On the Front > Hunters in Front Conservation
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
A quick study of the history of conservation in America illustrates the strong connection between hunters and wildlife habitat preservation. Many icons of the movement, like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold, stand out as conservationists who drew heavily from their passion for hunting. This direct connection between a passion for hunting and a passion for protecting habitat has been the backbone of the effort to protect the Rocky Mountain Front for nearly 100 years.
In 1913 the Montana Legislature responded to the hunting community’s concerns over dwindling wildlife populations on the Front by creating the Sun River Game Preserve “for the protection of game animals and birds.” The act prohibited hunting and grazing on almost 200,000 acres of the upper portions of the Sun River. The preserve lies just west of the Rocky Mountain Front and today is contained almost entirely within the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness areas. The designation of the preserve is seen historically as a significant turning point in the management of wildlife in Montana, and by some as a defining moment in the history of Montana’s hunter conservation legacy.
This legacy lives on today.
The Rocky Mountain Front is considered among the best wildlife habitat left unprotected in the country. Because of this, conservation minded hunters and anglers are working with other concerned citizens to permanently protect this crucial component of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). These hunters and anglers understand well that opportunities for high quality wilderness hunting and fishing experiences are diminishing at an unacceptable rate.
The Rocky Mountain Front remains a place where such opportunities are open and accessible to the general public. The character of the area is that of a roadless, wild landscape dominated by traditional recreational uses, such as horse and foot travel for hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing.
Hunters and anglers have enjoyed public lands and waters along the Front for generations, have invested a tremendous amount of time and energy in its conservation and have a vested interest in seeing the area permanently protected for future generations to explore and enjoy.
If you would like to learn more, or would like to become involved with hunters and anglers in the movement to permanently protect the Rocky Mountain Front, contact Montana Wildlife Federation or visit them online.
View a Rocky Mountain Front winter range map illustrating the distribution and extent of critical winter range for five big game species.