Montanans have a long tradition of finding the center when it comes to public lands management. Across history, our leaders in both parties have conserved the places that are part of our way of life for future generations, while finding a balance with other uses of the land.
Whether we make our living working in the woods or in an office, most of us spend our weekends exploring public lands. We value the freedom to enjoy time with friends and family in nature, far from the noise and bustle of daily life. All the ways we recreate on public lands depend on protected public lands – those places we know will remain “backcountry” for our kids and grandkids.
Unfortunately, a bill in Congress upsets this Montana tradition of balance. Late last year, Senator Daines reintroduced a bill that will lift protections for 100,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in central and western Montana, without any new conservation measures to balance stripping these existing protections. Senator Sheehy and Representative Downing joined him as co-sponsors of the bill.
This legislation – the misleadingly named “Montana Sportsman Conservation Act” – eliminates protections for three WSAs, including the Middle Fork Judith in the Little Belt Mountains. The Middle Fork Judith holds critical elk habitat and wild backcountry. It’s cold, clean water supports wild native trout, including a sensitive population of Westslope Cutthroat Trout – Montana’s state fish.
This move comes at a particularly dangerous time for the Middle Fork Judith.
The current administration is pushing to roll back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which for over 25 years has protected 6 million acres of national forests in Montana from road building and industrial development. In the past, Senator Daines has relied on the Roadless Rule to reassure Montanans that the Middle Fork Judith would remain as it is today – an unroaded, backcountry area that supports abundant elk habitat and wild native trout – if protections as a WSA were lifted.
Other tools that the Forest Service uses to balance conserving habitat and clean water with recreational access in the Middle Fork Judith are also in the crosshairs. All these actions leave the Middle Fork Judith vulnerable to unnecessary roadbuilding, industrial development, and unmanaged recreation, undermining years of local leadership and investment to restore the river corridor and fishery.
Montanans have consistently rejected the flawed, top-down approach of simply releasing WSAs from protection without community input. A recent survey showed 75% of Montana voters want to continue protecting them. In the 2025 state legislative session, a bipartisan committee rejected an anti-WSA, anti-Roadless Rule resolution.
Instead, people across the state continue rolling up their sleeves to develop local, collaborative, and balanced solutions for public lands so that our kids and grandkids have the same freedom to explore wild places as we do today.
From the Blackfoot to the Gallatin and in other parts of the state, diverse Montanans are sitting down to craft agreements and proposals that balance conservation, restoration, forest management, recreation, and economic development. These collaborations are where our elected leaders should be looking if they want to legislate changes to the management of our public lands that are so fundamental to the outdoor traditions rooted in our state’s identity.
As Montana changes, our world class recreation and wildlife are under greater stress. If we are going to maintain our way of life, we must make conservation a greater priority. Once we remove protections and open backcountry areas in our national forests to development, there is no going back.
So instead, let’s work together to bring balance to this latest proposal, like we’re used to doing as Montanans – by working together to conserve what makes our state so special, both for today and the future generations that will use these places in the future.
Barb Cestero is The Wilderness Society’s Montana State Director, based in Bozeman.