Lend your support to the naming of Alex Diekmann Peak

Please write the Montana congressional delegation today to express your individual or organization’s enthusiastic support for the naming of Alex Diekmann Peak.

Located in the Madison Valley, this peak will provide a lasting tribute to Alex’s conservation legacy across the Montana landscape. Please recognize Alex’s broad array of conservation success, but focus especially on his impact in your own geography.

 Along with other Montanans who care deeply about our state's incomparable natural resource areas, we want to note our profound gratitude to Alex Diekmann — whose remarkable efforts were central to conserving some of the most significant and spectacular scenery, outdoor recreation lands, and fish and wildlife resources in Montana and throughout the Northern Rockies — and to urge Congress to recognize his abiding impact on our landscape in a formal and lasting way.

 Over the course of his renowned public-interest career, before losing a heroic battle with cancer earlier this year, Alex Diekmann was responsible for the conservation of more than 50 distinct areas in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, securing for the future over 100,000 acres of iconic mountains and valleys, rivers and creeks, ranches and farms, and historic sites and open spaces. Alex possessed a truly unique set of gifts, and without his community spirit, tremendous skills, and conservation commitment, many of these places surely would have been lost.

 Among the dazzling array of special landscapes that will endure thanks to Alex’s efforts are the spectacular Devil’s Canyon in Wyoming’s Craig Thomas Special Management Area; crucial fish and wildlife habitat and recreation access lands in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, along the Salmon River, and near the Canadian border; and particularly extensive, diverse, and vitally important lands all across the Crown of the Continent in Montana, including key areas like Taylor Fork within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem; critical river access and history at Glacier National Park; essential wildlife corridors in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem; recreational trails and critical drinking water supply for the City of Whitefish; and well beyond.

 Given the permanent, positive mark Alex Diekmann made all across the map, and especially given his extensive, successful efforts to guarantee permanent conservation of and public access to the natural wonders in and near the Madison Valley and the Madison Range, we strongly support the proposal to dedicate a currently unnamed mountain (known as Peak 9,765) south of Ennis as Alex Diekmann Peak. Alex’s public-benefit achievements were directly tied to this landscape, so enacting legislation to name this particular geographic feature would be an extremely fitting tribute to his memory and the contributions he made to us all.

 Alex Diekmann’s life and work leaves a lasting legacy that honors the traditions and the future of our state and will benefit all Americans for the generations to come. We hope you will do what you can to advance legislation to recognize that legacy through the naming of Alex Diekmann Peak.

Please direct letters of support to MT delegation members and to their staffs. Because of delays in Congressional snail mail, letters and resolutions are best delivered electronically via email/PDF.

The Honorable Jon Tester Sen. Tester natural resource staff: U.S. Senate Janelle DiLuccia 311 Hart Senate Office Building [email protected] Washington, DC 20510 202-224-2644

The Honorable Steve Daines Sen. Daines natural resources staff: U.S. Senate Meghan Marino 320 Hart Senate Office Building [email protected] Washington, DC 20510 202-224-2651

The Honorable Ryan Zinke Rep. Zinke natural resources staff: U.S. House of Representatives Amanda Kaster 113 Cannon House Office Building [email protected] Washington, DC 20515 202-225-3211

Peak Description: The proposed Alex Diekmann Peak is some 7 miles from the Madison River, and straddles private and public property. The peak’s western face sits within Sun Ranch, and the top of the peak and eastern face are within Beaverhead National Forest. The peak is nearly 10,000 feet altitude. The creek-cut valley to the north is that of Wolf Creek, winding its way around the peak. Once likely a great glacial U-shaped valley, Wolf Creek valley is now a stream-eroded V-cut. The relatively low-lying and undulating mounds in front of the peak are terminal moraines from latest glacial activity 10’s of thousands of years ago. The view from the top of the proposed Alex Diekmann peak can see the Madison Valley to Ennis and the stunning Tabacco Roots to the north, plus the Centennial Mountain range to the south, from west reaching Sawtell Peak to across the entire ridge line going east.