Wilderness Tutorials: Preserving Potential Wilderness

Montana is still rich with land that has the important characteristics of Wilderness. If faithfully protected, these lands will remain eligible for Wilderness designation. Some of these lands are officially designated as Roadless Areas, a designation which comes with some of its own types of protection (depending in part on who is running the country and state). Some of the lands are geographically or historically important to Montanans and people across the nation--places like the Rocky Mountain Front and the Missouri River Breaks.

We work to preserve the potential of wilderness-quality lands from specific forms of degradation like off-road vehicle traffic, oil and gas development, logging, and sprawl. Right now, the greatest of these threats is misplaced off-road vehicle use, which creates de facto roads and degrades the quiet and solitude of our lands, as well as the health and abundance of wildlife, clean water, and clean air.

Our work to promote Quiet Trails is key to preserving potential Wilderness. We have worked especially hard on innovative “winter recreation agreements” established through a collaborative process with snowmobile groups, the Forest Service, and conservationists. When appropriate, we have worked to preserve important wildlands through other designations such as Wilderness Study Areas, National Monuments, and Wild and Scenic Rivers.

We also work to preserve potential Wilderness through administrative procedures like Forest and Travel Planning, which establishes long-term forest management. Currently, new or revised Forest or Travel Plans are under way in the Kootenai, Gallatin, Flathead, Bitterroot, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Lewis and Clark, Helena, and Lolo National Forests. This work is crucial, as it determines an overall blueprint for the future of our best wild places.