Three powerful conservation groups have forgotten their histories and roots • Daily Montanan

Many of us remember when the conservation groups in Bozeman actually supported conservation. 

Many of us worked hand-in-hand with these groups to address the broad array of impacts on the wild lands, water and wildlife of the public lands of the northern part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem.

I and others in the Madison Gallatin Alliance worked hand in hand with The Wilderness Society and the Montana Wilderness Association on promoting the wilderness designation for the all roadless lands in the Gallatin and Madison Ranges. We secured a politically pared back Lee Metcalf Wilderness in the early ’80s.

I seriously doubt if anyone working for TWS or the group formerly known as the “Montana Wilderness Association (Wild Montana)” remembers those groups’ former strong support for wilderness designation for the roadless lands in the Gallatin Range.  The Greater Yellowstone Coalition was formed by many individuals who had supported, at a minimum, the 155,000 acre Wilderness Study Area created by Sen. Lee Metcalf’s Montana Wilderness Study Act as his last, great gift to protect the natural values of Montana’s pristine wild lands. The Gallatin Range was half of the original Lee Metcalf Wilderness Proposal.  

About 15 years ago, TWS, MWA and GYC made a mockery of the legacy of Lee Metcalf with their “Summer of Lee” functions full of hollow talk hiding the fact that they were actually working to gut, not support, that legacy Metcalf gave the people of Montana, and all people, by the interim protection of the Gallatin Range (and a number of other areas) until a formal study of the wilderness values of the range were assessed and Congress acted, one way or the other. The actions of these groups no longer support – as they darned well should – our nation’s bedrock environmental laws.  These groups’ use of collaboration goes against the very basis of these laws and goes against the basic concepts of sound conservation.

These groups now put the short-term, me-now special interests of mechanized recreation first, which is incompatible with not just Metcalf’s Montana Wilderness Study Act, which protected the core of the Gallatin Range, but threatened and endangered species of wildlife which are the indicator species for the natural health of the ecosystem. How can the actions of these three groups be justified given the basis of premise upon which they were founded.  Let me count the ways.

How many of those who support these three groups actually know that their actions may not be what they think the groups are doing. One friend recently dropped his membership in Wild Montana when he learned just that — that the organization’s actions were not what he understood they were doing.

On July 10, I received a few emails from friends in Montana expressing the shock that one or more staff person(s) of GYC – at a supposed open, public meeting about the Gallatin Forest Partnership – told my old friend Dorothy Bradley to sit down and be quiet.  When she continued to question their information, another staffer turned the music up so high no one could hear Dorothy.  

This is more than shocking.  This is the disappointing reflection of the demise of three organizations with which many of us worked on issues for about 25 years. This bodes ill for conservation in Montana and the Yellowstone Ecosystem.

GYC’s vision stated, “Our vision is a healthy and intact Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem where critical lands and waters are adequately protected, wildlife is managed in a thoughtful, sustainable manner and a strong, diverse base of support is working to conserve this special place as part of a larger, connected Northern Rocky Mountain Region.” 

It is obvious from their actions of the last 15 or more years, they either changed the stated vision for the group or are simply ignoring it for short-term gain.

The Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the largest nearly intact temperate ecosystems on Earth.  Why would groups that bill themselves as “conservation” groups not recognize the importance of protecting the ecosystem? We can already see how climate change is impacting humans, wildlife and the land itself.  It is critical to take steps to protect and preserve the Yellowstone Ecosystem, not promote it for uses that degrade the critical natural values.