Bear Dance, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bear Dance, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Bear Dance lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Bear Dance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Dance — the short answer
Bear Dance, Montana: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Bear Dance's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Dance's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Dance
Each reading below is measured for Bear Dance itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBear Dance runs about 169 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBear Dance sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Bear Dance is in
Bear Dance sits in the Canadian Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Bear Dance's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lake County is mostly Northern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bear Dance
Every plant below cleared Bear Dance's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Dance?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Bear Dance
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Dance. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOON RISE AT YELLOW BAY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- U OF M FLATHEAD LAKE BIOLOGICAL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WINDJAMMER BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- WOODSBAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- BIGFORK COUNTY WATER AND SEWERPFAS · 7.1 mi
- PAPA'S WOODSBAY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- Unamed LocationMining · 7.6 mi
- Swan Lake Copper - Silver OccurrenceMining · 7.7 mi
- M & S MEATS AND SAUSAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- O'CONNELL'S QWICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- BIG FORK RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- BN SWAN LAKE MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Dance's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Bear Dance.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Bear Dance
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Dance
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Dance
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bear Dance
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Dance average
Your land is one point inside Bear Dance
Everything above resolves to Bear Dance as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Bear Dance Average
Bear Dance Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bear Dance
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Dance
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Dance's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Dance's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Dance
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Dance, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Dance averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Dance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Dance average
How we know this about Bear Dance
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bear Dance’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Bear Dance
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Dance?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Dance typically lands around Apr 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 17.
When is the first frost in Bear Dance?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Dance typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear Dance?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Dance sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 28, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Dance?
The federal record around Bear Dance shows 23 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bear Dance?
From about Sep 12 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bear Dance's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Dance's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Bear Dance’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bear Dance's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,776 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Dance's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear Dance's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 12 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Dance, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Dance's boundary and the 1,776 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bear Dance sits in the Canadian Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bear Dance's 1,776 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Dance's 1,776 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear Dance you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,776 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Bear Dance-wide figureread your own land →
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