“In
the flight from nature, the hunter….is being
dragged along unwillingly. The more hunters there
are, the slower that flight will be. Call us a drag
if you like, but a good sea anchor keeps your head
to the winds of change. Hunting is living. Living
is an art. In our much vaunted progress, we confuse
technology with the art of living.” - Biologist
C.H.D. Clark (1975)
The “flight from nature” that Clark referred
to in 1975 has increased dramatically over the past
30 years. But one place where that flight has been
successfully checked is Montana’s Rocky Mountain
Front, and Montana hunters have been the anchor.
With a tradition that stands on the shoulders of
conservationists like Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford
Pinchot, this diverse group of individuals has modestly
wielded a considerable amount of influence regarding
habitat conservation in the area. As part of the current
efforts to protect the Front, hunters are key to what
has become a broad coalition of interested citizens
concerned that the past 100 years of our conservation
work may be squandered away in just a fraction of
that time.
To bolster this effort Montana Wildlife Federation
worked with CommEn Space of Bozeman to produce a detailed
map illustrating the distribution of critical winter
range along the Front for five big game species: elk,
mountain goat, bighorn sheep, mule and whitetail deer.
Using Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks winter range
data, along with land management data from the Montana
Natural Resource Information System, the map emphasizes
how important the area is to the Northern Continental
Divide Ecosystem(NCDE) by detailing winter range along
the Front as well as highlighting where species use
overlaps within a 4,592,294 acre area. Of the 4 million-plus
acre area, which is bisected by the continental divide,
just over 3 million acres is under public ownership.
Initially, what is most striking about the map is
the total amount of winter range available for all
five species in comparison to the total size of the
mapped region. Winter range accounts for thirty-six
percent of the overall area. What this illustrates
is the limited amount of winter range available for
migratory ungulates relative to the size of the NCDE.
Impacts to the Front’s unique habitat integrity,
such as fragmentation by roads, energy development
and motorized trails, could ripple through the entire
ecosystem on both sides of the continental divide.
In this context it is easy to see why protecting
public lands along the Front is critical to the overall
health of wildlife populations within the NCDE. Luckily
many private land owners along the Front are helping
keep the area wild by continuing their traditional
stewardship practices, with a growing number increasing
their efforts. But the fate of public lands is uncertain.
That is why hunters and wildlife enthusiasts have
a large role to play with respect to the protection
of public lands along the Front.
Currently the threat of natural gas development and
misguided travel planning on public lands has many
hunters concerned that their recommendations may go
unheeded. A perfect example of this is the proposed
natural gas development within the BLM’s Blindhorse
Outstanding Natural Area(ONA).
Upon closer inspection of MWF’s Front winter
range map (go to www.montanawildlife.com) viewers
will see that the Blindhorse ONA is critical winter
range for three big-game species. In addition, the
area is known to be important spring habitat for grizzly
and black bears. The area was designated as “outstanding”
due to proven “exceptional, rare and unusual
natural characteristics.” The leases for the
federally owned minerals underneath the Blindhorse
ONA predate the area’s designation but that
doesn’t guarantee that natural gas exploration
will happen.
Whatever the area is called, there is no doubt that
the Blindhorse ONA is part of a limited amount of
critical wildlife habitat available within the NCDE.
That is why many hunters of the Front are supporting
pro-active solutions to keep this habitat from being
fragmented, as well as supporting permanent, legislative
protection for all publicly owned wildlife habitat
along the Front.
Being able to hunt in roadless lands, either designated
wilderness or not, is an opportunity being lost at
an alarming rate across the country. It is the collective
“flight from nature” that has caused many
hunters to wonder if the same kind of world class
opportunities that are a part Montana’s tradition
and history will be available for generations to come.
To simply try and keep energy development and irresponsible
motorized activity off public lands of the Front is
not a heavy enough anchor. To effectively protect
this landscape that has come to represent the clash
between blind energy consumption and the need for
protected, unbroken tracts of high quality wildlife
habitat, the Front requires permanent legislative
protection. To not do so would be to jeopardize the
overall health of one of the most spectacular pieces
of wild country in the world, not to mention a way
of life for many Montanans.
