Winton Weydemeyer Wilderness Campaign

Winton Weydemeyer Wilderness Proposal
[click image to enlarge]

One Man’s Dream
Winton Weydemeyer was a Montana rancher, farmer, tree farmer, backcountry user and wilderness lover. A man of his times, but ahead of his time in his appreciation of wild country, Weydemeyer acted to preserve a vestige of his wilderness heritage at the very beginning of conservation thinking in America. In 1925, some 39 years before passage of the national Wilderness Act of 1964, Weydemeyer first proposed the Whitefish Range Wilderness in American Forest and Forest Life Magazine, the journal of the American Forestry Society. The wilderness of Glacier National Park flowed into country designated in Weydemeyer’s plan as “adjacent to the Canadian boundary and the west boundary of Glacier National Park, with a central roadless area of approximately 485,000 acres -- half as great as the area of the park itself.” Unfortunately, while he pursued the goal of a designated Whitefish Range Wilderness throughout his adult life, this Montana Conservation luminary never saw his proposal succeed in his lifetime.

Today, roads and human use have reduced the core wild area of the Whitefish Range to approximately 171,000 acres, about one-third of Weydemeyer’s original wild landscape. Such dramatic shrinkage of untamed, irretrievable wild country only emphasizes Weydemeyer’s foresight. Many energetic people share Weydemeyer’s dream and are pursuing protection for approximately 171,000 acres of Wilderness. The proposal encompasses four roadless areas, including Thompson Seton, Mount Hefty and Tuchuck roadless areas, and the Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area. Currently, the Weydemeyer Wilderness steering committee leads the effort to promote the campaign. The steering committee is focused on public outreach to civic, community, business and school groups.

If you have any questions, please contact the Montana Wilderness Association Campaign Director at: 307 First Ave E., #1
Kalispell, 59901
Phone: 883-5019
Fax: 755-6304
slundstrum@wildmontana.org