Montana Wilderness Areas

Montana has vast areas of wilderness.

Absaroka-Beartooth
Anaconda-Pintler
Bear Trap Canyon
Bob Marshall
Cabinet Mountains
Gates of the Mountains
Great Bear
Humbug Spires
Lee Metcalf
Medicine Lake
Mission Mountains
Rattlesnake
Red Rock Lakes Wilderness
Scapegoat
Selway-Bitterroot
UL Bend
Welcome Creek

Montana Wilderness Facts:

Montana landbase (acres): 94,109,542
Total Wilderness acres: 3,442,416
Total land base: 3.7%
Total number of Wilderness areas: 15

Some Montana Wilderness History:

1964: Wilderness Act, Congress designates five Wilderness areas in Montana, including the Bob Marshall, Cabinet Mountains, Gates of the Mountains, Selway-Bitterroot, and Anaconda-Pintler.
1972: The Scapegoat Wilderness is designated—the first wilderness in America created through a citizen proposal instead of agency recommendation. Montana citizens and activists nationwide made it happen, setting an important precedent.
1976: Congress passes the National Forest Management Act, opening the doors of national forest management to local citizens.
1976-1978: Montana activists secure wilderness designation for the Great Bear, Rattlesnake, Absaroka-Beartooth, Mission Mountains, Welcome Creek, UL Bend, Medicine Lake, and Red Rock Lakes areas, as well as Wild and Scenic designations for the Flathead and Missouri Rivers.
1977: Montana Senator Lee Metcalf’s Wilderness Study Act passes to preserve the existing (as of 1977) wilderness character of ten outstanding wild places in Montana.
1983: The Lee Metcalf Wilderness is designated, giving protections to key portions of the wild Yellowstone ecosystem.
1988: A wilderness bill passes Congress but is pocket-vetoed by President Reagan as an election favor to Senator Conrad Burns. This was the last Montana wilderness bill to pass Congress.
1992 - 1994: Bills pass in either the Senate or House, but eventually die.
2001: President Clinton designates the Missouri Breaks National Monument, preserving roadless lands and wilderness study areas in central Montana.
Present: Montanans continue to protect Montana’s last, best unroaded places to eventually get them designated as Wilderness. Bush administration initiates rollbacks to the National Forest Management Act, which could severely reduce citizen input and scientific review. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a national policy established in early 2001 to prevent new roads in roadless areas, hangs in limbo, with the Bush administration intent on dismantling it.