Montana Wildlife Federation Resolution to Protect the Front

2004 ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT CONSERVATION POLICY RESOLUTION
Passed by Affiliate Hunter/Angler Conservation Organizations St. Louis, Missouri
March, 2004

Submitted by: Montana Wildlife Federation
Co-Sponsor (s): Wyoming Wildlife Federation

Position: Moratorium on Gas and Oil Development within Montana's Rocky
Mountain Front

Affiliate: Montana Wildlife Federation

Date Passed: March 13, 2004

Result: 47 State Wildlife Conservation Affiliate Groups Attending. 45
vote to support resolution.

Beginning in the early 1900s, sportsmen and conservationists of Montana
have protected portions of the Front by establishing State wildlife
management areas and designated wilderness areas. Today these areas and
the interconnecting landscapes are threatened by new, gas development
proposals. MWF, working with hunters, hikers, horse back riders,
outfitters and lovers of wildlife is taking a stand believing that the
habitat degradation resulting from drilling, roads and infrastructure is
not an acceptable exchange for the limited gas reserves that may be
recovered.

2004 PROPOSED CONSERVATION POLICY RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the nearly 500,000-acre, 100-mile stretch of vast wildlands south
of Glacier National Park, known as the Rocky Mountain Front, form one of
the most dramatic transitions from peaks to prairies in North America; and

WHEREAS, adjacent to and including Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall
and Scapegoat Wilderness areas, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the
culturally important Badger Two Medicine area, the Lewis and Clark
National Forest, three state wildlife management areas and four Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) Outstanding Natural Areas, the vast state, federal,
tribal and private lands within the Rocky Mountain Front make up the
largest, most intact wild country left in the lower 48 states; and

WHEREAS, the mountains, prairies, forests, sagebrush, rivers, streams and
other habitats within the Rocky Mountain Front sustain an abundance and
diversity of both nationally and internationally significant wildlife,
more than 290 species in all, including bighorn sheep, mountain goats,
bobcats, whitetail and mule deer, wolverines, coyotes, swift and red
foxes, moose, golden and bald eagles, harlequin ducks, at lease seven
species of owls, badgers, mountain lions, peregrine falcons, northern
harriers, at least 11 species of hawks, cutthroat trout, beaver, black
bears and several threatened and endangered species including grizzly
bear, Canadian lynx and gray wolves; and

WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front contains crucial winter and spring range
for Montana's largest native herd of bighorn sheep, which may be the
largest native herd south of Canada, and second largest herd of elk, and
is the last place left in the contiguous United States where grizzlies
still roam the Great Plains; and,

WHEREAS, wildlife biologists and conservationists have declared the Rocky
Mountain Front to be in the top one percent of best wildlife habitat left
in the contiguous United States; and

WHEREAS, the Blackfeet Nation considers portions of the Rocky Mountain
Front, particularly the Badger Two Medicine area, to be sacred and
significant to their cultural values, beliefs and ways; and,

WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front provides innumerable and invaluable
hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and other important recreational and
spiritual opportunities for all citizens of our nation; and,

WHEREAS, being one of the wildest places left in a state where hunting,
fishing and other wildlife-related recreation contributes more than $1
billion to local economies, a healthy and wild Rocky Mountain Front is a
strong and crucial economic asset to local businesses and the state of
Montana; and,

WHEREAS, a new National Energy Policy, formed in secrecy with the energy
industry, calls for increased drilling for gas and oil in special areas on
public wildlands throughout the western United States, including portions
of Wyoming's Red Desert, New Mexico's Otero Mesa, Colorado's Roan Plateau,
and Montana's Rocky Mountain Front; and

WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front is one of these places considered too
wild to drill, where far more would be lost than gained by wild-cat
drilling for gas and oil within this unique and wild place; and

WHEREAS, the best estimates for economically recoverable natural gas
within the Rocky Mountain Front is believed to meet our Nation‚s needs
from about two to four days; and

WHEREAS, gas and oil drilling within the Rocky Mountain Front, with
associated roads and infrastructure, will severely fragment important
wildlife habitat, adversely affect air and water quality, alter
communities, and greatly diminish the ecological integrity and the
aesthetic, wild and spiritual values of the Rocky Mountain Front; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service, under public pressure and in recognition
of the unique values and significance of the Rocky Mountain Front has, in
the past, placed a temporary moratorium on gas and oil drilling within the
Rocky Mountain Front; and

WHEREAS, hunters, outfitters, ranchers, businessmen, Blackfeet tribal
leaders and a variety of other local citizens with diverse backgrounds
have united in a common cause to protect the Rocky Mountain Front, and
have made it clear that they do not want any gas and oil drilling to occur
within the Rocky Mountain Front; and

WHEREAS, the Montana Wildlife Federation, an affiliate of the National
Wildlife Federation, in cooperation with Friends of the Rocky Mountain
Front, the Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society, Trout
Unlimited and numerous hunting and angling clubs from throughout the state
of Montana, is focusing on the protection of the Rocky Mountain Front as
one of its top priorities; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at
its annual meeting assembled March 11-13, 2004, in St. Louis, Missouri,
calls for legislation that would prohibit energy exploration and
development on public lands managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land
Management and the state of Montana within the Rocky Mountain Front; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation supports
legislation that would require a study of the value of existing oil and
gas leases and options, costs and recommended next steps needed to ensure
a fair and equitable process for compensation of willing leaseholders who
wish to forfeit or trade existing oil and gas leases on the public lands
managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the state of
Montana within the Rocky Mountain Front.

Commentary:
Montanans call it the Front. Generations of Blackfeet have known it as the
"backbone of the world" and regard it as sacred. Wildlife biologists refer
to it as America‚s Serengetti and place it in the top one percent of
wildlife habitat left in the lower 48. This portion of the North American
Continental Divide stretches over one hundred miles and is the most wild,
intact piece of culturally and ecologically unique wildlife habitat
unprotected in America. Comprised of almost 500,000 acres of state and
federal lands, including three State Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and
four BLM Outstanding Natural Areas, the corridor‚s tenuous habitat
security is a default result of almost 400,000 acres of designated
wilderness bordering it to the west and vast tracts of uninhabited
agricultural land that interface with the Great Plains to the east. The
immensity of the Front, the nearly roadless, unfragmented, undeveloped
condition, and the extraordinary wildlife diversity, make it one of the
most important pieces of wildlife habitat left in America.