30 years wild

It's time to celebrate one of the splendors in our backyard. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the protection of the Mission Mountains Wilderness Area.

On Jan. 1, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the bipartisan law that protected the eastern flank of the Missions between Flathead Lake and the Swan Valley. This is the source of the Swan River - these mountain redoubts with names like Gray Wolf Glacier, Daughter of the Sun Mountain, High Park and Crystal Lakes.

The story of the Missions is a lesson in how wilderness lands are protected. Wilderness is about what the people want - the Wilderness Act is one of the most democratic, citizen-involved acts of legislation ever to come out of Congress. As wilderness decisions are made, they come down to specific issues in particular places - and the people's voice is crucial.

This is no accident. The 1964 Wilderness Act moved decisions on wild public lands away from agencies and into Congress. That is how we Montanans will debate and decide the future of the wild Whitefish Range on the Canadian border, the Great Burn west of Missoula, the wild forests of the Yaak, Lolo Peak and other treasured landscapes across Montana - through our elected representatives. And that is how it ought to be.

When the Mission Mountains Wilderness was first proposed, the Forest Service wanted to take a big chunk out of its hide. The agency recommended that 2,000 acres be excluded, creating six deep cuts on the eastern edge. These areas had been "intruded upon" by salvage logging in 1954-55 to control bark beetle damage, the agency said, and they no longer qualified for wilderness consideration.

Congress and Montana's Sen. Lee Metcalf, already a champion of the Wilderness Act, felt otherwise. The senator's committee decided these areas were a vital part of the wilderness complex and should be put back in the package. And they were.

With that, Congress passed and the President signed the law that established the Mission Mountains Wilderness of 73,877 acres.

The story tells us that congressional choices about wilderness areas are decided first of all by the state delegation. Just as New Jersey's delegation would not welcome the intrusion of Montana's delegation into a decision in the Garden State (and there are wilderness areas in New Jersey), neither would Sen. Conrad Burns, Sen. Max Baucus or Rep. Denny Rehberg look favorably on an intrusion in decisions affecting the state they represent.

So wilderness, in addition to being a celebration of landscape, wildlife and heritage, is a celebration of democracy. Montana voices will shape Montana wilderness decisions - whether they are senators or citizens.

The story is still incomplete. The new wilderness area protected only the eastern flank of the Mission Mountains-the wild lands on the west side of the range belonged to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. And that led the Tribes to a momentous, first-time decision. In 1982, the Tribal Council established the 91,778 acre Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness, asserting "an enduring resource of wilderness is vitally important to the people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the perpetuation of their culture."

This was the first such area in the nation established by a Tribal government. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the Tribal Wilderness, and the Forest Service publishes a single map giving these two wilderness areas equal treatment. Each supports the other, and together they protect the wildness of 165,500 acres. These two companion wilderness areas in the Missions are a Montana success story to celebrate.

Roger Sherman and Daphne Herling are state council members of the Montana Wilderness Association.