Gallatin National Forest Protects Wilderness Study Area

US District Judge Donald Molloy recently ruled against the Gallatin National Forest's proposal to allow snowmobiles into the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area (read more here). The ruling centered around the agency's inability to prove that it was preserving wilderness character when it increased the area for snowmobile use inside the WSA.

In response to the ruling, the Gallatin National Forest announced on Nov. 13th an interim strategy to manage snowmobile use inside the WSA (read announcement), which will restrict use to the Big Sky Snowmobile Trail and an open area for cross country snowmobile travel (a “play” area) near Golden Trout Lakes and west of Windy Pass (see fuzzy map below).

Forest Service representative Marna Daley was quoted as saying the agency took this action to comply with the court order (see story here). Also in the same story, those opposed to the new protections threatened to challenge the decision in the Ninth Circut Court of Appeals citing that snowmobilers have used the area for many years. Even if the area was being used in 1977, (a claim that the agency cannot prove since they lack the appropriate records), the real issue is the amount of use, or put another way, the numbers of snowmobiles impacting the area.

We know the levels of snowmobile use has increased since 1977, and even more, the technology has vastly improved to the point where these machines can now go places they were unable to reach just 10 years ago let alone 32 years ago. 

The sad fact is, for years the Forest Service has been allowing, and in some cases promoting, snowmobile use inside Montana's Wilderness Study Areas. Not only does this harm wintering wildlife like wolverine and mountain goat, it also entrenches a constituency that is incompatible with Wilderness designation, thereby reducing the area's potential for Congressional Wilderness designation.

With Judge Molloy's latest ruling, the Forest Service should now stop allowing motorized use inside Wilderness Study Areas beyond those levels that ocurred in 1977. Where the agecny lacks records of those levels, it needs to acknowledge this fact and protect the WSA.