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Protect Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest
The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest is Montana's largest. Within it are nearly 2 million roadless acres - more unprotected roadless lands than any other forest in the state and an irreplaceable part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Without lasting Wilderness protection these landscapes will be overrun by the explosive growth of off-road vehicles that spread noxious weeds, stress wildlife, and wound the landscape with illegal motorized routes. Year after year new illegal routes are carved through the forest. But you can stop this abuse.
Add your comments to our letter below, then click on Send this Message. To see additional information about how to send your own comments, click on "Tell me More," below.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Final Forest Plan
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
As a citizen who cares about the future of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, I strongly support the wilderness recommendations included in your revised forest plan, notably proposed protections for Stony Mountain, Italian-Garfield-Lima Peaks, and the stunning Highland Crest. I commend you for increasing the amount of recommended wilderness between the draft forest plan and the final plan and for using sound science to stand up to political pressure from anti-wilderness forces.
However, I believe that you have stopped well short of the protections the forest's wildlands deserve. I support the Alternative Three recommendation of approximately 706,000 acres for wilderness designation. As you know, this total includes existing wilderness recommendations, areas suggested in public comments and areas identified in past legislation as having important wilderness qualities.
Please adopt a forest plan that designates all Wilderness Study Areas, including the Electric Peak, West Big Hole, Sapphire and West Pioneer, as USFS Recommended Wilderness. Please also recommend wilderness designation for the high country of Mount Jefferson (Centennials), Dolus Lakes (Flints), as well as the vital additions to the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Area. I also respectfully request that Wilderness boundaries for BOTH Torrey Mountain in the East Pioneers and the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness be expanded to safeguard key mountain goat and wolverine habitats.
Please ensure the protection of wildlife habitat through the adoption of scientific standards that recommend less than one mile of road per square mile of forest. I also ask that you incorporate the recently issued Region 1 consistency guidance for managing recommended wilderness into the forest plan itself and that you manage Wilderness Study Areas in accordance with 1977 uses and levels of use.
Finally, please don't let political pressure from the Idaho snowmobile lobby strip protection from Mt. Jefferson. This is the only place on this forest that has a backcountry ski hut business struggling to exist and the entire 4,000 acres should be 100% non-motorized to protect wilderness values and the local jobs they support.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
March 26, 2008
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The very name of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest evokes visions of an unspoiled west, steeped in history and cultural significance. It is all that, certainly. It is also some of the most remarkable wildlife habitat anywhere.
The forest stands on a purely Big Sky scale: over three million acres, reaching east from the Idaho border to the valley of the Madison River; from Montana's most southwesterly point up past Butte to the north.
The “where” of this forest, though, is as important as its sheer size. The four distinct landscapes - the Great Basin, the shortgrass prairie, and the Northern and Middle Rocky Mountains - meet in the wild Beaverhead-Deerlodge. The diverse landscape welcomes many wildlife species.
The forest also has the highest percentage of rare plants in the state. Indeed, half the plants native to Montana exist on this single forest. The forest spans the Continental Divide and holds the headwaters of blue-ribbon trout streams that flow both east and west.
Significant prehistoric, historic and cultural values span the Beaverhead-Deerlodge's landscape. The Nez Perce National Trail, portions of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Lemhi Pass National Historic Landmark and the Monument Ridge-Black Butte Archaeological District are all here. So are many vision quest sites and pictograph panels.
The surest way to protect these national treasures, as well as the forest's unique wildlife habitat, is through wilderness designation. The opportunities are enormous. So are the threats.
The greatest danger facing the Beaverhead Deerlodge is the escalating use of dirt bikes, all-terrain and off-road vehicles, and snowmobiles. In fact, the final plan out for comment now leaves open 61% of the forest to motorized use in winter and 55% in summer. The litany of problems these machines spread in their wake is well-documented: habitat fragmentation, wildlife disruption, the spread of noxious weeds, stream siltation and bank destruction, the loss of traditional hunting opportunities, an end to quiet recreation. The antidote to all these is wilderness protection.
The Forest Service has released the final Forest Plan for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and is asking for public comment. While the agency should be praised for recommending Stony Mountain, Garfield-Lima Peaks, and the stunning Highland Crest as wilderness, this is not the end of the story. Off-road vehicle groups are pressuring the Forest Service to eliminate Wilderness from the final plan.
Wildlands Thrown Away
Despite being recommended in previous plans, Electric Peak, West Big Hole and the high country of Mount Jefferson (Centennials) have been removed from recommended Wilderness due to pressure from motorized users. Other deserving landscapes that are glaringly absent from Wilderness recommendation are the Sapphires and West Pioneers Wilderness Study Areas, Dolus Lakes (Flints), as well as vital additions to the Pintlers and East Pioneers.
The Wilderness Society supports the Alternative Three recommendation of approximately 706,000 acres for wilderness designation. This total includes existing wilderness recommendations, areas suggested in public comments and areas identified in past legislation as having important wilderness qualities.
Finally, don't let the Idaho Snowmobile Lobby take away Mt. Jefferson! This is the only place on this forest that has a backcountry ski hut business struggling to exist, and the Idaho snowmobilers pressured the Forest Service into giving half of it away to the machines. Please stress that Mt. Jefferson (the entire 4,000 acres) should be 100% nonmotorized.
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