Wilderness Study Areas

Many of Montana’s finest lands have been designated Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs), which requires public agencies to maintain existing wilderness character and potential for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Montana Wilderness Association members were involved in the 1970s in the establishment of Bureau of Land Management WSAs, and were instrumental in the creation and passage of the 1977 Montana Wilderness Study Act.

Senator Lee Metcalf shepherded the Montana Wilderness Study Act through Congress in 1977, providing a layer of formal protection for seven important areas (almost 700,000 acres)— not full wilderness designation, but the next-best thing. Those seven areas are: Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn, Big Snowies, Ten Lakes, Blue Joint, Sapphires, Middle Fork Judith, and West Pioneers.

Unfortunately, over the past 25 years the Forest Service has repeatedly failed to respect the law protecting these lands and has allowed off-road vehicle roads and traffic to proliferate—thus undermining the areas’ historic wilderness character and subverting potential for eventual inclusion in the wilderness system. For years, the citizens of Montana acted to prevent the loss of Metcalf’s legacy, trying time and again without success to gain the Forest Service’s voluntary compliance.

Thus, in 1996, the Montana Wilderness Association and allies filed a suit against the Forest Service. In May 2001, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued a landmark ruling, ordering the Forest Service to maintain and restore the wilderness characteristics of the seven Montana Wilderness Study Areas as they existed in 1977. The Forest Service appealed the ruling, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and back. A settlement was reached this year.

The settlement commits the Forest Service to a timeline for completing WSA summer and winter travel plans, to applying Region-1 WSA policy and the Montana Wilderness Study Act—and other applicable law in travel, forest plan and project decisions—until Congress determines otherwise. The settlement also fully preserves all parties’ rights to support or challenge individual WSA decisions.

 

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Big Snowy Mountains
The Big Snowy Mountains Wilderness Study Area south of Lewistown is where grain fields and grasslands end abruptly in a massive mountain arch, like a great whale rising from a sea of prairie. The flanks of the range are deeply dissected by rugged limestone canyons, long and densely forested on the north. The craggy southern face of the Snowies is cut into huge bowl-shaped drainages. The entire range is composed of sedimentary rocks exposed in numerous limestone cliffs. Here your feet encounter a thick carpet of wildflowers eight miles long. Under the immense sky, light and shadow dance across distant crag and forest as winds push cumuli clear to the edge of the earth. Many canyons support seasonal streams due to the porous nature of the rock but surface water is scarce. The Snowies are a vital watershed replenishing underground aquifers and springs of the surrounding plains.

Blue Joint
Originating in the rugged Bitterroot Range high on the Idaho-Montana border, Blue Joint encompasses two deep canyons hosting tributaries of the West Fork Bitterroot River. The entire area is thickly forested with Douglas fir, lodgepole and ponderosa pine in the lower elevations. Large mountain meadows and cliffs are bordered with whitebark pine in the higher elevations. There are abundant populations of bighorn sheep, elk, deer, pine marten and black bear.

Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn
The Gallatin Range stretches south from the fire and ice-carved Hyalite Peaks near Bozeman. The area is renowned for its outstanding wildlife habitat. Porcupine Creek and Buffalo Horn provide wintering grounds for the vast northern Yellowstone elk herd. The area also includes ideal elk calving grounds, summer and fall range. Within these rugged mountains are born the headwaters for the blue-ribbon trout fisheries of the Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers. The northern end has been heavily glaciated which is evident in the spectacular Hyalite Peaks. The central range crest consists of a massive plateau with deep, steep-walled canyons. Many peaks over 10,000 feet are scattered along the length of the Gallatin divide.

Middle Fork Judith River
The Middle Fork of the Judith River Wilderness Study Area lies on the east slopes of the Little Belt Mountains, 40 miles southeast of Great Falls. The proposed wilderness encompasses the Middle and Lost Forks of the Judith River. Both forks of the Judith River have cut deep, twisted canyons through multicolored limestone cliffs. These river canyons form the heart of the wildland. The higher elevations to the west are forested with lodgepole and white-bark pine. To the east, Douglas fir and ponderosa pine are interspersed with open parks and meadows. The study area contains over 29 miles of rivers and tributaries loaded with native cutthroat and rainbow trout. The proposed boundaries will maintain excellent wildlife habitat, primitive recreation and hunting opportunities in an area of otherwise heavily impacted national forest land.

Sapphires
The Sapphire Range joins the Continental Divide just below the spectacular peaks of the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. The great divide forms the frozen backbone of a 350,000-acre wildlands complex that stretches from the Big Hole Valley to the pristine headwaters of Rock Creek. The Sapphires form the biological heartland of this diverse mountain ecosystem, a lush wildland that enriches the rocks and ice of the Pintler Range. More than 20 lovely lakes nestle in steep cirques just below the Sapphires’ undulating crest. To the west, creeks feed the trout fisheries of the Bitterroot River. To the east, the Sapphires are the watershed from which Rock Creek, a blue-ribbon trout stream, springs.

Ten Lakes
Ten Lakes Wilderness Study Area, east and north of Eureka, offers an outstanding spectrum of wildlife species and primitive backcountry recreation opportunities for hikers and skiers in the Galton and Whitefish ranges. The area includes forested foothills and glacial basins. Spectacular alpine lakes are surrounded by open ridges that provide panoramic views of Glacier National Park, the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and south British Columbia. Flower filled mountain meadows delight the eye. One of the most diverse arrays of large mammals in the Lower 48 can be found in Ten Lakes. The natural integrity of the area is high.

West Pioneers
The West Pioneers are the largest remaining roadless area in southwest Montana. A forested wilderness of rolling terrain and rich wildlife habitat, the West Pioneers provide gentle contrast to the craggy summits of the East Pioneers. The crest of the range includes several peaks over 9,000 feet with great views of the Continental Divide and East Pioneers. Long, meadow-lined tributaries flow east into Wise River and thence to the Big Hole River. West-side creeks feed directly into the Big Hole River, a blue-ribbon fishery. About a dozen small lakes lie in rock-rubble cirques along the divide. The West Pioneers provide superb elk habitat.