"Please join our Blackfeet People in support of the Forest Service travel plan restricting motorized travel inside the Badger-Two Medicine. This too, is sacred ground." Read Jack Gladstone's editorial.
Motor travel is now banned in the Badger-Two Medicine area of the RMF.
Wilderness that makes sense for Montana - editorial from the Helena Independent Record.
U.S. Senator Jon Tester congratulates MWA on 50 Years of “fighting for a Montana way of life.”
Big Snowy Mountains WSA decision ends a nearly four-year legal battle. "The judge had seen us in the same courtroom before, but never on the same side," said John Gatchell, conservation director for MWA. read more...
The MWA State Council has a PowerPoint touting the positive values of wilderness. We need volunteers to help us share it. Please contact Doug Ferrell or call 827-4341 for details.
Visit our Events Calendar - includes local, chapter and state-sponsored events. Come and join in the fun!
The Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership: An update from the field
At the Montana Wilderness Association's annual convention held in May 2009, Chief of the National Park Service's Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Department, Rick Potts, reminded us of why we work tirelessly for wilderness. He recalled coming back to Montana after being away and promised himself to ride at least 1,000 miles and sleep under the stars 45 nights of the year. He reminded us of those landscapes that meld our physical world and our spiritual world. He reminded us of the importance of wild places amidst a quickly sprawling civilization.
Rick Potts reminded us of what wilderness means to us. The work that the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership is doing reminds us of how we protect that wilderness.
In the first quarter of this year, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership has made tremendous progress. With so much activity, new wilderness legislation for Montana seems close at hand.
MWA's grassroots outreach efforts have been paying off. In the first four months of the year, the Partnership has garnered official, public support from the Butte Teachers Union, the Butte Local Development Corps, the Clark Fork Coalition, and the Montana Wildlife Federation. Additionally, the Partnership received a letter of support from all six Butte legislative delegates: a major victory for our conservation and timber partners alike.
In February and March, Senator Jon Tester held timber-focused listening sessions in Deerlodge, Missoula, and Townsend. At each session, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership proposal came up as the solution to the dire state of the timber industry and the many forest management issues the national forest is facing.
And Senator Tester is not the only one listening; all of Montana is paying attention to this unique project. The Missoulian, the Helena Independent Record, and the Montana Standard all printed editorials in support of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership.
How you can help
The Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership is on the precipice of the first new wilderness legislation Montana has seen in over a decade. Every supporting voice, every encouraging email, every praising letter to the editor counts. Tell our congressional delegation that you stand behind the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership. Remind them of how important wilderness is to you and to many thousands of Montanans.
