The Gallatin Range, which runs south from Bozeman into Yellowstone National Park, is the largest unprotected roadless area in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).
The range contains some of the best wildlife habitat in Montana. In particular, the Buffalo Horn and Porcupine drainages are critical lands for elk migration, grizzly bears, and numerous other species. In the northern part of the range, the South Cottonwood drainage is an essential northern extension of the larger wildlands.
The 1977 Montana Wilderness Act protected the Gallatin Range with the designation of the 155,000-acre Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area, which mandates that the Forest Service manage the landscape for its potential for inclusion in the national wilderness system. However, a minimum of 250,000 acres in the Gallatin Range is suitable for wilderness designation.
Wilderness is the gold standard for conservation. Given all the threats to GYE wildlife, including an exploding human footprint and climate change, Congress should designate all the 250,000 acres of suitable roadless lands in the Gallatin Range as wilderness.
Future generations of elk, grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, wolverine, moose and other wildlife that call the Gallatin Range home will thank you.
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