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3/23/2009
Montana Magazine feature quotes Gordy Sanders, Pyramid's Resource Manager
MARCH/APRIL 2009 | 25
By Jeremy Smith
Most wilderness advocates and industry officials agree that the prospect of protecting more wild lands in Montana depends largely on the climate of compromise
In 1964, Congress created and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Federal Wilderness Act which secured “an enduring resource of wilderness” for the American people. This resource, Congress famously defined, comprised areas “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where
man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” So designated were many of Montana’s most renowned areas for hiking, hunting, fishing and animal habitat: the Anaconda-Pintler, Bob Marshall, Cabinet Mountains, Gates of the Mountain and Selway-Bitterroot. In each, as in all wilderness areas, the act ordered, forevermore “there shall be no
commercial enterprise and no permanent road…no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats,
no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation.”
Further protections for untouched outdoors in the state followed over the next 20 years as federal legislators added
to the roll of protected areas the Lincoln-Scapegoat, Great Bear, Rattlesnake, Absaroka-Beartooth, Mission Mountains,
Welcome Creek, UL Bend, Medicine Lake, Red Rock Lakes and Lee Metcalf. Then, however, new Montana wilderness
designations ceased. For 25 years and counting.
Will the next half-decade alter the stasis of the last quarter century? Those in the know say yes, and their faith rests with
new alliances between their once-stalwart foes.
“What happened in the 1980s and 1990s is that protection of these wild places got caught up in the larger issues of forest management, which was very contentious,” says Tim Baker,
executive director of the Montana Wilderness Association. As he tells it, while conservationists, loggers, outfitters,
mill operators and nonmotorized and motorized users fought with each other and state and federal officials for control
of forests, Montana has changed in ways that make remaining unprotected wildlands and roadless areas—a total of
between 6 and 7 million acres statewide— all the more important. In the state’s fastest-growing areas, “valleys are filling up with traffic, subdivisions, box stores and people, “Baker says. “As that trend continues, places Montanans can find solitude with their families will become
more scarce and more valuable. Without protection for those special places, we’re at risk of losing our quality of life.”
The same forest standoff, meanwhile, has placed the estimated 9,000 employees of the Montana forest-products industry at risk of losing their livelihood, says Gordy Sanders, resource manager of Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake. Not only does the average Pyramid Mountain employee contribute $147,000 a year to the local, state and federal economies, he says, their work provides the economic diversification necessary to preserve Montana’s rural landscape and way of life. “Think about it,” says Sanders, who also serves
as chairman of the resource committee of the Montana
Wood Products Association. “If all the mills were gone
and you owned forest land, the only way you’re going to
generate income from that land is to subdivide it.”
Hence the 2-year-old Montana Forest Restoration Committee: 30-plus representatives of the state’s diverse forest interests, among them off-road users and backcountry horsemen, the Sierra Club and Sun Mountain Lumber, the Montana Wilderness Association and the Montana Wood Products
Association. “The common ground is no one’s getting what they want from the forest,” says Sanders. “Creating a common vision for the future is hugely beneficial because
everyone has ownership.”
As Sanders sees it, the cooperation of different stakeholders improves the chances both for new wilderness areas and rural economic benefits, be they tourism, timber harvesting,
improved wildlife habitat and fisheries, or new recreation infrastructure. As one case in point, a Seeley Lake-area proposal includes not only wilderness designation but a cogeneration facility that could use excess forest biomass to power Pyramid Lumber’s plant. “What that would do is enable us to be fully selfsufficient with an alternative renewable energy source and provide additional jobs associated with it,” says Sanders. The result? “We’re participating in efforts to fully
implement the forest plan…and wilderness designation is
part of fully implementing the forest plan.”
Baker relishes the new colleagues. “There are people who think that you have to actively manage every acre of every national forest and there are people who think that every acre of it should be protected as wilderness,” he says. “The future lies in the middle with Montanans of goodwill who are willing to roll up their sleeves and find common solutions, and those solutions include wilderness designation, but also extend to other needs.” Take those joint proposals to the state congressional delegation, he concludes, “and I think [they’re] going to reward those who are working together.”
