six in United First and 60 in United Economy, including, 36 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats. Flights will operate twice-weekly on Saturdays and Sundays from June 28, 2014 through August 17, 2014.  These flights will depart IAH at 10:10 a.m. and arrive BZN at 12.38 p.m., depart BZN at 1:15 p.m. and arrive IAH at 5:36 p.m.  The new flights will be available for sale on united.com February 1, 2014.

Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport serves as a year-round gateway to Yellowstone National Park. BZN also serves the recreation areas of Big Sky Resort, Moonlight Basin and the Bridger Bowl Ski Area as well as the business centers of Bozeman, Belgrade and Livingston and higher education at Montana State University.

MORE>>>KTVM

A governor’s council studying how to protect sage grouse in Montana — and avoid federal listing of the bird as an endangered species — on Wednesday recommended restrictions on new development in grouse habitat

Some of the restrictions may be controversial, said council member Glenn Marx, but the state must show it’s protecting the bird, or ultimately risk the heavy hand of federal management.

“It’s essential in Montana that we find a way that we are monitoring and reducing impacts (to grouse habitat),” said Marx, executive director of the Montana Association of Land Trusts.

“We’re not just talking about sage-grouse management; we’re talking about controlling our future here,” he continued. “We’re talking about our economic future.”

Gov. Steve Bullock, who appointed the 12-member advisory council early last year, said if the sage grouse is listed as an endangered species, the state would face even greater restrictions on its economy and land-management policies.

MORE>>>Billings Gazette 

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. http://www.rdeliciouslife.blogspot.com/

I never imagined I would be in my home town raising my daughters in the same valley where I grew up.  Sure, I knew I wanted a family one day but always thought it would be somewhere far away from these mountains.  Recently I was reading an article about how Bozeman made it on another "Best of" list.  It seems to be a frequent occurrence.  The Best Place to raise a family, the Best Place for skiing, The Best Place to reboot your life, and on and on.  I get mixed feelings when reading these articles.  On one side I feel proud and fortunate to live here and as I read someone else writing about how amazing it is, I smile and think it really is.  But, then the other part of me wants to keep Bozeman a secret.  Anyways…the most recent one I read was the Best Place to Raise an Outdoor Child.   It was this one that got me thinking about raising my kids here.  It feels very safe and comfortable.  I know they are at a good school and I don't ever worry about going to the wrong part of town.  I know the parts of town, I know which neighborhoods have a more hippie vibe and which have a pretentious one.  I know what areas have more college student rentals and which are more family friendly.  I know these things because I grew up here.  Often fear comes from the unknown, so I get a strong sense of feeling safe here because I know Bozeman like the back of my hand.  Lately we have had talks of leaving again in a couple of years when my husband finishes school.  This both excites and terrifies me.  How will we ever find a place that can be as safe and wonderful as Bozeman?  I wonder…do I believe these things because they are actually true or because it's all I know?  Has the comfort of being in the same town become too comfortable and I can hide behind the idea that it is so fantastic because some survey says Montana really is the last best place?  Hmmm. I do believe Bozeman is one of the "best" places to raise an outdoor kid, or any kid for that matter.  A place where our family spends the majority of our time out in the fresh air.  Hiking our mountains, camping all summer long and sledding throughout the winter.  We've been to every park in this town and done every monkey bar.  I try to instill a love of the outdoors in them and the community we live in helps this concept thrive.  I go back to the comfort thing and wonder if I feel content with this because it is what I've always known.  I take them to swim at Bogart Pool where I spent many a summer day in my youth.  We camp up in the Elkhorns and I get a feeling of nostalgia from running along Crow Creek with my sisters and now see my girls do the same.  I think this is awesome, but also…how could it be different if I pushed myself out of my comfort zone?  I loved my Montana childhood, but could leaving the last best place be a chance for something new and exciting?  Would anyone who gets to live in this place that is coveted by many be crazy enough to leave it?  Have I instilled enough of the Bozeman goodness into my daughters that if we leave will they always consider themselves Montana girls or will they become something totally different?  And if they do, is that a bad thing? My biggest fear for leaving beautiful Bozeman would be regret.  If we took the chance to leave and raise our daughters someplace different and it wasn't all we thought, would we feel regretful?  In our early twenties we moved from one coast to the other with a brief stop back in Bozeman in the middle.  During those years the moves seemed as easy as moving across town.  I do believe it would be different now as we've added two kids, a dog and a fish to the family.  And, I'm pretty sure the cat would not survive another move…poor thing was a part of those early travels.  It would be hard to find a place that meets my Bozeman standards of excellent schools, wide open spaces, friendly community and safe neighborhoods.  If they didn't meet those standards would I long to come back?  Would it simply be impossible for any other place to bring me that comfort because Bozeman has held most of my 35 years?  The thing is….regret is always a two-way street.  We could stay right here, raising our girls as the next generation of Montanans, them having a childhood that so similarly parallels my own and regret could just as easily creep in.  Regret of letting fear make our decisions.  Regret of letting comfort and contentment hold us back from something different.  I try to remember the values I carry as a woman are part because of where I grew up and part because of my family.  I have to give Montana credit for giving me the desire to be a good, kind person and live a simple, happy life and want this for my own children.  I also know these values will translate across state lines, because no matter where I end up you can't change where I began.  And if I end up raising beach babies instead of ski bunnies, I know my roots and values will be instilled in them.  No one knows where life will take us.  I just want to make sure whatever road we travel, it will not be a road of regret.  And whether we kiss the mountains good-bye or stay here forever, it will always be my home.