Front lease agreement start of something good
2007-04-17 - The incentives accompanying January's permanent ban on new leases on federal land along the Rocky Mountain Front are working. Trout Unlimited has bought natural gas drilling leases on a couple of tracts in the Badger-Two Medicine area just south of Glacier National Park. ....The Front's rocky peaks are visible from 100 miles away, and the lifestyle — including the ag and recreation industries — the area supports cannot be matched elsewhere. Once those values are lost, they are difficult if not impossible to restore. We hope more such deals are in the offing. (Great Falls Tribune)

Permanent Front drilling ban worth celebrating
2006-12-17 - We've long held that benefit of keeping Montana's most special places — of which the Rocky Mountain Front is the crown jewel — special is a long-term economic benefit, to the region and to the state. One has only to look at the state's burgeoning tourism and recreation industries — and at the reasons visitors give for choosing Montana — to understand the importance of keeping our attractions, well, attractive. According to the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana, nonresident visitors to Montana topped 10 million for the first time in 2005, contributing $2.7 billion to the state's economy. (Great Falls Tribune)

Front protection gets needed boost: Good environmental policy and sound energy policy coincide with lease retirements.
2006-12-13 - Congress has not saved the Rocky Mountain Front, contrary to the cheerful banter about legislative action last week. What Congress actually did with a helpful provision tacked onto a tax bill was ensure that the federal bureaucracy won't create an impediment to the broad-based, citizen-initiated efforts to protect the wild, stunningly beautiful, wildlife-rich and environmentally sensitivecountry lying roughly between Highways 200 and 2, where the Rocky Mountains tumble out onto the Plains. It's Montanans who are saving the Front. They've got miles to go before they rest, but the effort is gaining momentum. (Missoulian)

Preserving Montana's Rocky Mountain Front
2006-12-13 - Legislation to permanently ban gas, oil and mineral exploration in the Rocky Mountain Front is on President Bush's desk as part of a larger tax relief bill. A land of incomparable beauty teeming with wildlife and outdoor recreational value, the Front has inspired its friends to protect it.....Finally, Rocky Mountain Front protection that has been in temporary rules for a decade will be written into law permanently, thanks to Baucus and the perseverance of Montana ranchers, anglers, hunters, outfitters and other conservationists. (Billings Gazette)

A big victory for the Front
2006-12-12 - The Rocky Mountain Front rises from the plains for more than 100 miles. Its grandeur is only matched by its importance as one of the last large pristine habitats for wildlife in the country. We congratulate everyone involved in making sure it remains that way for future generations to appreciate in their turn. (Helena Independent Record)

Still a chance to pass Front-protection measure
2006-11-26 - It would be a shame if Congress went home in a couple of weeks without acting on a delicately worked out measure to withdraw federal lands on the Rocky Mountain Front from oil and gas leasing. Added to the Interior Department's appropriation bill by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., the legislation would help secure the Front against speculative gas exploration and the disruption that it would cause. As a coalition of 30 hunting, angling and conservation organizations wrote in a plea to every member of Congress a month ago, the measure, along with actions by two energy companies to relinquish their leases, will help to permanently protect the Rocky Mountain Front. (Great Falls Tribune)

Front provision promises lasting legacy: Make permanently retiring leases a priority before Congress adjourns
2006-11-15 - Congress has reconvened for a relatively brief lame-duck session to address unfinished business before adjournment. Along with some high-profile issues is an almost non-contentious issue of great importance to Montanans: a provision that would help ensure lasting protection of the incomparable Rocky Mountain Front. Sen. Conrad Burns has an opportunity to help create a legacy of lasting importance. To succeed, he'll need all the help he can get from his Montana colleagues, Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg. Continued expressions of support from you and your neighbors can help, too. (Missoulian)

Congress should pass Burns language on Front
2006-08-08 - The news that Startech Energy was selling its mineral leases in the Blackleaf area of the Rocky Mountain Front means federal land west of Choteau won't see oil and gas exploration — provided legislation introduced in June by Sen. Conrad Burns gets congressional approval. We hope Rep. Denny Rehberg will accept Burns' proposal to withdraw the Front from future leasing and side with those who want the Front preserved. It could — and should— be argued that the Front belongs to all Americans, and that the area's value as a scenic and wildlife resource outstrips whatever drop-in-the-bucket contribution it could make to American energy independence. Fuel for America's oil addiction can be found in many forms in many places, but there's only one Rocky Mountain Front. (Great Falls Tribune)

Front protection gains ground
2006-07-09 - Barring future leases is a useful step - not just in securing long-term protection for the area but also in better addressing America's energy needs.... There are many other places in the United States considered to offer much higher potential for gas and oil - places that generally are far less environmentally fragile than the Front. None of the talk and study and fighting about the Front has or will produce a single Btu. America needs energy, not talk and litigation, so it makes sense to focus energy investments in areas more likely to produce energy. (Missoulian)

Good news for the Front
2006-06-29 - Four years ago, Burns supported oil and gas leasing on the Front, calling it in the national interest. But now he says he’s listened to groups “across the spectrum” that oppose drilling on the Front and believes his legislation “strikes a commonsense balance that benefits all parties involved.” Burns said it is clear that the Front “is a critical area for habitat, recreation, agriculture, and just to appreciate the majesty of Montana.” It’s hard to disagree with that. (Helena Independent Record)

Front fight centers on unproven protential
2005-08-25 - Amid a campaign to preserve Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, drillers are staring at a dry hole at Flesher Pass, just to the south. If this new dry hole doesn't end speculation about the energy-producing potential beneath the Front, it certainly does nothing to bolster speculation that there are BTUs aplenty trapped beneath the region where the Rocky Mountains break onto the Montana plains. (Missoulian)

