The Gallatin Range, Montana

Wildflowers wave in the persistent breezes of Windy Pass, high in the Gallatin Divide Roadless Area. To the south, the peaks of Yellowstone National Park are visible. Photo by Phil Knight

The Gallatin Divide Roadless Area, Gallatin Fringe Roadless Area, and Hyalite Roadless Area comprise the core of this 202,000 acre roadless area—the largest unprotected roadless piece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Gallatin Range roadless area stretches from just south of Bozeman all the way to the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park.

One hundred and fifty one thousand acres are tentatively protected by Congress as the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area. Unfortunately, off road vehicles such as snowmobiles and motorcycles are still allowed here. Abuse of the land by riders of four-wheel All Terrain Vehicles has led the Forest Service to temporarily ban ATVs from some of the WSA. Seventeen miles of the Big Sky Snowmobile Trails traverses the Gallatin Range, and some areas are open to unrestricted snowmobiling, including grizzly bear denning areas and critical wolverine habitat. Some of the best elk and deer hunting in the world is also found here.

Thirty three trails within the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area have been opened to off road vehicles since 1977, when the WSA was created. Many trails have been damaged and degraded as a result. This motorcyclist is riding the Gallatin Divide Trail. Photo by Phil Knight

While the main threat to this area is burgeoning off road vehicle use, some old growth forests could be opened to logging and road building if the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is overturned, especially outside of the WSA. Were Congress to also release the range from its WSA status, logging and road building could conceivably occur in places like Porcupine Creek, which has essential grizzly bear habitat, elk and mule deer winter range, and old growth forest. Millions of dollars from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund have been spent in the last decade to buy out private inholdings in places like Porcupine and Buffalo Horn Creeks.

The Gallatin Range consists of volcanic rocks originating in the Yellowstone Caldera. The topography is vast, open ridges, steep ten thousand foot peaks, deep remote drainages, vast meadows and sagebrush slopes, and forests of Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, lodgepole pine and whitebark pine.

Upper Hyalite Canyon, Gallatin Range, Montana - De-facto, unprotected wilderness of the highest quality. Photo: Phil Knight

Some of the last best habitat for grizzly bears is found here, as well as herds of bighorn sheep, mountain goat, mule deer and other ungulates. The range contains essential wintering and birthing grounds for some of the nation's largest elk herds. Wolves are reinhabiting the range after a seventy year absence, and the threatened lynx probably still survives in the Gallatins. Twenty three plant and animals species listed as threatened, endangered or sensitive exist here. This range is also an essential wildlife corridor linking the Yellowstone region with the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem and points north to the Yukon.

It's hard to say too much about this superlative mountain range. It contains the world's most extensive petrified forest, with nearly 26,000 acres designated a Special Management Zone, and headwaters streams for blue-ribbon fisheries such as the Madison, Gallatin and Yellowstone rivers, as well as the sources for the city of Bozeman's drinking water.

Humans have inhabited the area for at least 11,000 years as indicated by shaped arrow points and rock chips. The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled just north of the Gallatin Range when Clark led a return party over the Bozeman Pass in 1806. Hundreds of miles of public trails now traverse the Gallatin range, including the spectacular Gallatin Divide Trail, one of the nation's premier mountain crest trails.

Wolverine in Swan Creek, Gallatin Range Photo by Wild Things Unlimited

NFN Last Refuge Campaign
c/o NFN Yellowstone
Phil Knight
POB 6151
Bozeman, MT 59771
Ph: (406) 586-3885
pknight@wildrockies.org