Western Organization of Resource Councils

06/17/2026

Do you love Montana? For 50 years Northern Plains members have been shaping Montana and standing up for the little guy, and you can too! Become a member today to make your voice heard!

Take a look at what we're working on! Link 🔗below

06/17/2026

WASHINGTON, DC: Today, U.S. Representative Rob Bresnahan, Jr. (PA-08) introduced the Local Control Protection Act, legislation to curb large corporations’ ability to litigate and attempt to overturn local decisions regarding data centers and ensure approved developments maintain a benefit to the c...

06/16/2026

06/16/2026

Congress is working on the Farm Bill, but whether or not it will actually help family farmers and rural communities is uncertain.

DRA member Duane Carlson recently traveled to Washington DC to talk with lawmakers about what is needed from this new Farm Bill.

"The U.S. House passed its version April 30. Since then, a coalition of farmers and rural residents from Midwestern states traveled to Washington, D.C., to ask legislators to make changes.

"Duane Carlson, a farmer and chairman of Brooklyn Township near Centerville, said the current bill needs a lot of work after years of inaction and continued subsidies for the same programs.

“It really doesn't do the things that we need to do,” Carlson explained. “There needs to be a good hard look at what these dollars are doing and how it's affecting our local farmers.”

"Like other members of the coalition, Carlson wants the bill to address SNAP benefits, pesticide labeling, mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and conservation funding. Congress is supposed to pass a new farm bill every five years. The most recent one passed in 2018."

06/16/2026

Activists from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota shared how they have used their voices to push back against plans that would add more than 70,000 head of dairy to the upper Midwest.

06/16/2026

This is a painful loss. Our hearts go out to Jacky and her kids.

IORC staff member Jacky Vásquez has suffered an unimaginable loss. Her husband Mike passed away on Monday in a car accident and two of her young children are in the hospital being cared for.

Jacky is a very compassionate person who has always supported the communities we serve. Her husband Mike was her biggest supporter. Jacky needs our support now more than ever.

Please donate if you are able to. Anything helps. If you cannot donate please share this Go Fund Me.

We love and care for Jacky and her family.

Thank you all.

https://gofund.me/0d8d89bc4

06/16/2026

The Pondera County Commissioners, along with local landowners, the Golden Triangle Resource Council, Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, Earth Justice, and the Western Environmental Law Center, filed litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday, June 12th challenging the agency’s decision to exempt a portion of the Madison Aquifer in the county from protections under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The exemption and corresponding permits will allow Montana Renewables, a Great Falls-based biofuels company, to truck high strength industrial wastewater from its refinery in Great Falls and inject it into the Madison Aquifer via two retired oil and gas wells about 7 miles southwest of the town of Valier.

To read more, click the link below!

06/16/2026

06/03/2026

Fiona Farmer joined Rapid City People’s Alliance looking to make changes that built people, and her community up. She’s, since, become a driving force for positive change in Rapid City. 
See how at the link to ‘Stepping Out of Isolation and Into Power’ in our bio.