The public lands along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front are a national treasure harboring a host of natural and cultural values. Proposed energy development threatens the Front’s permanent assets, such as superb wildlife habitat, high-quality recreation, clean water, Native American history and ranching. We believe the Front’s public lands warrant special consideration from Montana’s political leaders, who have responded to the grassroots leadership shown by generations of Montanans. Through the hard work of regular Montanans and private financing, we now have an opportunity to protect the Front and keep it the way it is by voluntarily retiring the existing oil and natural gas leases.

Voluntary agreements between Montanans and energy companies to not drill the Front will protect these lands for future generations, facilitate local economic development planning, secure some of the nation’s finest habitat and hunter access to these lands and safeguard a century-old conservation investment. These agreements, however, can succeed only if Congress acts to continue the current policy of no new leasing on the Front. Therefore, we, the undersigned, applaud Montana’s political leaders for proposing legislation that would continue the current policy of no new leasing on the Front’s federal lands. This first step will help safeguard Montana’s heritage and protect the Front for generations to come, but only if Montana’s congressional delegation works in a bipartisan manner to assure the passage of language inserted by Sen. Burns into the 2007 Interior Appropriations Bill that would withdraw the Front from future oil and gas leasing.