Indeed—the Montana delegation is listening. “Sound land management decisions are best achieved through cooperation,” says U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican
and Montana’s lone congressman. “Decisions affecting our lands must be consensus-driven local efforts that balance the protection of our natural resources, recreation, and economic development [and] these same criteria must be a crucial part of any federal discussion involving wilderness designation in Montana.”
“Wilderness designations are an important option in
managing public lands, but they must be done correctly,”
seconds U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, who opposed
the unsuccessful 2007 Northern Rockies Ecosystem
Protection Act designating as wilderness 23 million acres
in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. A
new version of the failed 2007 proposal, reintroduced by a
New York congresswoman in mid-February, would add 7
million acres of wilderness in Montana. First introduced
in 1993, the proposal has found no congressional support
in any of the affected states.
“It is imperative that local voices decide the future of
these critical areas in Montana … and the results must
reflect a desire for a wide variety of responsible uses,”
Baucus says.
Such political consensus, underpinned by fresh partnerships, leave Baker highly optimistic that a new Montana wilderness designation will come within five years, and that more than one area will be protected. Previous Montanans, from grassroots outdoors advocates to congressional leaders, he notes, were instrumental in the passage of the original 1964 Wilderness Act and subsequent wilderness additions. “It was really a farsighted vision that led them to understand that the wild
places that we have could be lost over time if we did
nothing to protect them,” Baker says. “They understood
that wilderness is part of why we live here and our quality
of life depends on [its] protection.”
Today, as it has been since 1984, permanently protected
wilderness areas in Montana total about 3.4 million acres.
The only way to add to that number is by an act of Congress,
signed by the president. “Any given day that’s going to be
a tall order,” Baker says. “You look at what Congress faces
today with two wars, a health-care crisis, an economy that
seems to be melting down, and part of the challenge is to
get Congress to pay attention to an issue like wilderness
designation. It’s critical that the Montana delegation be
satisfied that whatever they’re proposing—and they’re the
ones who have to propose it—is right for Montana.”
What new areas are most likely to meet that high standard?
After a nervous laugh, then lengthy pause for deliberation,
Baker lists five areas that include parcels that are the focus of
current broad-based efforts:
• The Pioneers—a remote, wildlife-rich mountain range
northwest of Dillon in southwest Montana, offering critical
headwaters for some of Montana’s most famous blue-ribbon
fisheries.
• The Rocky Mountain Front—a vast, wild landscape
between designated wilderness and U.S. Highways 89 and
287 to the west and east and the Marias Pass and Rogers Pass
to the north and south, home to 290 wildlife species and the
source of some of the region’s premier opportunities to hunt
and fish.
• Scotchman Peaks—a quiet, rugged area spanning the
Idaho-Montana border approximately 60 miles south of
Canada, rich in local picnic sites, hiking trails, wildlife and
wildflowers.
• The Great Burn—a large untamed expanse between Idaho
and Montana near Missoula, providing opportunities for
one of the state’s largest population centers to experience
pristine subalpine lands radically reshaped by fires and their
aftermath.
• The Upper Blackfoot, which offers the opportunity for a
large addition to northwest Montana’s famous Bob Marshall/
Scapegoat/Mission Mountains Wilderness complex.
The first and last, in particular, highlight new alliances.
Protecting the Pioneers, for example, has already involved
representatives of Smurfit-Stone Container, Roseburg Forest
Products and RY Timber, for example, as well as the National
Wildlife Federation, Montana Trout Unlimited and Montana
Wilderness Association. Meanwhile, Sanders cites a 2,000-
acre area in and around the Blackfoot that was previously
recommended for wilderness designation despite frequent use
by late-season snowmobilers. In the same district, another far
more remote location was technically open to snowmobiles
despite its inaccessibility. “The wilderness folks worked with
the local snowmobilers and hammered out what worked
better,” Sanders says. “Everybody gets something out of it in
these discussions rather than win-lose litigation.”
Not a moment too soon, says Baker. “A couple of years
ago, one of the local papers in the state came up with the 55
things that they loved about Montana,” he says. “Number
one was wilderness. When these places are protected with
wilderness designations, Montanans can rest easy about their
future.”
Jeremy N. Smith writes about a variety of topics for Montana Magazine.
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