About the Rocky Mountain Front

Formed where the Great Plains roll out of the east and crash into the high limestone cliffs of the Rocky Mountains, Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front is one of our nation’s most inspiring and evocative unprotected wildlands. Stretching for 100 miles from Rogers Pass to Glacier National Park the Front is primarily comprised of the Lewis & Clark National Forest, with significant tracts of private and state lands, and lands that are sacred to the Blackfeet Nation.

Photos by Cameron Naficy

The Front forms the eastern edge of the Glacier-Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and harbors the richest diversity of large mammals left in the United States. It is home to some of the lower 48 states' largest herds of bighorn sheep and elk, lynx, cougar, wolf, coyote, fox, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope, deer, moose, eagles, falcons, black bear, beaver, native trout, and a suite of mesocarnivores including wolverine, marten and fisher. The Front serves as the nation's premier migratory flyway for golden eagles and is the only place in the United States where the grizzly bear still roams and hunts on the Great Plains. Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks places the Front within the top 1% of wildlife habitat in the nation.

Click on these links to learn more about the geography and current protected status of the Front.

Why Protect the Front

Efforts to protect Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, its wildlife, and the traditional activities and lifestyles that have developed there are rooted deeply in the Front's history. Ranchers, hunters, anglers, land managers, conservationists, and local, state and federal politicians have all worked for generations to protect individual parts of the Front.
	Photo by Cameron Naficy
As a result of these efforts, numerous wilderness areas have been protected, 3 Wildlife Management Areas have been created on state lands, 4 Outstanding Natural Areas exist on Bureau of Land Management lands, and large private reserves such as the Pine Butte Swamp Preserve and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch have been created.
Outside of these protected areas, though, are nearly half a million acres of spectacular, publicly owned wildlands located on the Lewis & Clark National Forest, Bureau of Land Management land, and state lands.

	These unprotected areas of the Front join the state Wildlife Management Areas, and the low elevation prairie foothills that serve as wintering grounds for a multitude of wildlife species, with the larger Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex where many animals move in the summertime. Permanent protection of the Front would assure the preservation of the habitat heterogeneity and connectivity that has allowed the Front's wildlife to thrive and grow.
All of these lands are unprotected. Photo by Cameron Naficy
Without protection, the Front's wildlife are threatened with a network of roads, gas wells, and industrial traffic that would separate the winter feeding grounds, spring calving grounds, and summer ranges of much of the Front's wildlife.

For a map of currently protected areas on the Front or more on this topic, click here.

Permanent protection of the Front would safegaurd the traditional uses and lifestyles of those who live adjacent to the Front itself and help to protect the economic stability of neighboring towns such as Augusta and Choteau. Much of the private property that lies adjacent to public lands on the Front is undeveloped, dotted with ranches, small cabins, and a mix of state and BLM lands. Oil and gas development or increased motorized use on the Front will negatively impact the productivity of the land for ranchers, the lifestyles of many who live there, and the economic stability of nearby towns whose economies depend on the natural character of the Front.