The Island Range Chapter educates and organizes citizens on wilderness issues close to where we live. Some of the best-known wild places in our area are: the Rocky Mountain Front, Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, CM Russell Wildlife Refuge, the Big Snowy Wilderness Study Area, and the Little Belt Mountains.

What we're working on now

The Island Range Chapter has a PowerPoint slide show featuring the Rocky Mountain Front.  It is a gorgeous, non-confrontational and educational pictorial that we will present to any organizations in our area. It can be shown at a lunch meeting or in the evening.  Please contact Keith Gebo for more information.      

• Rocky Mountain Front travel planning: The Lewis and Clark National Forest was expected to issue a final decision on a Travel Plan for the Rocky Mountain Front by January 2007. The Plan has yet to be released. The Travel Plan will determine where off-road vehicles will be allowed. Historically, foot and horse travel accounts for most of the use on the Front. Conservationists flooded the Lewis and Clark National Forest with over 30,000 comments in support of a plan that protects traditional foot and horse use. More

• Rocky Mountain Front and oil and gas development: Currently, most of the Front is not available for oil and gas drilling because of a decision made in 1997 by the Lewis and Clark National Forest and a more recent decision by the BLM to postpone the completion of an environmental impact statement on a proposal to drill gas wells in the Blindhorse Outstanding Natural Area. However, those decisions are only temporary. Long-term protection for the Front is needed.

In 2006, two important steps were taken toward phasing out oil and gas drilling on the Rocky Mountain. First, two energy companies agreed to relinquish their oil and gas leases on federal public lands along the front. Second, former Montana Senator Conrad Burns introduced legislation to prevent either the BLM or the Forest Service from re-issuing new oil and gas leases on federal public lands along the Front. MWA Island Range Chapter members will continue to work toward developing a conservation proposal to provide long-term protection for the Rocky Mountain Front.

• Little Belt Mountains travel planning: Lewis and Clark National Forest recently concluded the process for submitting public comments on travel plan alternatives for the Little Belt, Castle, and north Crazy mountains.
  
  MWA Chapter members, along with the Great Falls Cross Country Club participated in a successful collaborative process with the Montana Snowmobile Association and two associated clubs, which led to a winter travel agreement. The agreement was lauded by the Great Falls Tribune as an "inspiration."
  
  Unfortunately, a similar process was unsuccessful for reaching an agreement on summer use. The primary barrier to preventing a negotiated agreement was an unwillingness on the part of motorized vehicle groups to accept any large blocks of land for foot and horse use.
  
  Under the current, outdated travel plan, adopted in 1988, there are almost 1,200 miles of bladed roads, 436 miles of "high clearance roads" and over 500 miles of trails open to some type of off-road vehicle use in the Little Belt Mountains. By contrast, only 62 miles are designated as quiet trails for hiking and horseback riding! The miles of roads and trails open to motorized use compared to quiet trail use are equally lopsided in the Castle and North Crazy mountains. Clearly some balance in use needs to be restored!
  
  Opportunities to experience remote, restful settings still exist in these island ranges, but with an increasing number of faster, more powerful motorized vehicles covering greater distances, the opportunities for a traditional, motor-free experience have been greatly diminished. With the increasing numbers come more noise, more damage to trails, and more noxious weeds. Wildlife is displaced and more conflicts arise with horseback riders, hunters, and hikers.
  
  MWA supports off-road vehicle use in the Little Belt, Castle and North Crazy Mountains, but there is also a need for places where vehicles are not allowed. Priority areas within the Little Belt, Castle and north Crazy Mountains include the Middle Fork of the Judith wilderness study area, Tenderfoot, Deep Creek/Smith River corridor, the Hoover Creek area and roadless areas in the Castle and north Crazy mountains. Chapter members will continue to seek protection for these areas and restore some balance in use. More

• Missouri Breaks National Monument: The BLM is in the process of preparing a resource management plan for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. While the monument designation provides some protective guidelines, the resource management plan provides more specific direction to determine where vehicle use will be allowed, how wildlife and historic sites will be managed, and how areas leased for gas development prior to the designation will be developed.

The proclamation creating the Monument states that the region's extraordinary scenic, natural, historic, and cultural values must be protected. A proposed plan issued in the fall of 2005 includes modest improvements over the current outdated management plan, but it falls far short of honoring the resources and values for the Monument was created. The BLM's draft plan fails to close unauthorized backcountry airstrips, would continue the current high road density, and only provide at most a seasonal closure for motorized watercraft on a portion of the Wild and Scenic Missouri River.

When all of the motorized activities are combined with all of the allowed commercial activities, such as the projected drilling of 34 natural gas wells, energy corridors, livestock grazing and probable future developments on private and state inholdings (of which the BLM has no management authority), it is clear that a far better balance in use is needed if the area is to remain largely as Lewis and Clark experienced it 200 years ago.

MWA Island Range Chapter members will continue to work for a better management plan than the one proposed by the BLM - a management plan that genuinely protects the resources and values for which this Monument was created. More on the Monument.

• Other BLM Lands: The Bureau of Land Management is also in the beginning stage of a process to develop a new resource management plan for BLM lands along much of Montana's northern tier extending from the Rocky Mountain Front to Malta - an area that includes the Sweetgrass Hills, two wilderness study areas, the Little Rockies, and all BLM lands in between. Scoping has been completed, the BLM is formulating alternatives for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is scheduled to issue in April of 2008. That triggers the next chance for public input - a 90 day comment period. The Final Environmental Impact Statement is scheduled for April 2009. For more information, contact Claire Trent at the Bureau of Land Management (406) 654-5124 or at http://www.mt.blm.gov/mafo/rmp/index.html.

Join us for upcoming events!

Great Falls Conservation Council
Meets Every Thursday at noon
Colleen's Restaurant, Old Columbia Hospital, 16th St. and 2nd Ave. N.

Full MWA Calendar

Contact us

Email: Island Range

Local Board of Directors:

Keith Gebo, President
Scott Friskics, Vice President
Cathy Lewis, Treasurer
Lisa Easton, Secretary
Joanne Bernard, Immediate Past President
Dan Bennett, Chapter Representative
Jim Brenna
Dave Byerly
Helen Comer
Tom Crane
Aart Dolman
Randy Gray
Roy Jacobs
Gerry Jennings
Gene Johnson
Judy Kilmer
Tom Kotynski
Sally Lydon
Dave Mari
Roger Norgaard
Larry Salois
Travis Stagnolia
Howard Strause