Projects and Issues

Rocky Mountain Front Protection Moves Forward

MWF's Five Year Strategic Plan provides direction to protect the Rocky Mountain Front as a major project for the organization. "The ecological integrity, cultural, historic, and wildlife values and public hunting and fishing opportunities within the Rocky Mountain Front (RMF) are conserved, protected and managed by policies such as wilderness, recreation area, wildlife area, refuge area and other designations that ensure these values for all time." - Outcome Goal #4.

MWF is a member of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front. The coalition of conservation organizations, local outdoor and wildlife interests, ranchers, outfitters, hikers, business owners and Front enthusiasts have been working together for several years on homegrown conservation packages to protect the Front because of its exceptional fish and wildlife resources. Travel planning, the existing leases and other development are still issues hanging over the Front.

Wildlife enthusiasts, ranchers, local business owners, backpackers, and hunters and anglers are thrilled with the move by Congress in the final hours of the 109 th session to ban the federal government from new oil and gas drilling leases and hard rock mining on a 100 mile stretch of the Rocky Mountain Front (RMF).

Lawmakers considered and passed a tax-relief-cornucopia bill, with language authored by Sen. Max Baucus in the 11th hour, that prevents any future (new) oil, gas and hard rock mining leases on approximately 400,000 acres of RMF National Forest and BLM lands. A similar homegrown Appropriations measure crafted and introduced by Sen. Conrad Burns with the support of Front wildlife, hunting and ranching interests dead-ended when Congress delayed federal budget/appropriations approval.

Senator Baucus quickly and creatively stepped up to the plate with the measure that also provides tax incentives, tax breaks for oil companies that retire their existing leases on more than 100,000 acres. Many of these older leases were negotiated in the 1980s prior to a temporary moratorium on new leases in 1997 by then Lewis and Clark Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora. The Baucus measure is a wonderful win that permanently withdraws the public lands from any new development but does not resolve all of the challenges facing Front.

MWF extends it’s most sincere gratitude to Senator Baucus while assuring our membership and Coalition partners that we will continue to work diligently for long-term Front protective measures in the interest of our public wildlife, public lands and our hunting and angling heritage. We understand that we all use oil and gas and that energy development is needed, but we also believe that more focus needs to be placed on alternative energy and that – some places are too valuable to be developed. The Rocky Mountain Front is one of those very special places in Montana.

The leasing history of the Front is a long and convoluted one, but the current situation is as follows: For the 133,000 acre Badger Two Medicine area of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, located immediately south of Glacier National Park and west of the Blackfeet Reservation, there remain 47 leases totaling about 106,000 acres. To the best of our knowledge these leases are held by 15 different leaseholders, some companies and some individuals. The top three leaseholders by acreage in the area are Devon Energy, the Kohlman family partnership and British Petroleum.

For the Blackleaf area there remain 7 leases encompassing nearly 6000 acres, 4 of which are owned by Startech-Impact Energy of Calgary, Alberta Canada who had originally applied for a permit to perform exploratory drilling pursuant to their leases, which began the now halted Blackleaf EIS.

With the amount of public lands currently under lease for natural gas exploration being well over 100,000 acres, coupled with the fact that the leased areas are all considered to be critical wildlife habitat for one of the most biologically intact landscapes in the lower forty-eight states, it is easy to see why there is enormous concern on the part of many Montanans.

Solid, permanent protection for the Front will not be achieved until these leases are dealt with. MWF is committed to finding creative ways to encourage our elected leaders, concerned members of the public, as well as interested lease holders, to once and for all bring closure to the debate over whether or not a world class wildlife landscape should beharmed for short term gain.

In order for this to happen Montana's congressional delegation, as well as state leaders, need to hear from the hunting and angling public that there is indeed support for swift action. The halting of the Blackleaf EIS on the part of the current administration proves that the atmosphere and political understanding of what is at stake for Montanans is ripe for proactive protective measures.

Critical Big Game Winter Ranges on the Rocky Mountain Front

Click to download a printable pdf of this map, or, to recieve an 8 1/2" X 11" hard copy of this map, contact Ben Lamb, Montana Wildife Federation, PO Box 1175, Helena, MT 59624