For more than 50 years, generations of passionate and persistent citizens have worked hard to ensure that the Gallatin and Madison Ranges continue to provide important wildlife habitat, clean water, and wild places where people find adventure and solace.
Today’s debate about the future of these mountains is based on that legacy, and for that we are deeply grateful. These mountains are some of the wildest places left in the lower 48 states.
As veterans of previous efforts to protect the Gallatin and Madison mountain ranges, we support the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act proposed by the Gallatin Forest PartnershipThis legislation – which secures 250,000 acres of public lands in these two mountain ranges for future generations – is a realistic and widely supported proposal that represents the next (though certainly not the last) step in protecting these wilderness areas.
The law designates the approximately 102,000-acre Gallatin Wilderness Area, which stretches from the base of Hyalite Peak in the south to the border of Yellowstone National Park.
A checkerboard pattern of land where every other square mile belonged to timber companies once prevented the Gallatin Range from being designated as a wilderness area. More than 25 years ago, Montanans worked together to transfer these private lands to public ownership. In that spirit of collaboration, today’s proposal builds on those earlier efforts and takes the next logical step to permanently protect the Gallatin Range for future generations.
The bill will also add 22,000 acres to the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, including Cowboy Heaven – the missing link to finally connect the Spanish Peaks and Bear Trap Wildernesses. Previous attempts to designate Cowboy Heaven have failed. Now we finally have a chance to protect this wildlife-rich area and create a unique wilderness that stretches from the summits of the Spanish Peaks to the Madison River.
In total, the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act protects nearly 124,000 acres of new wilderness in the Madison and Gallatin Mountains. Legislative efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s would have designated only 63,000 acres of wilderness in the Gallatin Mountains.
Through a number of additional provisions, this bill will protect an additional 125,000 acres of wilderness from new development that threatens important habitats, while preserving existing recreational access for bicyclists and snowmobilers. West Pine in the northern Gallatin Range and Porcupine-Buffalo Horn near Big Sky will remain as they are today.
We believe this represents a major victory for wildlife, which needs space to roam, for people who want to explore remote places on foot or horseback, and for bicyclists and snowmobilers, who have access to trails that were available to them before 1977, when Congress designated Wilderness Study Areas in both mountain ranges.
Growing pressure on recreation and lack of enforcement by the Forest Service allowed an expansion of motorized recreation throughout the Gallatin Range, which ran counter to Congress’s 1977 directive to preserve the wild character of the area. After years of litigation, the Forest Service implemented the current Traffic Management Plan for the WSA, creating the system of recreational access we know today.
This law will maintain existing access and prevent expansion of recreational space, ensuring that wildlife that relies on wild places can continue to thrive.
Finding a path to permanent protection of our wilderness has been challenging and difficult, and passing wilderness protection laws has always been about the art of the possible.
The Gallatin Forest Partnership has developed a realistic proposal to protect 250,000 acres of wild, undeveloped, unbroken land. This laudable effort builds on past successes and provides a good foundation for future conservation.
And it’s just in time, because Montana is growing and changing rapidly. We can’t wait another decade to secure permanent protection for this important part of the greater Yellowstone region.
We should act quickly and pass the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act. Future generations will be as grateful as we are to those who led previous efforts to protect our wild backyards.
Michael Scott and Tim Stevens are long-time conservation leaders in Montana and have worked with many conservation organizations in the region as staff, board members and volunteers.
