Protect Montana’s Roadless Areas
In Wildness is the Preservation of the World-Henry David Thoreau -
Thoreau wrote these words in the 19th Century and yet they still ring true in the 21st. Montana is blessed with abundant wildlands, managed mostly by the U.S. Forest Service, and referred to as “Roadless Areas.” Our state has over 6 million acres of inventoried roadless areas spread across 10 national forests.
The inventory process (RARE I & Rare II) followed after the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Over the past 60-plus years, Montanans from all walks of like have advocated for their protection culminating in limited success. Former Senator Lee Metcalf’s Wilderness Study Area bill in the 1970s and President Clinton’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR) are the best examples.
The RACR was established in 2001 and, while it didn’t offer complete protections, it has kept most of our wildest areas intact and free from industrial development. The RACR is now threatened by a Trump Administration proposal to rescind the Rule -- opening up our wildest places to a host of industrial management: logging and roadbuilding, mining, oil and gas extraction and motorized recreation.
Roadless Areas serve as critical refugia for countless fish and wildlife species facing habitat alteration from climate change and other human-induced activities. They offer more stable, sheltered environments ensuring retention of biodiversity and allowing populations to persist, and later to recolonize surrounding areas.
They are also the source of our cleanest water, cleanest air and function as planetary carbon sinks. Contrary to the fire hysteria and the purported need to log and thin roadless areas coming from the Forest Service and our congressional delegation, they are the places where wildfire can play it natural role in shaping our forest ecosystems. Building roads into roadless areas and then logging them will only result in more human caused fires and more CO2 accumulation in our atmosphere.
To counter the rescission, a host of Montana conservation groups are organizing: An Evening to Protect our Roadless Wildlands: Holding the Line, on May 7th from 6-8pm at the Holiday Inn Parkside in downtown Missoula. The purpose is to generate awareness and public comment to oppose the development of these precious areas. Come learn and engage in the century-long struggle to protect our wildest public lands.
For more information: Contact Jake Kreilick w/ Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force (JakeKreilick12@gmail.com or (406) 544-4962
