MONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION Statewide Chapters

Transcription

1 MONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION Statewide Chapters Eastern Wildlands Chapter, Billings History: Established in 1993 Geography: Stillwater, Yellowstone, Powder River, Fallon, Rosebud, Musselshell, Wheatland, Garfield, Wibaux, McCone, Daniels, Roosevelt, Sweet Grass, Carbon, Bighorn, Carter, Custer, Treasure, Golden Valley, Petroleum, Prairie, Dawson, Valley, Sheridan, Richland generally defined by drainages of the Milk, Musselshell, Bighorn and Powder Rivers. Flathead-Kootenai Chapter, Kalispell Geography: Flathead County and the northern portion of Lake County (Ronan and north), Sanders and Lincoln Counties. History: Flathead Valley members organized the Montana Wilderness Association s first chapter the Flathead Chapter in 1969, but not before significant efforts on behalf of Montana s wilderness. Winton Weydemeyer of Fortine had been advocating wilderness protection for key wildlands since 1925! Winton went on to be a founding member of the Montana Wilderness Association; it s first VP and second President. Loren Kreck and Cliff Merritt lead the Association s first Wilderness Walk into Jewel Basin in August Congress enacted the National Wilderness Preservation Act in September Since that date the Flathead Chapter remained active almost continuously advocating the establishment of additional wilderness areas and protecting wild lands throughout the Chapter s territory. Loren Kreck served as the Chapter s first president in The Chapter s first concerted effort was to organize a Great Bear Wilderness Study group. Nine years would pass before Congress protected the Great Bear as wilderness in All chapter presidents have served Montana s wildlands with distinction and usually for specific issues : Bob Muth served when RARE I was invented by the USFS : Douglas Chadwick helped organize the Chapter s involvement in the Cabin Creek Coal mine issue from : Elaine Snyder oversaw the RARE II process and Congress protected the Great Bear : John Gatchell marshaled the chapter against the USFS s ill-conceived Bomb the Bob campaign : Elaine Sedlack dealt with Montana s first statewide wilderness bill that the Association eventually opposed. Page 1 of 5 10/9/08 1

2 : Richard Kuhl had to endure the first Flathead Forest Planning process that resulted in a lopsided, pro-timber forest plan : Alan McNeil saw the state s second statewide wilderness bill that included wilderness designation for the entire North Swan Range and much of the North Fork Wildlands torpedoed by President Reagan s pocket veto : Ross Titus helped move the Kootenai Accords forward while at the same time forming the Flathead Forest Watch effort that was intended to monitor Flathead Forest activities. During his tenure Rep. Pat Williams introduced two more statewide wilderness bills into the U.S. House, but they made no progress : Stormy Good got the Flathead Forestry Project started that implemented the concept of Stewardship Forestry, now widely applied throughout the nation. Also, Glacier Park came out with its first General Management Plan : Bob Heim helped establish the Association s Transboundary Project that tied our work to continental scale conservation as represented by the Yellowstone to Yukon movement. His board also advocated for strong wilderness management of Glacier Park. At this time the Flathead absorbed the Kootenai Chapter to become the Flathead-Kootenai Chapter, its current configuration : Edwin Fields maintained forward pressure on the chapter and the entire Association by advocating an assertive approach to wilderness. He led the negotiations for the first of the Association s Winter Recreation Agreements and spearheaded the formulation of the Winton Weydemeyer Wilderness proposal for the north end of the Whitefish Range, at the time the first bone fide wilderness proposal to be mounted by the Association in many years : Roger Sherman saw the Flathead-Kootenai Chapter grow from less than 300 memberships to almost 600 during a time of rapid overall organizational growth. Roger s tenure included finalization of the Flathead Winter Recreation Agreement as Flathead Forest Plan Amendment #24 and the Flathead Forest Plan revision process. Also, Kootenai area members launch the Scotchman Peaks Campaign ( Present: The board currently manages the Chapter as a committee of the whole. Issues include: Flathead and Kootenai Forest Plan revision finalizations, Scotchman Peaks wilderness and Winton Weydemeyer Wilderness campaigns, as well as Swan Crest and Mission Mountain Wilderness additions. Island Range Chapter, Great Falls Geography: Cascade, Teton, Pondera, Glacier, Toole, Liberty, Hill, Blaine, Phillips, Chouteau, Fergus, Judith Basin and Meagher Counties generally encompassing an area defined by drainages of the Sun, Smith, Teton and Judith Rivers and by the drainage of the Missouri River from Holter Dam to the Fort Peck reservoir. History: Notice is hereby given of the organizational meeting of the Great Falls Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association at Cattins Restaurant, th Avenue South, Great Falls, Montana, at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 4, All persons interested in Page 2 of 5 10/9/08 2

