Help keep the Front the way it is now! Increasingly, important habitat along the Rocky Mountain Front is under pressure from the subdivision of private land for residential development. Conservation easements have proven to be a valuable tool for protecting wildlife and a traditional way of life by leaving land in private ownership. However, in order to capitalize on the gains already made, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in need of renewed funding to purchase additional conservation easements in the coming years. Learn how you can help this important program>>
Travel Plan for the Rocky Mountain Front Released!
The Coalition applauded the Forest Service for its plan that protects wildlife while emphasizing traditional uses on the Front. On October 1st, the Lewis and Clark released a final Travel Plan for the lower two-thirds of the Rocky Mountain Front covering roughly 390,000 acres, excluding the Badger-Two Medicine area. The Plan will guide all travel, recreation, and other uses on the Front for the next two decades, specifying routes for hikers and horseback riders, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles (ORVs) ...more>

Contact Us > Helpful Contacts

Local Residents

Roy Jacobs is a taxidermist and hunter who grew up on the Rocky Mountain Front. The Choteau resident is a vocal opponent of drilling on the Front. 406-466-2995 (w), 406-469-2346.

Choteau resident Gene Sentz is a fourth-grade teacher and summer guide outfitter who has hiked every trail and climbed every peak on the Rocky Mountain Front. He founded Friends of the Rocky Mountain Front 25 years ago. 406-466-2750, friends@3rivers.net.

Keith Tatsey, who teaches natural resources at Blackfeet Community College, is the director of the tribe’s Badger Two Medicine committee. 406-338-5111, email keith_tatsey@bfcc.org.

Guidebook author Bill Cunningham has guided backpacking trips in the Front and the Bob Marshall Wilderness for decades. He is a member of BLM's Central Mountain Resource Advisory Council (RAC) and lives in Choteau. 406-466-5699, billpoll@3rivers.net.

Dusty Crary is a life-long progressive rancher in the Teton River area near the Front’s Blindhorse Outstanding Natural Area, the site of proposed drilling. Dusty is dedicated to the permanent preservation of the Front because its exceptional natural values, and the traditional uses they support, offer a solid foundation for future economic opportunities. 406-466-2245, dusty@montana.com.

For more than 40 years, Chuck Blixrud has been an outfitter on the Front and is now the owner of the Seven Lazy P Guest Ranch. Chuck feels drilling will undermine Teton County’s economic future. 406-466-2044, sevenlazyp@montana.com.

Karl Rappold, a former rodeo rider, runs cattle on his 7,000-acre ranch near Dupuyer. Grizzly bears, elk and other wildlife continue to roam this land that the Rappold family has owned since before Montana was a state. The ex-Bush supporter is outspoken against drilling and supports legislation protecting the Front. 406-472-3268, rappold@3rivers.net.

Stoney Burk, a conservative lawyer and business owner in Choteau, is a staunch defender of the Front’s natural values. 406-466-5755, email burklaw@3rivers.net.

Mary Sexton, a Choteau resident and a former Teton County Commissioner, heads the Montana Department of Natural Resources. Stressing that the economic health of the area depends on maintaining the Front’s natural qualities, Sexton is an outspoken critic of drilling proposals on the Front. 406-466-2151, email msexton@3rivers.net.

George and Patti Widener, residents of Columbia Falls, own land that drillers must cross to access Blackleaf leases. 406-387-4159, email gdw@centurytel.net.

Scientists

Quentin Kujala is a wildlife biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, based in Fairfield, 406-467-2488.

Petroleum geologist David W. Stearns is Professor Emeritus of Energy Resources at the University of Oklahoma and has done research along the Front for the last 40 years. He believes industry estimates of energy potential on the Front are grossly inflated. 405-329-3034, email mtdwstearns@aol.com.

Biologist Barrie Gilbert is a retired Utah State University scientist who has studied the impacts of motorized recreation on wildlife habitat and behavior. 435-797-2540, email bgilbert@cc.usu.edu.

Dave Hanna is a land steward for The Nature Conservancy’s Pine Butte Swamp Preserve. 406-466-5526, email dhanna@tnc.org.

Agency officials

Gloria Flora is a former supervisor with the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and Nevada. As the Lewis and Clark National Forester supervisor, she decided in 1997 to ban new oil and gas leasing on the Rocky Mountain Front. Gloria now directs Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining public lands and the plant, animal and human communities that depend on them. 406-495-0738, email gflora@s-o-solutions.org.

Mike Aderhold, who recently retired as northcentral region supervisor for Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, has documented the extensive biological diversity of the Front, identifying it as the cream of America’s inventory of wildlife habitat. 406-453-2549, email maderhold@state.mt.us.

Don Judice is the oil and gas supervisor for Bureau of Land Management’s Lewiston office, 406-791-7789, email djudice@mt.blm.gov.

Michael Munoz is the national forest’s Rocky Mountain District Ranger in Choteau, 406-466-5341, email mamunoz@fs.fed.us.

Dick Schwecke is a travel planner with the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Great Falls, 406-791-7747, dschwecke@fs.fed.us.