Wilderness in the Northern Rockies| a Missoula-Lolo National Forest Perspective

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1993 Wilderness in the northern Rockies| A Missoula-Lolo National Forest perspective Todd L. Denison The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Denison, Todd L., "Wilderness in the northern Rockies| A Missoula-Lolo National Forest perspective" (1993). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4091. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4091 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY Copying allowed as provided under provisions of the Fair Use Section of the U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW, 1976. Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's written consent. MontanaUniversity of WILDERNESS IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES: A MISSOULA-LOLO NATIONAL FOREST PERSPECTIVE By Todd L. Denison B.A. University of Montana, 1986 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Montana 1993 Approved by Chairman, Board of Examiners Dean, Graduate School UMI Number: EP36297 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Diss«ft*te PktfiaNng UMI EP36297 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Denison, Todd L. , M.A., May 1993 History Wilderness in the Northern Rockies: A Missoula and Lolo National Forest Perspective (2IM pp.) Director: Dan L. Flores Missoula and western Montana are home to a microcosm of national interests involved in the wilderness preservation debate. This microcosm existed and continues to exist within a unique political atmosphere where wilderness- related events routinely make headlines in the local news media. Since Missoula represents a microcosm for wilderness issues and it is a typical western American municipality, a historical study of wilderness using Missoula and its western Montana environs as examples will reflect the larger history of the evolution of wilderness preservation in the United States. This study identifies the components of the microcosm in Missoula and western Montana and then covers the history of statutory wilderness preservation in the United States Forest Service from 1891 to 1992. Missoula, Lolo National Forest and other pertinent regional examples are used to highlight the history of wilderness preservation in the Forest Service, charting events from the establishment of the forest reserves to the current polarized wilderness stalemate in Montana. Legislative events, court cases, and local and state politics receive special focus along with the problems the Forest Service has experienced as a result of the movement to preserve wilderness. Extensive primary and secondary research support this study. The author conducted interviews with many individuals who were responsible for influencing the events described in this history. Corroborating the oral interviews are numerous archival documents from both the University of Montana and the various Forest Service offices located in Missoula. The standard secondary works in wilderness history are referenced to place the primary research into context. The culmination of the wilderness preservation story has yet to occur. Missoula and western Montana face increasing polarization between preservationist and utilitarian interests, preventing a legislative resolution to the wilderness debate. This polarization also reflects the state of affairs in public land law in the West, and suggests that if Missoula and Montana can find a solution, then that solution could serve as a model for the nation. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 2. Chapter One: Forests, Fires, and Wilderness 8 3. Chapter Two: Timber, Development, and Wilderness Preservation .... 45 4. Chapter Three: Multiple Use and Wildlands Controversy 78 5. Chapter Four: Courts, Congress, and Roadless Area Controversies . 117 6. Chapter Five: Judicial Critique, Congressional Stalemate, and Polarization . 156 7. Conclusion 196 8. Bibliography 199 INTRODUCTION In western Montana civilization and wilderness collide in a juxtaposition that illuminates the debate over the future of wilderness as an entity in the United States. Along Interstate 90 north of Missoula, elk are visible grazing on hills that serve simultaneously as winter wildlife range, human homesites, and a city refuse disposal area. Beyond the herd of elk, the snowcapped peaks of the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area emerge above the smog trapped by a winter's temperature inversion. Within the city, a bald eagle surveys the waters of the Clark Fork River as cars whiz by on a nearby bridge. Missoula and the surrounding Lolo National Forest are the setting of one of the great natural, political, and spiritual confrontations of Western American history: that of wilderness preservation. No other location in the West contains such a passionate, and nearly balanced complement of people with an interest in either wilderness preservation or forest utilization. National wilderness policy here affects a microcosm, for wilderness purposes, of the coterminous states of the American West. Wilderness history in Missoula and the surrounding Lolo Forest both reflects and influences the larger history of wilderness in the entire West. Geographically, the Lolo National Forest occupies part of two distinctive environmental regions in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Montana. 1 2 The western half and a northeastern portion of the forest lie in the Columbia Rockies region. This region is characterized by lush, humid, forested mountains and valleys. Comparatively few people inhabit this area, and those who do reside in small towns nestled in the narrow valleys. Lolo's central lands fall into the Broad Valley Rockies region. A more arid, sparsely vegetated, and populated landscape distinguishes this area. Missoula lies in one of these broad valleys and ranks as the most populous city completely enclosed within the Rocky Mountains.1 In 1992 Bruce Vento, Democrat Congressman from Minnesota, introduced the National Forest Wilderness Management Act, HR 4325, that also called for the establishment of an Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute at Missoula. At the close of the 102nd Congress however, Vento's legislation was still in debate. Most probably the Forest Service administratively designated Missoula the site for the Leopold Institute in response to Vento's proposed bill. The United States Forest Service maintains a considerable presence in Missoula. The Northern Region's headquarters, an Aerial Fire Depot and Smokejumper's training center, the offices of Lolo National Forest, and 'John A. Alwin, Western Montana: A Portrait of the Land and its People, Montana Geographic Series Number Five, (Helena, MT: Montana Magazine, Inc., 1983), 4-5. 3 Missoula Ranger District call Missoula home.2 Also in Missoula, the University of Montana provides a location for a laboratory of the Forest Service's Intermountain Research Station. Author Stephen Pyne called Missoula a "Forest Service company town."3 Recently, the Forest Service announced that the Missoula laboratory will house the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.4 Missoula's selection did not come without some controversy within the Forest Service. Other locations such as Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado, competed for the institute. Negatives associated with the Missoula site included its remote northern Rockies location and somewhat small metropolitan area. What 2Forest service administration emanates from Washington, D.C. down to nine regional headquarters: Northern Region-Montana, northern Idaho, North Dakota, northeast South Dakota, headquarters at Missoula, MT; Pacific Northwest Region- Washington and Oregon, headquarters at Portland, OR; California Region, headquarters at San Francisco; Intermountain Region- Utah, Nevada, western Wyoming and southern Idaho, headquarters at Ogden, UT; Southwestern Region- Arizona and New Mexico, headquarters at Albuquerque, NM; Rocky,Mountain Region- Colorado, central and eastern Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; SoutJaem-Region- 13 southern states, headquarters at Atlanta, GA; Eastern Region- 20 midwest, Great Lake, and eastern states, headquarters at Milwaukee, WI; and the Alaska Region, headquarters at Juneau. Below the regions are the 155 national forests, headed by a forest supervisor and within the forests are numerous ranger districts, the lowest administrative level. 3Stephen Pyne, Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 257. 4 Sherry Devlin,

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