3 wilderness, including lands in the island ranges (Little Belts, Snowies, Crazies, Missouri River Breaks and along the Rocky Mountain Front), are invited to attend and to get involved. Thus began the Island Range Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association. At that time it had been over 15 years (now 28 years!) since there had been any wilderness designated in the eastern two-thirds of Montana. Congressman Pat Williams had announced plans to introduce a statewide wilderness bill sometime in March 1993 (referred to as Round 16 of the Montana Wilderness Act of 1993 ), and people were encouraged to write letters to Williams to include roadless lands of Central and Eastern Montana in that year s bill. In the memo to interested citizens there was even a section on How to speak bureaucrat. But the Wilderness Bill of 1993 was not to be. Within a couple months of the first organizational meeting, the new chapter became known as the Island Range Chapter. Officers were elected along with 10 board members and a charter, mission, goals and objectives were adopted. There was an active phone tree and committees included Education, Operations and Legislative. At that point it was time to hire an organizer and the Montana Wilderness Association obtained enough funding to promise the position for months. The job description included: working with local leaders in pursuit of goals and objectives of the state organization and its local affiliate. developing community support for conservation and protection of public wildlands in central Montana, producing and disseminating information on wildland issues in the region, training members, activists, and volunteers in public policy processes, organizing techniques, and media communications recruiting new members for the organization. planning and executing regional fundraising efforts. planning and promoting special events for educational, fundraising and member recruitment purposes. working with conservation and civic organizations to promote increased awareness and cooperative approaches on regional wildland issues. Mark Good was hired in April of 1994 and he remains the Central Montana Field Organizer to this day. The first annual meeting of the Island Range Chapter was held on April 1, Agenda items included: no treasurer s report (no money yet), announcement of approval of chapter status, adoption of Revised Constitution and Bylaws, nominating committee report, report on the Status of Public Lands Reform Package in the Clinton Budget, report on meeting with the supervisor of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, initiation of a chapter newsletter, initiate a letter writing campaign for the proposed Williams Wilderness Bill, etc. Since the creation of the chapter, alerts and educational materials have proliferated and MWA is frequently mentioned in the local media. The number of wilderness walks has also increased. Page 3 of 5 10/9/08 3

4 In 1993 there was a handful of hikes in central Montana. Over years the number of walks in the booklet increased so that now over 40 walks are consistently offered in central Montana. Times haven t changed a whole lot, the Chapter board has six officers and 16 board members. Meetings are held monthly, along with education programs and committee meetings. And since the chapters inception two Island Range members have served as president of the Montana Wilderness Association State Council and two state conventions have been held in Great Falls with another planned for May Chapter membership has grown from about 100 members to over 600 members, many of whom work actively as volunteers serving on committees, attending meetings, assisting with events, speaking at public hearings, writing comments, and leading walks. The chapter continues to work on its mission of protecting as much as possible of central Montana s road less wildlands to preserve the option for their future inclusion into the National Wilderness Preservation System. Central Montana still remains without any wilderness on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, but we have made progress in advancing our mission. Today, we are close to removing the threats of oil and drilling, mining, and most off-road vehicle use on the Front, and we are moving toward conservation plan that will provide longer-term protection for the area. The Missouri River breaks is now a national monument are we are actively working for the adoption of a management plan which genuinely protects the values for which this monument was created. The Big Snowy Wilderness Study Area is almost motor-free and we continue to work toward the preservation of some large motor-free blocks of land in the surrounding island ranges. Certainly much more need to be done, but much has been accomplished during some very difficult times. And because of our past work, Wilderness remains a possibility for the future. Madison-Gallatin Chapter, Bozeman History: Geography: Established in 1962, as the Madison-Gallatin Alliance. Changed its name to Madison-Gallatin Chapter in Park, Madison and Gallatin counties. Missoula-Bitterroot Chapter, Missoula History: Established in 1987 Dissolved in 1993 Geography: Missoula, Granite, Mineral and Ravalli Counties, plus the southern portion of Lake County (St. Ignatius, Arlee, Charlo). Wild Divide Chapter, Helena History: Established in 1993 Page 4 of 5 10/9/08 4

5 Geography: All of Lewis and Clark County plus those portions of the Helena National Forest in Jefferson, Meagher, Broadwater and Powell Counties basically the entire Helena Forest. Page 5 of 5 10/9/08 5