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 > A Landscape Under Siege

Do drill rigs and motors belong here?
The wild beauty and scenic solitude of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front are not guaranteed and cannot be taken for granted. New oil and gas leasing on the Lewis and Clark National Forest is prohibited for 10 to 15 years under a 1997 moratorium. But this decision does not affect the 55 pre-existing leases on the Front and some leaseholders are seeking permission to drill for natural gas. Emerging agreements between some energy companies and Montana citizens would retire some of these leases, but only if Congress authorizes a withdrawal of the Front’s federal mineral estate. And an ongoing travel plan revision could leave much of the Front’s national forest trails open to increasing motorized traffic. Without the permanent protection accorded under Wilderness or other special designations, however, conflicts over land use will recur and extractive industries will continue to threaten the Front’s natural values.

Learn more:
Threat: Energy development
Threat: Motorized Use
Preserving public lands: the new economic driver in Montana
Roadless conservation: why roadless matters
Solutions: agreement to retire energy leases