2020 ANNUAL REPORT r e l w o F l o r a C We are a community of people who love the outdoors and champion wild places. MISSION We work with communities to protect Montana’s wilderness heritage, quiet beauty, and outdoor traditions now and for future generations. VALUES We value innovation, integrity, collaboration, stewardship, and tenacity. VISION We envision a future where, from the rugged mountains to the vast prairies, Montana’s wild places are protected, connected, and restored because Montanans value wilderness as essential to our heritage and way of life. or Montana Wilderness Association, small-town businesses. We listened to the Our voices helped move Montana’s entire 2020: 2020 was a year of innovation and ranchers we work with to hear how they congressional delegation to vote in favor F creativity, all made possible thanks to had to adapt to seasonal work crews and of full funding for the Land and Water the generous support of the members, fluctuating beef prices, then shifted coalition Conservation Fund, an invaluable program UNCERTAINTY, donors, and foundations that invest in meetings to meet their needs. And we that pays for trailheads, fishing access sites, Montana’s wild future. reached out to our members directly, and other outdoor recreation infrastructure. CHALLENGE, making hundreds of phone calls just to And we’re inspiring people to give. In Behind the successes reported here are check-in and let our supporters know that December 2020 alone, more people untold stories of staff working from kitchen we were thinking of them and to express joined as new members than in any single AND tables, shifting plans to keep staff and our gratitude for all they’ve done for us previous month. volunteers safe, and finding creative ways to over the years. In this time of isolation, INNOVATION keep members and supporters connected. we focused on building community. 2020 forced us all to adapt, innovate, and to focus on what really matters. For us, Despite what has sometimes felt like a Ultimately, as a result of these adaptations, that’s our wild public lands and waters and roller coaster of a year, we didn’t just ride it innovations, and partnerships over the last our community of people that love them. out, we brought innovative ideas to the year, we’re inspiring more people to take We’re proud to have you by our side as table to rise to the occasion. We shifted action on behalf of public lands and waters partners in our work for a wilder Montana. resources to support staff to work from in Montana and beyond. home and stay safe. In-person events shifted With gratitude for keeping it wild! to online gatherings where hundreds of We built out teams of advocates people joined at a time, hailing from across 1,000-strong who are ready to speak up – Debo Powers, – Ben Gabriel, the state and around the country and for legislation, new policy, and land President Executive Director extending our reach like never before. management decisions that secure wildlife We doubled-down on data analysis and habitat and clean water. Our voices digital organizing tools, enabling us to reached Sen. Jon Tester adapt our tactics to work more efficiently inspiring him to and effectively. introduce a bill to eliminate Making these changes not only allowed us noncompetitive to weather the storm but gave us space oil and gas and strength to support our partners and leasing. supporters through this challenging time. Staff connected with small business owners in our coalitions to check-in and see how they’re doing, then launched a series of blogs to encourage people to support On the cover: Rainy Lake, n i f f Lolo National Forest i G c M y Left: Makoshika c a r State Park T 2 I am a local outdoor CONNECTING WITH recreation business owner “who wants to support ONE ANOTHER, my local landscape. WILDLANDS, AND COMMUNITIES We’ve long believed that when we connect people with opportunities to experience our natural world at its wildest, they’ll join our movement to keep it wild. This has been true since 1960, when Ken and Florence Baldwin invited 100 friends to join them on a walk into the Crazy Mountains, the first in more than six decades of Wilderness Walks. And now we have even more ways to connect people with the wild – volunteering with our trail crew, learning about mushroom foraging or caves, or being a scientist for a day in a wilderness z c study area. i w e i k n e i S x e l A 2 Smith River he was supposed to be on the steppes Conservation Fund, and she asked Sen. of Mongolia with a trowel and a crew of Daines and then Rep. Greg Gianforte, now S volunteers, digging neat 1x1 meter Montana’s governor, to support the bill. trenches as director of NOMAD Science volunteer archaeology program. Instead, Like Julia, our