Gallatin Range deserves protection as wilderness

by Joe Gutkoski
As a former Gallatin National Forest employee, and a skier, hunter, and climber, I’ve spent decades exploring the wildlands of the Gallatin Range.
The Gallatins contain the last major roadless area in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and priceless wildlands. For decades, conservationists have advocated for wilderness designation for the range under the 1964 Wilderness Act. We achieved partial protection with the 1977 designation of the 155,000-acre Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area.
We came close to achieving wilderness status for the Gallatins in 1983 when much of the roadless terrain was part of the proposal for a Lee Metcalf Wilderness. However, private checkerboard ownership within led to the elimination of the Gallatin Range from the final boundaries of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness.
Since 1983, land trades and purchases have removed the checkerboard ownership. Today, we have an opportunity to finally fully protect the Gallatin Range by designating the bulk of its 250,000 acres of the roadless country as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Numerous scientific studies have documented the extraordinary wildlife and ecological values of the Gallatin Range. The greatest threat to the ongoing ecological integrity comes from increasing recreational usage from mechanical machines, particularly mountain biking.
Wilderness designation, particularly in the Buffalo Horn-Porcupine drainages, will safeguard the extraordinary wildlife values of these lower elevation valleys. Wilderness designation in the northern portion of the Gallatin Range, including the West Pine, South Cottonwood, and parts of the Hyalite drainage will preserve wildlife corridors and ecological integrity of the whole range.
With the planned release of the Custer Gallatin National Forest Management Plan, citizens will have a chance to support the Montanans for Gallatin Range Wilderness proposal, which advocates wilderness designation for the bulk of the 250,000 roadless acres of the range. We may not have another opportunity.