Permanent protection on minds of local residents

CHOTEAU -- Chuck Blixrud insists he's not an activist.

He's an outfitter, a man who has made a living for almost 50 years taking tourists and hunters into his back yard, which just happens to be the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.

But the gentle smile tightens on the lanky, soft-spoken man's well-weathered face as he considers the future of the long, narrow strip of national forest between his home and the Bob: the 390,000-acre Rocky Mountain Front.

Blixrud and others are worried that temporary measures in place to limit gas and oil exploration and hard-rock mining on the Front may be too easily erased. So he's stepped forward as one of the local advocates in this small community, hoping to convince others of the need to create the first new wilderness designation in Montana in more than 20 years for small portions of the Front.

"We need to carve out our destiny," Blixrud said, relaxing for a brief moment recently on a couch in his guest lodge. "We're the gateway to the Rocky Mountains. Look at the sign as you pull into town (Choteau). You don't see oil rigs on any signs. That just doesn't go with the Montana mystique."

Blixrud's stance on expanding the wilderness area is by no means universal here in Choteau, where "wilderness" is a dirty word to many. Blixrud has angered some in Choteau who believe additional wilderness would limit such activities as grazing or oil and gas drilling.

But Blixrud is supported by people like Gene Sentz, a former Peace Corps volunteer and retired Choteau school teacher. Since 1977 Sentz has been advocating designating portions of the Lewis and Clark National Forest that adjoin the Bob as wilderness. Joining Sentz is Roy Jacobs, a local taxidermist who has long fought for protection of the Front, but only recently has come to support some type of wilderness designation.

And even some longtime opponents of big government interference are thinking that some type of permanent protection from drilling might not be bad.

"I'm not against drilling for oil and gas, but I think it should be done on private land," said Jim Anderson, a Choteau store owner and city councilman. "My opinion shifted a little on public lands after the oil companies gouged us on gas prices while posting record profits -- I think it has for a lot of us.

"So I'm no longer in favor of drilling on public lands ... I'm very interested in protecting the Front. The question is, who are we protecting it from and for?"

The Rocky Mountain Front stretches south for about 120 miles from the Canadian border along the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide. Much of the area is part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, with some portions designated as outstanding natural areas or wildlife management areas. The Blackfeet Indian reservation is included on the Front, as are some privately owned parcels, many with conservation easements that limit development.

It's here that the windswept plains flow into jagged limestone mountain peaks, and it's home to the richest diversity of large mammals, including grizzly bear, lynx, moose and wolves, in the lower 48 states.

"When we look at the Front, this landscape is the greatest ecological landscape in Montana," said Brad Borst, Rocky Mountain Front coordinator for the Montana Wilderness Association. "It's most deserving in Montana for wilderness protection ... permanent protection, in perpetuity."

But the Front also is home to around a trillion cubic feet of gas, according to Dave Galt, executive director of the Helena-based Montana Petroleum Association.

"That's an extremely huge reserve that can be of use to our country," Galt said. "Rational people need to figure out how we will deal with the energy demands of the future, and locking up large resources is something we need to have significant discussion about."

He's not alone with his opinion. Some residents along the Front believe gas and oil drilling here will boost local coffers, with money coming in from jobs and purchases made by wildcatters. Money from drilling could bring tax relief for schools and provide sorely needed funds to fix roads and water systems.

But even a staunch Republican like Anderson said that won't end the economic woes of small towns along the Front like Choteau, Bynum and Augusta.

"As a city councilman, I'm more interested in bringing more businesses to Choteau, which would solve more of our economic problems," Anderson said. "If they get a real good gas well here, then some of the tax revenues will help us. But I don't think the economic benefits to Choteau would be long-lasting."

THE FIGHT FOR THE FRONT

This new effort to provide wilderness designation for the Front is in its initial stages, with no lines drawn on maps and discussions just beginning.

Those involved in the effort are proceeding cautiously, because just the word "wilderness" can cause people to square off, even if they both believe in the types of protections wilderness affords public lands.

But the Front has been included in proposed wilderness designation bills, along with other possible wilderness areas, for decades.

