The rugged Lionhead Recommended Wilderness is special. Situated along the Montana-Idaho Continental Divide, it is the ONLY wilderness recommended by the Gallatin National Forest–and has been included in every Montana state wilderness bill.

The major trail there is the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST), which was intended for foot and horse travel when designated in 1978–not as a bike route.

The supervisor for Gallatin National Forest has proposed that Lionhead be free of mountain bikes. However, a national cadre of cyclists have mounted a major campaign to prevent this proposal from becoming a reality.

The Forest Service and Gallatin National Forest supervisor are being targeted by mountain bikers who want to see the area incorporated into a thrilling new "dream ride" that spans vast tracts of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail in Montana and Idaho.

To accomplish this, they are targeting outstanding wilderness candidate lands, including the Lionhead, Garfield-Lima Peaks and Italian Peaks along the stretch of the Continental Divide shared between Montana and Idaho west of Yellowstone–270-plus miles of very wild and remote wild lands.

The urge to recreate in beautiful areas is understandable, but total access to wilderness quality lands by mountain bikes undermines the very wilderness the cyclists hope to enjoy.

Mountain bike traffic can disturb wildlife, increase the amount and speed of trail erosion and reduce the remoteness and other wilderness values of the land, undermining its potential for wilderness designation.

Cyclists already enjoy their own separate, 2700-mile, mapped and signed trail just for mountain bikers–(OUTSIDE proposed wilderness)–called the "Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail."

Trails in the Lionhead are part of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, which was created at the urging of Wilderness Society co-founder Benton MacKaye, who lobbied the Secretary of the Interior in 1966 for a wilderness trail spanning the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico. MacKaye's vision called for a wilderness trail linking national parks, forests, monuments and wilderness areas along the Rocky Mountains. This vision will be threatened if we allow recommended wilderness trails to be claimed as mountain biking terrain.

Your letters of support for the proposal by Gallatin National Forest are needed by July 18 to fully protect the Lionhead Recommended Wilderness from mechanized use.

The Lionhead is a rare two-state/two forest U.S. Forest Service recommended wilderness in Henry's Lake Mountains just west of Yellowstone National Park. It is the ONLY wilderness recommended by the Gallatin Forest Plan and has also been recommended by Targhee National Forest.