Projects and Issues

Update: Conserving the Rocky Mountain Front

The state owned lands along the Rocky Mountain Front are invaluable pieces of the complex landscape puzzle that in total stretches from a few miles northwest of Rogers Pass on highway 200, more than one hundred miles to the southern border of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Nation. These state lands are critical components of a wildlife rich landscape that is prized as the largest, most intact piece of culturally significant and ecologically unique wildlife habitat in the United States.

 State lands along the Front offer opportunities for hunters to pursue upland birds, deer and elk while also providing crucial habitats for bear, songbirds and over 250 other species of wildlife. Hunters, area ranchers, business owners, outfitters, and outdoor enthusiasts recognize the value of these lands and have been advocating for, and achieving balanced protection of the Front for decades. 

 According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Front generates roughly $9.8 million dollars in direct expenditures from hunters alone. The majority of that, over $5 million, comes from upland bird hunters. The habitats necessary to sustain upland birds lie within the transition zone between the mountains and the prairies where nearly all wildlife along the Front spend part of their lives. Whether its pheasant, sharptail grouse, or Hungarian partridge, bird hunting along the Front is widely regarded as some of the best in the State.

 The ecological connectivity and wildlife values and the opportunities the state lands offer public hunters is why Montana Wildlife Federation is so dogged in trying to get the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Montana State Land Board to stop oil and gas leasing and development of some of these lands, while responsibly developing other lands. Our focus has been primarily in the area that was congressionally put off limits for federal mineral development in 2007.

 One of the areas that were nominated for oil and gas leasing is of great concern to MWF; the state owned, FWP, Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area. A story about the nomination in the last issue of Montana Wildlife (June/July, pg. 9) and an alert to our members generated a lot of response to MWF and the State of Montana.  The Montana State Land Board and DNRC heard our cries and in a brave step, considering it is an election year, “deferred” the leases.

 We were granted a six month reprieve, the work with DNRC, FWP and other conservation groups, and our friends along the Front to consider new stipulations and new approaches for the state land minerals will take a great deal of energy.  MWF has already begun identifying critical wildlife habitat and areas valuable to the recreating and hunting public. We are working diligently to find solutions that will help keep the Front the way it is today, for future generations.