"It got subsumed into statewide wilderness bills, and they held hearing after hearing n 16 of them n over the course of years," recalls John Gatchell, the MWA's conservation director. "Portions of the Front were included, but the exact boundaries changed often. Hunters and horsemen were pushing for more protection, and gas and oil companies -- Chevron in particular -- were pushing for less. That's where the ebb and flow came in.

"A bill was passed by Congress in 1988, but it was left unsigned after Congress recessed."

Five years ago, national forest lands along the Front were withdrawn from hard rock mining.

Nine years ago, then-Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora placed a temporary moratorium on new gas and oil leases on the Front. That ban can be changed, however, when the federal agency revisits its forest plan, which is due to happen in the next few years.

Flora's moratorium also can be erased by the stroke of a presidential pen; nor does it prohibit drilling in areas covered under 45 existing leases on federal lands.

Two years ago this month, the Bureau of Land Management shelved a study that could have allowed for gas and oil exploration on some of those existing leases in the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area.

The federal agency said that instead, it would do a broader analysis in 2007 or 2008, with the thought that this would give people time to try to explore the possibility of swapping the Front's leases for land elsewhere or actual buyouts of the existing leases.

U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns remains adamantly opposed to any kind of new wilderness designation, yet earlier this year he sponsored a type of compromise that would offer some new protection from development along the Front.

Burns inserted language in to the Interior Appropriations bill that would allow existing gas and oil leases to be purchased and retired. Burns insists those leases not be purchased with federal funds.

The legislation would make Gloria Flora's moratorium permanent on all federal lands along the Front, unless revoked by Congress due to a national emergency caused by gas or oil shortages.

The proposed legislation doesn't affect private or state lands.

So far, two companies have either donated or sold their leases.

Still, some of the leaseholders may not want to sell out.

Galt says the petroleum industry is adamant that public lands should be available for exploration.

"We believe that any public lands that are designated as multiple use, that are not national park lands or designated wilderness areas, should be open for multiple use, which includes gas and oil development," Galt said. "Under the Front, there's an extremely high probability of finding gas."

Others wonder whether the Burns plan, which is included in the Senate Interior appropriations bill, will be passed when Congress reconvenes after the November elections.

"Because of the elections, no one can accurately predict what Congress will do in a lame-duck session," said Peter Aengst, energy campaign coordinator for The Wilderness Society.

Right now, the way the Front sits, there is no permanent protection for the Rocky Mountain Front, MWA's Borst added.

"Without some sort of longer protection, it will always remain vulnerable for future generations."

A NEW ATTEMPT

For the time being, about 52,000 acres along the 390,000-acre Front are managed as though they're wilderness, according to Robin Strathy, forest planning staff officer for the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Among those parcels are the forest lands between Blixrud's ranch and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.

Gatchell says conservation proponents don't have any specific areas mapped that might be designated as wilderness, and adds that some areas along the Front, which have roads, dams and powerlines, are definitely not under consideration.

And some of those talking about new wilderness designation say they'd like something more flexible than what currently exists.

Jacobs said that at one time, he was opposed to the restrictions that a wilderness designation places on public property. But working on drilling rigs in nearby Blackleaf Canyon -- and listening to company executives who said oil and gas exploration will have little or no impact on the Front -- changed his mind.

"I used to be somewhat for it, but turned against it when they started saying they could go to the drilling rig by driving straight up the mountain," Jacobs said.

"Maybe the Front could be off-limits to motorized vehicles, but allow for some chainsaw use. The ranchers could keep their grazing leases," Jacobs added, thinking out loud. "But we need some kind of additional protection for the Front."

Montana Wildlife Federation Conservation Director Nathan Birkeland adds, as do members of other conservation groups, that any wilderness designation must come from people who live, work and play in these areas -- people like Blixrud, Sentz and Jacobs.

"There is a 100-year history of conservation on the Front; this is the crown jewel of wildlife management because the hunters, the landowners and everybody got together," Birkeland said. "History has led us to the point where we are now. We still have all those diverse people ... who focus on what's important to them up there, and they've done quite a bit, both on public and private land."