“A thing is right when it
tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty
of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.” Aldo Leopold
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 4 Supervisor
Mike Aderhold’s formal comment regarding the
Lewis and Clark National Forest’s(LCNF) travel
planning process for the Rocky Mountain Ranger District(RMRD)
included not only the above wisdom of Aldo Leopold
but a clear professional opinion: “Alternative
3, by your[Forest Service] analysis and our analysis,
best serves the area’s wildlife resources. Wildlife
is our business and the main tenet of our agency’s
charter.”
The LCNF developed five travel plan alternatives
for the RMRD’s 391,000 acres of non-wilderness
lands west of Choteau along the Rocky Mountain Front.
MWF encouraged the public to take a good look at Alternative
3, which does not reduce access to public land, allowing
wheeled motorized travel to continue on all existing
main access roads to trailheads, developed campgrounds,
recreational cabins, and other facilities, as well
as on short spur roads leading to dispersed campsites.
Alternative 3 does allow the continued use of game
retrieval carts and protects the current dominant
use of horse and foot travel for hunting and fishing.
Most importantly Alternative 3 enhances the Front’s
core value of being secure, critical winter and spring
habitat for the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem
game species, including Bighorn sheep, black bear,
elk, mountain lion, moose, mountain goats, mule and
whitetail deer.
Within the more than 36,000 comments that the LCNF
received, many hunters and anglers who understand
the importance of high quality habitat security supported
a conservative approach and recognized the high value
of habitat security to its relationship to Montana’s
longer, more liberal hunting seasons. Many hunters
understand that there is such a thing as too much
motorized access which can fragment secure habitat
and make elk, deer and other species overly vulnerable.
In states with substantially less secure habitat,
agencies have had no choice but to add hunting restrictions
that usually reduce hunter numbers and/or opportunities.
Aderhold and his staff reinforced the need for a
common sense land ethic, an ethic that will inevitably
enhance our rich hunting and fishing tradition, an
ethic that is too often lost by today’s public
land management agencies. Thanks to Mike Aderhold,
his staff and the thousands of Americans who care
enough to get involved and make their opinions a part
of the process.
MWF is conducting an analysis of the comments and
will keep its members informed as the LCNF determines
the outcome.
