House supports resolution dissolving wilderness study areas

February 28, 2017 by Laura Lundquist

On Tuesday, the Montana House of Representatives gave initial approval to a bill that would ask Congress to dissolve seven wilderness study areas and open the lands to multiple uses, including logging, mining and a wide range of recreation.

Rep. Kerry White, R-Bozeman, told the House that House Joint Resolution 9 is just asking Congress to do its job and decide the fate of seven wilderness study areas designated in the Montana Wilderness Study Act of 1977. The act directed the federal government to study the areas and then decide within five years whether to create wilderness or not. Until the decision was made, the areas were to be maintained in a wild condition, which has prompted wilderness opponents to call the areas “de-facto wilderness.”

Swan-Blackfoot group renews collaborative wilderness bill

November 19, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

Residents of the Blackfoot and Swan valleys want to designate more wilderness around them, but they say it would be part of a bigger plan to preserve their lands and rural way of life.

On Wednesday night, more than 100 people packed into the Missoula Public Library conference room to learn about a renewed push by the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project to add 83,000 acres of wilderness to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain wildernesses.

Wilderness leaders debate priorities for future management

October 29, 2015 by Laura Lundquist

One of the men who made the Wilderness Act a reality implored wilderness managers not to lose sight of their top priority: keeping wilderness wild.

“Let’s take wildness for what it is,” said former Wilderness Society executive director Stewart Brandborg. “Right now, we’re facing a crisis in wilderness. A lot of people this meeting are discussing degrees and varieties of wilderness. Let’s take the word “wild” and live by it as the initial sponsor intended.”