It's a win-win approach to conservation: Plan for securing habitat, open space along the Rocky Mountain Front deserves support.
2005-05-23 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new Land Protection Plan for the Rocky Mountain Front proposes to acquire development rights to 170,000 acres of private land within a 918,000 area stretching from the South Fork of the Dearborn north to Birch Creek. The land would remain in private ownership, but the agency would acquire on behalf of the public conservation easements. Landowners would continue to enjoy the traditional, productive uses of their lands. They'd continue paying taxes on the land. There would be no limitations on livestock grazing, for example. Landowners would continue their war against weeds - a good example of something private landowners do far better than the public. But those selling conservation easements would forgo forever the right to subdivide and develop their lands for residential, commercial or industrial purposes. They would also give up the right to alter the topography, plow up native grassland and drain wetlands. This approach to conservation creates classic win-win opportunities. It allows the public to protect resources and values it cares about without forcing the owners of private property to give up what they hold dear. It's a way to preserve traditional rural lifestyles and land uses, even as it preserves wildlife habitat. (Missoulian)

Front Conservation Area looks to the future.
2005-05-17 - There's an increasing awareness and appreciation of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. The past decade saw numerous attempts to limit development and protect the assets of this treasure. Now comes one of the grandest, most sweeping plans: establishment of a massive Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area. The plan is to create a safe haven for wildlife in an area considered one of the most spectacular wild areas left in the Lower 48. People who suspect this is a plot by environmentalists to permanently lock up the Front should rest assure that the plan: --Does not create more wilderness or a monument. --Does not preclude oil and gas exploration on private land. --Does not force any private landowner to sell land or change their operations. --Does not force private landowners to grant public access to their property. --Does not take any private land off the tax rolls. (Great Falls Tribune)

Could latest winter-travel accord be precedent?
2005-05-12 - When you consider the sources of the "win-win" reactions, news this week of a winter travel agreement on part of the Rocky Mountain Front and in the Lincoln Ranger District is a big deal and, we hope, a precedent for resolving future land-use issues in the region. ...It was worked out during a year of negotiations between the Montana Snowmobile Association and the Montana Wilderness Association -- two organizations that frequently and for obvious reasons find themselves at odds. (Great Falls Tribune)

BLM action on Front drilling a welcome step
2004-10-14 - Others--ourselves included--believe the future economic value of what might be found under those mountains and reefs won't come close to the present and future value of keeping them intact and undeveloped. The present value revolves around the region's large and growing recreation and tourism industries, compared with a mere handful of potential energy jobs. Forestalling development, meanwhile, opens the door to a couple of other possibilities: buying or trading out the existing energy leases along the Front, and developing alternative energy technologies. (Great Falls Tribune)

Decision saves the Front for now
2004-10-07 - We are pleased that the Bush administration has recognized public concern and acted to preserve the Front - at least for now. The Interior Department decision gives Montana?s congressional delegation and the Front?s many defenders time to work for a permanent plan. We call on Baucus, Burns and Rehberg to work together to ensure that the Front remains a last, best place. (Billings Gazette)

Congress should allow lease swapping, selling
2004-06-21 - The owners of such leases deserve an opportunity to sell or swap them and spare themselves and taxpayers the misery of protracted appeals. Congress should approve the Baucus plan to at least study the potential for lease swaps and buyouts. Unless that happens, taxpayers will keep shelling out the buck for more decision, studies and lawsuits. And developers will cool their heels, perhaps for decades. (Great Falls Tribune)

Leave the Front as it is
2004-05-16 - Drilling makes little sense. Opening the Front to the mess that has so severely damaged its sister overthrust belt region in Canada would be a travesty. To argue that drilling in the Front would contribute materially to this country's energy sufficiency is laughable --a benefit infinitesimally small compared to the potential damage to one of our nation's greatest treasures. (Helena Independent Record)

Montanans must defend Front anew
2004-05-05 - Generations of Montanans have protected the remarkable stretch of wild and wildlife-rich country spilling out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness and onto the prairies. We have our predecessor's foresight and sense of stewardship to thank for this wildland legacy we inherited. Now it is our generation?s turn. More precisely, it's still our turn. Our previous successes in safeguarding the Front from imprudent development have been only temporary. Yet another push is under way to sacrifice areas along the Front for speculative drilling for natural gas. Once again, Montanans need to rise up and shout a collective "No!" (Missoulian)

Drilling the Front would be affront
2003-12-16 - The long-term economic value of an untainted resource like the front, with its drawing power among hunters and anglers alone, will arguably outstrip the short-term benefit of gas extraction. (Daily Inter Lake)

Don't drill on Montana's cherished public lands
2002-03-20 - Eighty-five percent of U.S. Forest Service land and 94 percent of Bureau of Land Management land in Montana already is open to energy exploration. Does it really make sense to open up the [Rocky Mountain] Front, as well??.Clearly, our dependence on other countries for energy is a problem that requires our most serious thought. Allowing unfettered exploration and development, however, is a short-sighted solution. (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

No holes for Montana's soul
2001-04-29 - If you told us Montana's Rocky Mountain Front were the last place on earth to drill for oil and natural gas, we'd start breaking up furniture to burn for fuel?.Anyone who gazes at the front, even from afar, must have some notion of why so many Montanans care so deeply about it. And the closer you get, the more obvious the reasons for its preservation. It is here, where the Rocky Mountains spill out onto the prairies and amid the elk, bighorns, grizzlies and other wildlife, that you discover the soul of Montana. (Missoulian)