Number: 2004-01
WHEREAS, the nearly 500,000-acre, 100-mile stretch of vast wild lands south of Glacier National Park, known as the Rocky Mountain Front, form one of the most dramatic transitions from peaks to prairies in North America; and
WHEREAS, adjacent to and including Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness areas, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the culturally important Badger Two Medicine area, the Lewis and Clark National Forest, three state wildlife management areas, four Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Outstanding Natural Areas, and the vast state, federal, tribal and private lands within the Rocky Mountain Front make up the largest, most intact wild country left in the lower 48 states; and
WHEREAS, the mountains, prairies, forests, sagebrush, rivers, streams and other habitats within the Rocky Mountain Front sustain an abundance and diversity of both nationally and internationally significant wildlife, more than 290 species in all, including bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bobcats, whitetail and mule deer, wolverines, coyotes, swift and red foxes, moose, golden and bald eagles, harlequin ducks, at lease seven species of owls, badgers, mountain lions, peregrine falcons, northern harriers, at least 11 species of hawks, cutthroat trout, beaver, black bears and several threatened and endangered species including grizzly bear, Canadian lynx and gray wolves; and
WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front contains crucial winter and spring range for Montana’s largest native herd of bighorn sheep, which may be the largest native herd south of Canada, and second largest herd of elk, and is the last place left in the contiguous United States where grizzlies still roam the Great Plains; and
WHEREAS, wildlife biologists and conservationists have declared the Rocky Mountain Front to be in the top one percent of best wildlife habitat left in the contiguous United States; and
WHEREAS, the Blackfeet Nation considers portions of the Rocky Mountain Front, particularly the Badger Two Medicine area, to be sacred and significant to their cultural values, beliefs and ways; and
WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front provides innumerable and invaluable hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and other important recreational and spiritual opportunities for all citizens of our nation; and
WHEREAS, being one of the wildest places left in a state where hunting, fishing and other wildlife-related recreation contributes more than $1 billion to local economies, a healthy and wild Rocky Mountain Front is a strong and crucial economic asset to local businesses and the state of Montana; and
WHEREAS, a new national energy policy, formed in secrecy with the energy industry, calls for increased drilling for gas and oil in special areas on public wild lands throughout the western United States, including portions of Wyoming’s Red Desert, New Mexico’s Otero Mesa, Colorado’s Roan Plateau, and Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front; and
WHEREAS, the Rocky Mountain Front is one of those places considered too wild to drill, where far more would be lost than gained by wild-cat drilling for gas and oil within this unique and wild place; and
WHEREAS, the best estimates for economically recoverable natural gas within the Rocky Mountain Front are believed to meet our nation’s needs from about two to four days; and
WHEREAS, gas and oil drilling within the Rocky Mountain Front, with associated roads and infrastructure, will severely fragment important wildlife habitat, adversely affect air and water quality, alter communities, and greatly diminish the ecological integrity and the aesthetic, wild and spiritual values of the Rocky Mountain Front; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Forest Service, under public pressure and in recognition of the unique values and significance of the Rocky Mountain Front has, in the past, placed a temporary moratorium on gas and oil drilling within the Rocky Mountain Front; and
WHEREAS, hunters, outfitters, ranchers, businessmen, Blackfeet tribal leaders and a variety of other local citizens with diverse backgrounds have united in a common cause to protect the Rocky Mountain Front, and have made it clear that they do not want any gas and oil drilling to occur within the Rocky Mountain Front; and
WHEREAS, the Montana Wildlife Federation, an affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, in cooperation with Friends of the Rocky Mountain Front, the Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society, Trout Unlimited and numerous hunting and angling clubs from throughout the state of Montana, is focusing on the protection of the Rocky Mountain Front as one of its top priorities,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled March 11-13, 2004, in St. Louis, Missouri, calls for legislation that would prohibit energy exploration and development on public lands managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or the state of Montana within the Rocky Mountain Front; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation supports legislation that would require a study of the value of existing oil and gas leases and options, costs and recommended next steps needed to ensure a fair and equitable process for compensation of willing leaseholders who wish to forfeit or trade existing oil and gas leases on the public lands managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or the state of Montana within the Rocky Mountain Front.