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>

On the Front

The earliest Americans traveled the Old North Trail along Miistakis, the Backbone of the World

A Truly Special Place
Here the Northern Rockies rise up against the Great Plains in an unbroken 110-mile chain of jagged limestone along the Continental Divide. This collision of vast land forms has created a foothill transition area that is among the finest wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. The Rocky Mountain Front plays a crucial role as winter range for migratory big game in a much vaster intact ecosystem comprised of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and Glacier National Park. Elk, bighorn sheep, mule and whitetail deer, even the hearty mountain goat all depend on the lower-elevation landscapes of the Rockies’ eastern front, where mild Chinook winds clear enough snow for winter forage and easier travel.

Unmatched wildlife habitat
The high rocky crags, timbered slopes and lush meadows of the Front harbor more than 290 wildlife species and a third of all plant species found in Montana. Except for wild bison, all of the species present before European settlement remain. Threatened species, such as grizzly bear, Canadian lynx and gray wolf, persist in numbers rivaled in few other places. Also present are healthy populations of bobcats, wolverines, swift and red foxes, moose, golden and bald eagles, harlequin ducks, badgers, peregrine falcons, cutthroat trout, beaver, at least seven species of owl, and at least 11 species of hawk. Learn more about the Front’s biodiversity.

Backbone of the World: Sacred lands of the Blackfeet
The earliest Americans traveled the Old North Trail along Miistakis, the Backbone of the World, making their way from Canada to the southern reaches of the Rockies. Few know of this 10,000-year-old trail because extensive development has wiped out all traces of it, except in one place: the Rocky Mountain Front of Montana. Fragments of the Old North Trail are still visible along this wild and sparsely inhabited landscape.

The trail crosses an unprotected cultural treasure called the Badger-Two Medicine, sandwiched between Glacier to the north and the Blackfeet Reservation to the east. Some Blackfeet creation stories emerged from these lands. Rites of passage, vision quests, ceremonies, medicinal plant gathering and other sacred traditions are practiced in these mountains today as they have been for centuries. Much of this pristine 130,000-acre area drained by the Badger and Two Medicine creeks has been nominated for inclusion in the nation’s largest Traditional Cultural District, recognizing Native Americans’ ancient spiritual ties to this corner of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The Blackfeet Nation has gone on record opposing proposed energy development and recreational motorized use here.

A Duty to Future Generations
Here is a living museum of intact natural landscapes, supporting an abundance of life. Today, the Rocky Mountain Front allows us to experience beauty, meaning and solitude in a vast landscape. We should use this landscape only in ways that allow those who come after us to enjoy the same benefits. Preserving the Front’s collaborative conservation legacy is the greatest gift we can give future generations. Help us carry the messages from the earliest travelers along Miistakis to our great-grandchildren.

This sacred land is too precious to sacrifice!