Six years later, a new plan offers hope for Gallatin Mountains north of Yellowstone
Just a month into 2022, we’ve arrived at a historic milestone in the path to secure one of the most vulnerable corners of Greater Yellowstone. After six years of work, the Gallatin Mountains—the last mountain range connected to Yellowstone without permanent protections—finally have a modern management plan. This matters—a lot.
Stretching between Yellowstone National Park and the booming community of Bozeman, Montana, the Gallatins are a microcosm of the best the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has to offer, as well as some of its key challenges. The Gallatin range links healthy populations of elk, grizzly, moose, and other wildlife between the geothermal splendor of the park and the rich habitat of the sprawling Northern Rockies. These mountains have also been a shared hunting and gathering ground for Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
Today, the Gallatins are lauded as an idyllic outdoor playground and economic driver for thriving communities. However, as the region’s human population continues to boom, mounting recreational pressure within these wild spaces creates a growing tension that we are seeing more and more often. Without a good long-term plan, we risk loving the Gallatins to death.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition has been working to protect the Gallatins’ future for around 20 years. It’s one of our longest-running campaigns. Alongside a diverse group of partners, we’ve sought harmony amidst discordant voices by helping create spaces where those who love the Gallatins can find consensus and put in the hard work required to make real progress. The collaborative group at the center of this work is the Gallatin Forest Partnership (GFP).
A hiker sits next to a creek in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. The Custer Gallatin National Forest encompasses 3 million acres of public lands. (Photo Louise Johns)
The group’s recommendations include new wilderness, wildlife protections, and better management of popular recreation areas. These efforts represent an effective, realistic way to “freeze the footprint” of human uses on this iconic landscape—ensuring folks still have access to the places they love to explore, while protecting the forest’s wild spaces from future development.
So far, members of the GFP have been focused on making sure Custer Gallatin National Forest, which includes the Gallatin Range, adopts these recommendations in its new Forest Management Plan. That new plan is here at last. For the first time in 40 years, Custer Gallatin will take a fresh approach to managing the Gallatins and the rest of their 3.1 million acres.
So, how did they do? Thanks largely to public comments from supporters like you, they did pretty darn well. The plan isn’t perfect, but it represents a bright future for the Gallatins and beyond. Below are a few highlights as they relate to the Gallatin Forest Partnership and GYC’s other goals.
Protections for the Gallatin and nearby Madison Ranges closely follow many of the Gallatin Forest Partnership’s recommendations. The GFP’s vision was officially acknowledged by the Forest Service as “the most compelling for this landscape.”
The plan includes 110,174 acres of new recommended wilderness to protect the wild heart of the Gallatins as well as the Cowboy Heaven area in the Northern Madisons. This is more than has ever been proposed here!
99,128 acres of other new conservation designations to protect the Gallatins while securing existing recreational access.
The plan recommends 30 rivers to be protected as Wild and Scenic—over twice as many as in the old plan. Some important waters like Taylor Creek were, unfortunately, left out.
New Key Linkage Areas have been designated to protect wildlife movement from human development.
The plan includes habitat improvement projects to support a year-round bison population.
A skier in the wintery landscape of the Custer Gallatin National Forest. (Photo Louise Johns)
This forest plan is a huge step forward, but it’s not the end of the road. Ultimately, it will take an act of congress to permanently protect the Gallatins. Designations like new wilderness, for example, can only be created through congressional action. Along with our partners, we are already gearing up to for these next steps and you can bet we’ll keep you in the loop.
For now, we celebrate. In these days of pandemic-stricken winters and hazy, smokey summers, we must recognize and cherish these moments where real progress is made, and hard work pays off. Thank you for staying plugged in and fired up through this long-running campaign—it sure feels good to see our efforts translate into real change. Stay tuned!
—Ryan Cruz, Montana Conservation Associate
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the land of 49+ Indigenous Tribes who maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands, waters, wildlife, plants, and more.
