The Rocky Mountain Front is a land of superlatives. Rising from the Great Plains to meet the Continental Divide, this region is sacred to the Blackfeet Nation, who call it the “Backbone of the World.” Grizzly bears, westslope cutthroat trout, two species of deer, elk, moose, wolves, grouse, antelope, bighorn sheep and mountain goats all call it home. In many ways, it is a place that has withstood the march of time and progress, and thanks to decades of advocacy by a diverse coalition, it will remain so long into the future. 

In December 2006, hunters and anglers received an early Christmas present when President Bush signed into law a tax bill that contained a permanent ban on oil and gas leasing on public land along the Front. The legislation was the product of Montana’s Senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns — one a Republican and the other a Democrat — working across the aisle to prohibit future oil and gas leasing on 500,000 acres and to provide tax incentives for leaseholders to sell or donate their leases. 

Earlier in the year, two companies, Questar and Startech, relinquished their leases, the latter donating them to Trout Unlimited. Later, TU purchased another 4,900 acres of leases from a private energy investor that were then retired. Today, almost all of the 152,000 acres of leases have been retired through buyouts and voluntary donations by energy companies. Two remaining leases are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, but one thing is for certain: the Rocky Mountain Front is going to remain the best of the last, best places.