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>

Issues > Lease Agreement

Resources

• Frequently Asked Questions


• View a map of RMF oil and gas leases courtesy of CommEn Space (275KB in PDF)


• Agreement reached with major energy companies to retire Front leases


• Front leasing ban earns unanimous support from Montana press


• Factsheet: Montana energy production


• Factsheet: Front protection benefits the public


• Factsheet: Montanans’ Place for Hunting and Hiking


• Factsheet: Precedents for Retiring Energy Leases


• Factsheet: Officials’ statements on retiring leases


• Letter: Blackfeet endorse lease retirement

Solutions: Agreements to retire the Front’s energy leases
In August 2006, the Coalition reached a critical milestone in its efforts to achieve permanent protection for Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front when it persuaded the Front’s most active leaseholder, Startech, to sell its leases. After months of negotiations, this diverse group of concerned Montanans reached an agreement with Startech’s owner Alberta Clipper Energy to sell its oil and gas leases in the Front’s Blackleaf area. The deal came on the heels of two other major developments: Questar’s agreement to relinquish its Blackleaf leases and Senator Conrad Burns’ introduction of legislation to withdraw the Front’s federal lands from future leasing. In December 2006, Congress passed alternative legislation introduced by Montana’s other senator, Max Baucus. The Coalition thanks both senators for their bipartisan effort to pass this legislation, which does not affect private and state-owned minerals.

Together, Questar and Startech controlled all the energy leases in the Blackleaf, an area west of Choteau that had been the subject of a controversial drilling proposal. The Bush Administration terminated an environmental review on this project in October 2004, citing public opposition to drilling the Front and this landscape’s importance as scenic habitat for cherished wildlife. Federal officials encouraged Montanans to seek creative agreements with Blackleaf leaseholders to put an end to the controversy.

The Front’s Blackleaf area is a favorite destination for hikers and outfitted parties on horseback. Guide Dave Hovde leads a group in the Blindhorse Outstanding Natural Area near the spot where Startech once planned to drill for natural gas. The company has agreed to sell all its leases here, an important step toward permanently removing the threat of drilling in these foothills under Lewis and Clark National Forest’s Choteau Mountain. Photo by Gloria Flora

To secure assurance from the government that the old federal leases won’t go on the auction block at some later date, Congress acted to make permanent current government policy to not issue any new oil and gas leases on the Front’s federal land. The Coalition hopes the Blackleaf deals will serve as a model for retiring the many federal leases that blanket the Badger-Two Medicine, the northern portion of the Front held sacred by the Blackfeet Nation. This homegrown solution continues a 100-year tradition of conservation on the Front, protects public access and ranching traditions, enjoys the support of most Montanans and helps maintain this stunning landscape for future generations to enjoy. Studies show there is little energy potential along the Front and putting the drilling controversy to rest will help spur the economic vitality of Front communities.