Opinion/Letters

A consensus for conservation is reflected in the many eloquent editorials and letters-to-editors published in Montana's major newspapers, celebrating Wilderness scenic and wildlife values and denouncing proposals to compromise those values. Every major Montana newspaper has editorialized in favor of protecting Wilderness, some repeatedly. Following are excerpts from recent editorials and letters-to-editors.

Rockies' Wildfire Season Harbinger of Future, by Tom Tidwell, Northern Rockies Regional Forester
2007-09-11 One of the lessons this wildfire season has taught us is to expect the unexpected. Our season begin earlier than expected, our fires were more resistant to control than expected, and tens of thousands of people from the US and beyond worked longer and harder than expected to help deal with the fire. To all of you, my sincere thanks. (Headwaters News, Complete story)

Breaking Free of Forest Gridlock, by Tim Baker, Executive Director, Montana Wilderness Association and Ed Regan, Resource Manager, RY Timber.
2007 This piece, featuring the cooperative work being done on the Beaverhead-Deerldoge Partnership appeared in newspapers across southwest Montana. (Complete Op-Ed)

BLM tilts Breaks plan toward too many roads, airstrips, by Dennis Tighe
2007-06-30 The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument embodies some of Montana's grandest scenery and best hunting, and it is a treasure trove of Western history. The proclamation creating the monument provides clear direction to the BLM to protect the natural and historic values that make the Breaks special, first and foremost. In fact, the monument itself should be part of a larger balance, a separate place, distinct from millions of acres of surrounding BLM land characterized by roads, oil and gas development, livestock grazing, energy corridors and other multiple uses. (Billings Gazette, Complete story)

Front lease agreement start of something good
2007-04-17 The incentives accompanying January's permanent ban on new leases on federal land along the Rocky Mountain Front are working. Trout Unlimited has bought natural gas drilling leases on a couple of tracts in the Badger-Two Medicine area just south of Glacier National Park. ....The Front's rocky peaks are visible from 100 miles away, and the lifestyle — including the ag and recreation industries — the area supports cannot be matched elsewhere. Once those values are lost, they are difficult if not impossible to restore. We hope more such deals are in the offing. (Great Falls Tribune)

Permanent Front drilling ban worth celebrating
2006-12-17 We've long held that benefit of keeping Montana's most special places — of which the Rocky Mountain Front is the crown jewel — special is a long-term economic benefit, to the region and to the state. One has only to look at the state's burgeoning tourism and recreation industries — and at the reasons visitors give for choosing Montana — to understand the importance of keeping our attractions, well, attractive. According to the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana, nonresident visitors to Montana topped 10 million for the first time in 2005, contributing $2.7 billion to the state's economy. (Great Falls Tribune)

Front protection gets needed boost
2006-12 Congress has not saved the Rocky Mountain Front, contrary to the cheerful banter about legislative action last week. What Congress actually did with a helpful provision tacked onto a tax bill was ensure that the federal bureaucracy won't create an impediment to the broad-based, citizen-initiated efforts to protect the wild, stunningly beautiful, wildlife-rich and environmentally sensitive country lying roughly between Highways 200 and 2, where the Rocky Mountains tumble out onto the Plains. It's Montanans who are saving the Front. They've got miles to go before they rest, but the effort is gaining momentum. Members of Montana's congressional delegation did something important last week, and they deserve praise. (Missoulian)

Front finally comes to the fore
2006-12 The Front is home to 290 species of wildlife, including the country's second-largest elk herd and its largest population of bighorn sheep. It is the only place in the lower 48 states where grizzly bears still range between the mountains and the plains. A case can easily be made that the long-term economic value of an untainted resource like the Front, with its drawing power among hunters and anglers alone, will outstrip the benefit of potential gas extraction in any case. (The Daily Inter lake)