By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL & OUTDOORS EDITOR
LIVINGSTON –
From the top of Crevice Mountain, located just east of Gardiner and adjacent to
the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, you can see roughly one-third of Yellowstone
National Park. You can also see the Yellowstone River, and Caroline Byrd
suspects that with a really good throw, you could probably land a rock in it.
“It’s just
stunning,” Byrd said of the landscape. Byrd is the executive director of the
Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Beyond its scenic power, she added that Crevice lies
along an important migration corridor for Yellowstone’s northern elk herd and that
the area provides important tributaries to the Yellowstone River.
In recent
years, land on Crevice and a portion of Emigrant Peak was included in a gold
mining proposal that elicited opposition from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition
as well as more than 400 local businesses that comprise the Yellowstone Gateway
Business Coalition. While Emigrant and Crevice have historic patented mining
claims, the recent proposal was for mining on public ground.
“Imagine a
steady stream of ore trucks going right up Chico [Hot Springs’] driveway.
Imagine them ripping apart the mountain and poisoning the water,” Byrd said,
adding that the destruction would be the result of a particular type of mining
used to extract gold. “You can’t just say no mining anywhere, [but] these are
not good places for mines.”
The result
of four years of opposition, Crevice Mountain is among 30,000 acres of public
land that is now permanently off limits to mining as a part of the John D. Dingell,
Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act. Formerly named the Natural
Resources Management Act, it includes conservation measures that affect the
entire nation and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 12.
A package of
numerous land and water conservation bills bundled together in a lengthy 700
pages, the act was passed by the U.S. Congress on Feb. 26, with a 363-53 vote
in the House and 92-8 in the Senate.
For Montana,
this public-lands bill’s effect is two-fold. In addition to permanently withdrawing
land adjacent to Yellowstone’s northern boundary from mining activity, it also
permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has been
used to purchase city parks, public lands and access sites across the state,
and expired last October.
“If you
enjoy the outdoors, if you enjoy community trails, if you enjoy community
playgrounds, if you enjoy recreation acres, if you think forest management is
important, then you have probably benefited by the Land and Water Conservation
Fund,” said Glenn Marx, the executive director of the Montana Association of
Land Trusts. “It has made the Montana way of life better.”
Established
in 1964 to safeguard natural resources, the fund has provided Montana with
nearly $600 million to protect open spaces, preserve historic sites, improve
recreational access and assist with forest management. In addition to expanding
community trail systems in the Gallatin Valley, the funds have allowed for the
purchase of 165 of Montana’s fishing access sites, and helped consolidate
public lands in the Gallatin Range.
“That is
just major bipartisan support for what most people agree is the country’s
premier conservation program,” Marx said of the permanent reauthorization.
He said that
with the funding becoming available soon, land trusts within the state as well
as agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will
develop proposals for LWCF projects, and Montana could see as much as $23
million in 2019.
