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>>

Order a Front Discovery Guide!
In the summer of 2007, a number of local businesses, the Choteau Chamber of Commerce, and the Coalition worked together to create the Rocky Mountain Front Discovery Guide – which contains a full color map, history, and community contacts along with recreation suggestions and information for hunters, anglers, hikers, packers, birders, or anyone wanting to visit and enjoy the Front. More than 2,700 copies of the Guide have been distributed businesses throughout the Rocky Mountain Front. Receive a copy of the Guide>>

Take Action

The Front's special places, such as those in the Blindhorse Outstanding Natural Area (pictured here in the foothills beneath the Front's limestone crest), deserve protection. After negotiating with the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front, the leaseholder, Canadian energy company Startech, has agreed to sell these leases. Startech will abandon plans to drill on the bench at the top of the road. Photo: Gloria Flora

Here's how you can help protect the Front:

Now that legislation has passed preventing any new federal energy leases, retiring the older, existing oil and natural gas leases is crucial to long-term protection of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. You can help by urging Montana’s political leaders to provide leadership and support agreements that Montanans have reached with energy companies that would retire leases and help keep the Front the way it is now.

Please sign our on-line petition by filling in the fields below, then clicking the Sign Petition button.


Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front has long been valued for its abundant wildlife, working ranches, vast open space and quiet vistas. The area’s beauty and natural values are essential to the enjoyment and economic security of local families, Front communities and all of Montana.

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 sell or trade out the federal energy leases along 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.

We urge Montana’s Senators and Congressman to support these voluntary agreements and to help retire existing federal leases along the Front. Protecting the Front is economically beneficial for Montana families and communities because it preserves existing, local jobs in ranching, outfitting, hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. Keeping the traditional uses of the Front, as well as letting the new economy built around conserving special places develop, is the best way to encourage sustainable local economies.


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The above petition will be sent to Montana's governor and Congressional delegation.

•Join the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front and follow the issues here at our Web site. Write letters for publication in regional newspapers. Raise these suggested talking points in your letters.

•You can also contact Montana’s top political leaders. The links below will take you to their contact pages. Letters are more effective than phone calls and emails. You can start with a letter to members of Congress, asking them to support agreements to retire the Front’s oil and gas leases.

Who to contact:
Gov. Brian Schweitzer: PO Box 200801
Helena, MT 59620. e-mail: governor@mt.gov
Web site: http://governor.mt.gov/contact/comment.asp

Sen. Max Baucus: 511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2651 — Fax: 202-224-0515
Contact: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Sen. Jon Tester: 204 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
Phone: 202-224-2644 — Fax: 202-224-8594
Contact: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/index.cfm

Rep. Dennis Rehberg: 516 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3211 — Fax: 202-225-5687
Contact: http://www.house.gov/rehberg/contact.shtml