trail crew had to adapt plans she joined our own crew of volunteers in light of Covid-19. But with a little fixing up trails in her home state, wielding flexibility, we managed to do all the planned a pulaski to dig trail drainage and tread. on-the-ground work. For five weeks, our team of two staff were out on the trail day- Julia was home visiting family in Glen, in and day-out bucking logs, fixing eroded Montana, when the global pandemic halted tread, and brushing open corridors, and we international travel. Not one to waste a were thrilled to welcome 48 volunteers to moment, she put herself to work with our join us for five weeks. Together we worked Volunteer Trail Crew: removing downfall hard by day to repair more than 60 miles of and fixing up water bars in the Anaconda- trail, and gathered around the campfire by Pintler Wilderness, building a Continental night to swap stories and talk about the Divide Trail reroute near Flesher Pass, and future of wildlands. keeping Sluice Boxes State Park’s main hiking and fishing access in great shape. This summer, we have another 18 trips As if that weren’t enough, she helped out planned, each of which is an opportunity as a citizen scientist in the East Fork for volunteers to connect with one Blacktail Wilderness Study Area – just another and with Montana’s incredible adjacent to the Snowcrest Range – wild places. o l l helping collect on-the-ground data u z a and photos to keep the area wild. M y n n o And now she’s using her voice S to speak-up for the wild. Julia reached out to Sen. Steve Daines and asked him Julia (right) celebrates a job well done with ”The 2020 ,” a social distance high five. to support protections for the headwaters of the Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers. She called to thank Sen. Jon Tester for supporting the THANKS TO OUR MEMBERS, DONORS, ADVOCATES, AND VOLUNTEERS Land and Water Our seven volunteer chapters hosted speak up in the media and with state more than 1,000 people via virtual events legislators to retain longstanding to learn about grizzly bears, local trails, and protections. how to support responsible recreation at popular trailheads. We laid the foundation for a wilderness ranger to work in the Cabinet Mountain In southwest Montana’s Beaverhead Wilderness, where she’ll be fixing trails, n e s County, volunteers walked BLM wilderness inventorying campsites, offering bear n a J study areas and took note of sights and spray training, monitoring solitude, and n a e sounds, use and misuse. One of these areas providing a direct link between the Kootenai S is now under threat in the state Legislature, National Forest, local communities, and and volunteers are using their voices to Montana Wilderness Association. 3 n the two-minute drive through the SHARED center of Lincoln you’re likely to see Opickup trucks and ATVs parked in front of the Wilderness Bar, and logging trucks VALUES, at the Mountain View Co-op filling up gas alongside Outbacks and RAV4s. Looking SHARED around, you might wonder how people with such a variety of outlooks and interests could ever find common ground SOLUTIONS when it comes to nearby wildlands. But leave preconceived notions behind, and you’ll see that most community members From Eureka to Ekalaka, want the same thing: places to hike and we bring people together hunt, jobs in the woods, and healthy who have a shared love forests. for this special place, Over the last few years, we’ve been and while each person working with Lincoln and surrounding may bring their own communities to build on these shared unique background and values as we unite for the conservation perspective, more often of backyard public lands. The result? The community’s Lincoln Prosperity than not we find common Proposal would permanently protect ground around a shared 120,000 acres of new Wilderness and love for wildlands. conservation management areas off limits to development. This tapestry of protections would protect a crucial Continental Divide migration corridor for wildlife, while sustaining communities’ access to the outdoors. As a first step towards this vision, we’ve been key advocates behind the Helena- Lewis and Clark National Forest’s management plan, mobilizing hundreds of I respect and appreciate our members and advocates to speak up MWA’s recognition of the and shape the plan. When released this Wilderness in nearly 40 years. This is Lincoln is one of a dozen communities “importance of building spring, it will recommend additions to the particularly appropriate near Lincoln, where we’re on the ground getting to Scapegoat Wilderness and Wilderness where decades ago, bulldozers and road know friends and neighbors, listening to genuine, collaborative protections for Nevada Mountain.