New Protection Plan Unveiled for Rocky Mountain Front

By Amy Linn, 9-17-09

A new plan that’s been three years in the making would add new protections to 394,000 acres along the Rocky Mountain Front and help protect the embattled wilderness from additional road building and oil and gas development, a grassroots coalition says.

Members of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front unveiled the proposed legislation yesterday and are seeking a congressional sponsor for it. The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, as the coalition has called the proposal, seeks to preserve many existing uses in the region, including grazing, outfitting, and some motorized and non-motorized use of national forest lands—elements that aim to keep recreationalists, ranchers, hunters and anglers happy.

But the group also wants to take new steps to protect the Front’s unique wildlife habitats, landscapes and water. To achieve that, it proposes adding 87,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and taking increased measures to fight the spread of noxious weeds.

The Coalition’s main goal is to use a new designation—Conservation Management Area—for 307,000 acres of public lands along the Front. The CMA, the coalition says, would follow regulations set down by the U.S. Forest Service in 2007.

According to the Coalition (and taken verbatim from its website), the 2007 plan is “an extremely popular Forest Service decision developed over many years of public participation. By using this planning document as the basis for travel management decisions we protect access to our public lands as it exists now for hikers, stock users, mountain bikers, and motorized users.”

Under the CMA, the Forest Service could choose to decrease motorized use but could not expand it; it could authorize new road construction only for safety or emergency measures; and it would allow logging and wood cutting, among other things. The new designation would ensure that the Front is protected far into the future, the group says.

The coalition, consisting mainly of people who live along the Front, will be looking to gather support and answer questions about the plan at four public meetings scheduled to start Sept. 30.

To find out more and read the draft of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, click here.