Guest Column

Montana’s Outdoor Economy Depends on the Roadless Rule

My and my employee’s lives and livelihoods depend on these special places

By Todd Frank

Montana is blessed with an outdoor heritage that is the envy of the nation. Whether it’s hunting, hiking, fishing, OHV riding, paddling, mountain biking, or just a family picnic, our state’s roadless public lands offer something for everyone. 

I grew up in Billings in the late 1960s and 70s when a casual knock on a rancher or farmer’s door generally got you permission to hunt and fish. It was not until 1981, when I moved to Missoula to attend college, that I was in a place where I didn’t know private landowners. It was then that I really began to explore and appreciate the wild public lands surrounding Missoula and western Montana.

I learned to hunt elk on roadless areas in the Flint Creeks and in the Rock Creek drainage, where a short hike got you into places where elk pretty much lived undisturbed most of the year. Suffice it to say they were a lot smarter than I was, and I got a fast education in what not to do.

Over the nearly 45 years I have been hanging around the Philipsburg area. I have explored roadless areas that felt more remote than the wilderness trips I had done as a teenager in the Beartooths. These roadless areas have less people and the wild places had landscapes that were more approachable than our amazing wilderness areas, where it might take three days of walking to get past the mule trains.

The small roadless areas are tucked between the front-country and designated wilderness are some of the most impressive places I have been in Montana. Not as flashy or well known as a big wilderness, but every bit as high, wide and handsome.

For nearly 25 years these roadless areas have been managed under a policy called the Roadless Rule. In short, this multiple use policy prevents road construction and industrial-scale logging in roadless areas. That’s it. The Roadless Rule doesn’t prohibit motorized recreation. It doesn’t prohibit hazardous fuels reduction projects to reduce risk of fires. It doesn’t prohibit mining. It simply prevents new roads from bisecting intact public lands and fish and wildlife habitat.   

Despite over two decades of success balancing multiple uses of our national forests, the U.S. Forest Service is reconsidering the Roadless Rule. No government policy is perfect, and there may be room to improve the Roadless Rule, but scrapping it altogether would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And in this case the “baby” safeguards not only our hunting and fishing traditions, but also an outdoor recreation economy that supports 71,000 jobs and generates $7.1 billion in consumer spending in our state. 

Those numbers are about me, many other business owners, and the Montanans we employ. Montana’s growing recreation economy includes businesses like mine that depend on people having access to public lands of all kinds, including roadless areas. Simply put, my and my employee’s lives and livelihoods depend on these special places. Most of my customers say the same thing. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the opportunity to spend time on friends’ ranches and see how real stewards of the land operate on land they sweat on every day.  But I am equally lucky to be able to also experience our shared public lands and the unparalleled backcountry hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation that they provide.

Any changes to the Roadless Rule must be considered only after a robust and transparent process that looks at community needs, the public’s desire to steward these lands, and a seat at the table for all stake holders – including both conservation and extractive interests. When the Roadless Rule was created in 2001, the agency conducted over 400 public meetings, including two dozen in Montana. 

This impressive level of state and local coordination is what the public needs and wants this time around as the Forest Service considered changes to the roadless area management. Anything less would forsake the local knowledge of thousands of people who have their feet on the landscape. Let’s not lose our ability to steward our roadless public lands by and for the people who know them best.    

Todd Frank is the owner of the the Trail Head and Trail Head River Sports in Missoula.