Permanent Protection for the Rocky Mountain Front

Dear Email Sentry:

Montana Hunters and Anglers:

We need your help with ongoing efforts to achieve permanent protection for the Rocky Mountain Front. Below is a "sign on" letter to Montana's Congressional delegation showing support from grassroots Montana hunters and anglers for protecting the Front. We have circulated the letter in the past, and already have about 300 signatures. This is a final effort to gather more signatures before we release the letter.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. SIGN ON: Please read the letter (below) and, if you agree and have not yet signed on, you can sign on by sending your name and town where you live to: dstalling@tu.org
2. PASS THIS ON: If you have already signed on, please pass this on to others and encourage your friends and family to sign on.
3. SEND PHOTOS: We are also planning to compile a photo album to present to our Congressional delegation, with photos of Montana hunters and anglers, and families, hunting, fishing, hiking or otherwise enjoying the wildlands and wildlife along the Front. If you have photos of yourself or others hunting, fishing, with fish you have caught or elk, deer, pronghorn, or other wildlife you have shot, please send them, along with the names of the people in the photos, to: dstalling@tu.org

We hope this sign on letter and photo album will send a clear, strong message to our Congressional delegation that Montana hunters and anglers cherish our public lands within the Rocky Mountain Front, the irreplaceable hunting and fishing experience these wildlands sustain, and want to protect from unnecessary gas and oil development. If you have any questions, contact: David Stalling, Western Field Coordinator, Trout Unlimited, (406) 721-4441, dstalling@tu.org.

Thanks for you help!

LETTER:

Dear Senator Burns, Senator Baucus and Congressman Rehberg:

We, the undersigned, are residents of Montana and hunters and anglers. Our professions vary from ranchers, business people, doctors, lawyers, engineers, wildlife professionals, to educators. All of us share a common passion for hunting and fishing, and a love of the Rocky Mountain Front. We are writing to ask that as our elected senators and representative, you all work together to support the permanent protection of the Front from oil and gas development.

The Rocky Mountain Front has rightfully been called America's Serengeti. As you know, it is a place where the Rockies leap from the plains, and as the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks points out, it remains in the top one percent of habitat for fish and wildlife in Montana. By our thinking, that translates to the top percent of habitat in the lower 48.

The Front harbors one of the largest herds of bighorn sheep in the country. Its streams are filled with some of the purest strains of westslope cutthroat trout in the State. Some of the finest mule deer hunting in the country is found on the Front. The Front provides important elk over-wintering habitat, and abundant elk hunting opportunities.

As you know, the Forest Service administratively withdrew much of the Front from new oil and gas leasing in the late 1990s. There remain, however, old leases whose development the Secretary of Interior wisely chose to suspend last year; partly because of the concerns expressed by Montana's hunters and anglers. According to the Forest Service, more than one-third of Montana resident households hunt, and nearly half fish. The Front's fish and wildlife resources contribute to the fact that fish and wildlife related expenditures in Montana contribute well over one billion dollars in economic impact in the State.

All of us support responsible energy development of our public lands. These lands play an important role in local economic development and help to fuel the nation. However, some places are simply too important for fish and wildlife to drill. We respectfully submit, based on our own personal experience, that the Rocky Mountain Front country is one of these places.

None of us are legislators or politicians, but as residents and voters, we are asking you to listen to the voices of thousands of hunters and anglers from Montana, and to seek common sense solutions, such as trading or buying out existing leases, to permanently protect the Front from oil and gas development.

Sincerely,

The undersigned hunters and anglers of Montana:

Thank you for stepping up for Montana's Lands, Waters, and fair-chase hunting/angling heritage.

Montana Wildlife Federation, with nearly 7,000 members, is the largest and oldest statewide nonprofit wildlife conservation organization of hunters and anglers who work to protect Montana's lands and waters and its hunting and fishing heritage.

To learn more about MWF, go to www.montanawildlife.com.

This message is brought to you by the Montana Wildlife Federation ... Montana's largest, statewide wildlife conservation organization with over 7,000 members.