No lands in the Gallatin Range are permanently protected from development, roads, mining, logging, power lines. To continue to provide clean air and water, homes for wildlife, scenic beauty, quiet, and solitude they need protection by the only permanent and effective method, federal Wilderness designation.
In 1977, the 155,000 acre HPBH Wilderness Study Area (WSA) was created by Congress along the Gallatin Range from Hyalite Reservoir to Yellowstone National Park, in the hopes that it would soon become formal Wilderness. Unfortunately, legislators did not follow through and the USFS failed to manage the land as intended.
Recently, the Gallatin Forest Partnership proposed the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act (GYCRA). Do not be fooled by this proposal. It is essentially a mountain biking promotion act. Mountain bikes, being machines, are not allowed in Wilderness Areas. GYCRA proposes only 102,000 acres of Wilderness in the Gallatin Range including only 85,587 acres of the 155,000 acre WSA. It sets aside 126,000 acres for mountain biking and mechanized recreation. This hardly qualifies as protection for wild lands.
About 48,000 acres of the Gallatin Range are already laced with over 2,700 miles of roads, the distance from Bozeman to Oaxaca, Mexico. GYCRA fails to protect areas important for wildlife. The Buffalo Horn-Porcupine region is prime habitat for elk, grizzly bears, wolves, bighorn sheep and wolverines. The West Pine region offers a very important wildlife migration corridor.
The GYCRA is a selfish, short-sighted, arrogant proposal that ignores history and capitalizes on the failures of the Forest Service to manage recreation on these lands in accordance with the WSA law.
I remember the Gallatin Range before mountain bikes and dirt bikes arrived and still cherish the memory of quiet, solitude, little-used trails, and abundant wildlife. These can be restored with a better Wilderness proposal.
Noreen Breeding
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