Rocky Mountain Front Wilderness Campaign

Sawtooth Peak, west of Augusta

When humans first crossed the Bering Bridge into North America, many traveled south entering the present day United States through big sky country along the backbone of the continent, Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. Today, the Front towers over Montana’s eastern grasslands with the same raw grandeur that overlooked the stone-age hunters who first walked an ice-free path along riparian hills shelved beneath great belts of limestone, broken into jags of peak and cliff.

Abutted to the west by 1.5 million acres of Wilderness and reaching east to US Highways 89 and 287, the Front stretches 150 miles north to south from Marias Pass (Hwy 200) to Rogers Pass (Hwy 200). Within this landscape rests the 418,000 acre (approx.) Rocky Mountain Division of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, a forest that boasts many areas every bit as wild as the heart of the Bob Marshall Wilderness and offers the best pack and saddle trails in the U.S.A.

To the east of the forest lie three wildlife management areas, three Outstanding Natural Areas, and hundreds of thousands of acres of working ranchland every bit as important to wildlife as the public ground. Two hundred and ninety species of wildlife still make their home on the Front because of generations of private land stewardship and more than 100 years of public conservation efforts shouldered by pioneering hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers.

It is this local culture of conservation that continues to guard against the threats of subdivision, industrial development, and motorized abuse of Montana’s beloved Rocky Mountain Front.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “the Westerners who live in the neighborhood of the forest preserves are the men who in the last resort will determine whether or not these preserves are to be permanent.” Montana is changing fast and the Front should remain a place where Montanans. If this crown jewel of the Bob Marshall country is to stay the way it is today for our grandchildren to use and enjoy, then Montanans need to continue to work together on its behalf.

The Montana Wilderness Association, as part of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front - outfitters, anglers, hunters, ranchers, business people, conservationists and wilderness advocates - is committed to continuing this work so that the Front will always be a place where Montanans are free to escape crowded valleys and busy roads. The Coalition Web site is sponsored by the four member groups of the Coalition: Friends of the Rocky Mountain Front, Montana Wilderness Association; Montana Wildlife Federation; and The Wilderness Society.

Please contact our office in beautiful Choteau, MT to learn more, and be sure to stop by on your next visit to the Front. Our phone number is 466-2600 or mwarmf@wildmontana.org. We are located just off Main St. at 17 3rd St. NE in a two-story green building kitty-corner from the Exxon gas station and approximately 35 miles east of peace and quiet on the Rocky Mountain Front.

Blackleaf Canyon, between Mt. Werner and Mt. Frasier

The Rocky Mountain Front Gains Freedom from Oil and Gas Development
After 30 years of struggle, a major victory has arrived to Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front.

In December 2006, Congress passed bi-partisan legislation championed by Montana Senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns that will prevent all future leasing of federal oil and gas minerals on the Front. The President’s signature made it official: after three decades of statewide opposition to oil and gas development in Montana’s wildest mountain range, no future leases will be granted on the Front from this point forward.

The move to ban future leasing of federal oil and gas minerals started as a bi-partisan effort, with legislation introduced by Senator Burns in June 2006. When the legislation stalled in December, Senator Baucus stepped in and guided the measure to the President’s desk in the closing days of the 109th Congress. All Montanans owe these men a debt of gratitude for their vision and leadership.

In addition to a withdrawal of federal oil and gas minerals from new leasing, the legislation also provides valuable tax incentives for existing leaseholders to retire their leaseholds without fear of the federal government reissuing those leases in the future. These incentives combine good business and good conservation to represent a giant stride towards keeping the Front wild and free forever while respecting business interests in the region.

This landmark legislation is explained further in “The Most Patient and Stubborn Among Us” from the Spring 2007 Wild Montana. The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front has also produced a factsheet that answers frequently asked questions about the legislation.