Quiet Trails

Traditional, quiet recreation in our National Forests is increasingly threatened by floods of off-road vehicles like ATVs and snowmobiles that shatter solitude, scare wildlife, and destroy trails and mountain streams. Improved technology that allows vehicles to go further, higher, faster and on rougher terrain, agency complacency, and outdated land management plans have facilitated an explosion of motorized intrusion on Montana’s finest public lands.

While the impacts on the ground are significant, the negative effect on future efforts to achieve permanent protection is another lasting mark on the public landscape resulting from the tremendous growth in motorized use. Once motorized use becomes an established constituency in an area, efforts to designate that area Wilderness become much more difficult.

In response, the Montana Wilderness Association initiated a Quiet Trails campaign in 1998 to work with agencies and the public to establish reasonable limits on motorized recreation. We work to protect key wildlife habitat and roadless areas from motorized use--often targeting a specific local area and problem. In significant part because of our work and public pressure, several National Forests in Montana are now engaged in Travel Planning, a comprehensive planning response to address motorized use on public lands.

Much of today’s Quiet Trails work is accomplished through our members and activists working with the agencies as they craft Travel Plans, and reviewing and commenting on those documents when they are issued. Montana Wilderness Association’s work in this regard is usually characterized by an extensive knowledge of the land itself, which is often superior to that of agency personnel. That knowledge, combined with the vast personal experiences of our membership, provide agency personnel with much needed on-the-ground details and rational recommendations.

In addition to working on Travel Plans and tackling motorized use trail-by-trail, we have been very effective at reaching out to more moderate elements in the motorized community to find common ground and protect key landscapes for the future.

Since 1998, the Montana Wilderness Association has negotiated five winter recreation agreements that have achieved progress in protecting key portions of the Rocky Mountain Front, Blackfoot drainage, Big Snowy Mountains/Middle Fork Judith Wilderness Study areas, Electric Peak and the Flathead National Forest from winter motorized use. This work builds a foundation for future Wilderness designations for these places by limiting conflicts.

Other representative examples of Quiet Trails work include:

• Ming Bar: A decision by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks rejecting the proposed Ming Bar airstrip, thus protecting the wildlife values of the state’s Beartooth Wildlife Management Area.
• Appeals Court litigation: A decision protecting 400,000 acres of proposed wilderness on the Lolo National Forest from snowmobiles, including the Great Burn, Rock Creek wildlands, and Bob Marshall additions.
• Montana State Trails Plan: Obtained a plan that generally directs state funding for trails projects in a manner that protects roadless public lands (including federal).
• Rocky Mountain Front: The Forest Service proposed opening 75% of the Front’s roadless lands to motorized use. MWA organized strong public comment in opposition, and the agency received over 7,400 comments with over 90% in favor of protecting roadless lands.
• Mount Jefferson (Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest): The Forest Service expanded the area closed to snowmobiles. The draft Forest Plan issued by the agency recommends a full closure and protection as wilderness.
• Pryors mapping project: Thousands of volunteer hours were spent hiking trails, roads and illegal thruways, taking field notes and accumulating GPS data. The information was downloaded and organized, and represented better information than that of the Forest Service.
• Big Belts Travel Planning: The Helena National Forest issued a decision for this area restricting motorized use to designated routes and closing over 100 miles of roads/trails.

Montana Wilderness Association continues to counter the influence of motorized users, through traditional grassroots organizing and more creative approaches, including outreach to motorized users and other nontraditional allies, and partnering with mountain bikers and backcountry horsemen.