Strengthen plans on sage-grouse to save Hi-Line lands

On May 28, the Bureau of Land Management reached a historic milestone in its effort to conserve the imperiled greater sage-grouse.

The plans proposed by the BLM would protect the West’s sagebrush sea, which acts as essential habitat for the sage-grouse as well as mule deer, pronghorn and hundreds of other wildlife species.

The agency has taken a big step toward balancing multiple use activities on Western public lands while keeping the sage-grouse off the endangered species list.  

While the sage-grouse protections are important, the three Montana plans issued on May 28 are a mixed bag for conservation as a whole. In certain cases, such as the Miles City RMP, there are significant deficiencies in BLM’s justification for failing to identify and protect important wild backcountry areas from development. Of the 2.7 million acres of public lands in the Miles City region, the BLM is proposing to protect less than two-tenths of one percent (0.19 percent) of these lands for their wild backcountry values.  On the other hand, the Billings RMP has struck a sensible balance between protecting backcountry lands for hunting and other recreation while allowing some development where it is appropriate.  

On Montana’s Hi-Line, the BLM manages 2.4 million acres of land that includes wide-open prairies, rugged badlands and brushy coulees that sustain robust herds of elk, mule deer, pronghorn and some of the largest migratory corridors in the West.

The Hi-Line district includes areas like the Frenchman Breaks in northwest Glasgow and the rugged country of Gumbo Plateau, Black Elk Coulee and Caravan-Marsh Hawk Hills.

These lands are an important part of Montana’s hunting tradition and offer some of the best public land hunting opportunities in the world.   

The sage grouse protections proposed in the Hi-Line plan will safeguard many important areas critical to the species. However, there are still steps BLM should take to protect wild lands that offer unrivaled opportunities for solitude and backcountry recreation. The plan as currently written fails to protect some especially critical backcountry areas for future generations.

The Lamere/Lambing Coulees north of Malta and Black Elk Coulee region just north of the Missouri River Breaks National Monument, are particularly deserving of management that will ensure the natural and wild character of these areas are retained.

These two areas total over 80,000 acres of prime public land.

The Lamere/Lambing region provides important mule deer and pronghorn winter range as well as prime nesting habitat for waterfowl and grassland birds. The Black Elk Coulee region adjacent to Missouri Breaks National Monument encompasses Montana’s iconic hunting Unit 680 which produces some of the largest bighorn rams in the West. Anyone who has ever dreamed of drawing a Breaks sheep tag understands that Unit 680 is a valuable resource to Montana’s sportsmen community.  

Anyone who has been to these areas in the fall knows how important they are to hunters from all over Montana and the world. These public lands provide unmatched solitude and wild hunting opportunity, and the hunters they attract bring a much-needed infusion of cash into local communities every year. We urge BLM to manage these areas in a manner that protects their backcountry value for future generations.

Over the next month the BLM has the opportunity to make relatively minor adjustment to the final Hi-Line Plan and protect the Black Elk Coulee and Lamere/Lambing regions. Protecting these areas will safeguard these high-value destinations for future generations to enjoy.

(Dave Chadwick is the executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Dan Vermillion has served on Montana’s Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commission since 2007 and currently serves as chair. He and his brothers own Sweetwater Travel, a Livingston-based business that owns and operates fishing camps in Alaska, the Bahamas, Brazil, British Columbia, Montana and Mongolia.)