BuzzH
Well-known member
Thats right, they want access through a Wilderness Study Area...the access is too far from their back yards. 
Gee, I wonder why the "fat ass" label sticks like glue?
Environmentalists oppose reopening road in Gravellys
By NICK GEVOCK Chronicle Staff Writer
Environmentalists have come out against a proposal by federal officials to reopen a four-wheel-drive road through a wilderness study area in the north end of the Gravelly Mountains.
Four environmental groups say the Bureau of Land Management is obligated by its own management plan to keep vehicles out of the roughly 8,000-acre Axolotl Lakes Wilderness Study Area.
"They can't manage it as both a off-road playground and a wilderness study area, and right now they're mandated to manage it as a wilderness area," Tim Stevens, spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said.
BLM officials in Dillon are considering reopening a ridgeline road known as the "stock driveway," which passes near the Axolotl Lakes about five miles south of Virginia City.
The road opening was requested by Madison County commissioners, who said area residents want a direct route from Virginia City to the top of the Gravellys.
"Rather than accessing that part of the Gravellys from their back yard, they're forced to drive around and come back to within a few miles of where they started," Rick Waldrup, Dillon BLM office recreation manager.
The commissioners said their constituents in Virginia City originally asked that the Bachelor Gulch road be reopened. Bachelor Gulch road was closed in 1982 because it was severely eroded and passes close to wetlands.
Instead, commissioners and the BLM agreed to consider reopening the stock driveway, which was closed in 1990.
Most of the 200 public comments -- including remarks from American Wildlands, the Montana Wilderness Association, GYC and the Wilderness Society -- were against the proposal, Waldrup said.
The concern is that the BLM is jeopardizing the wilderness study area by creating easy access for vehicles, which would bring more people to the area, threaten wildlife habitat and cause erosion.
Although the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks doesn't necessarily oppose the plan, the agency has some concerns, FWP Region 3 Manager Pat Flowers said.
FWP uses one of the alpine lakes in the area as a home for endangered arctic grayling, which are milked for their eggs that are then reared in a hatchery.
Flowers wrote that more people using the area could introduce disease, illegally stock other fish species or overfish the lake.
However, FWP likes the fact that the road could provide better hunting access to the northern Gravellys, Flowers said.
Madison County residents who commented on the road were about evenly split on whether the road should be reopened, Waldrup said. Reasons cited included easier access and a possible boost in tourism by creating more routes for off-road vehicles.
Virginia City resident Bill Babcock, who has mining interests in the Axolotl Lakes area, said he spends a lot of time up there. He supports reopening the road and dropping the area from wilderness consideration.
"The people that have mining claims up there have been fighting the wilderness study area for years," Babcock said.
Gee, I wonder why the "fat ass" label sticks like glue?
Environmentalists oppose reopening road in Gravellys
By NICK GEVOCK Chronicle Staff Writer
Environmentalists have come out against a proposal by federal officials to reopen a four-wheel-drive road through a wilderness study area in the north end of the Gravelly Mountains.
Four environmental groups say the Bureau of Land Management is obligated by its own management plan to keep vehicles out of the roughly 8,000-acre Axolotl Lakes Wilderness Study Area.
"They can't manage it as both a off-road playground and a wilderness study area, and right now they're mandated to manage it as a wilderness area," Tim Stevens, spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said.
BLM officials in Dillon are considering reopening a ridgeline road known as the "stock driveway," which passes near the Axolotl Lakes about five miles south of Virginia City.
The road opening was requested by Madison County commissioners, who said area residents want a direct route from Virginia City to the top of the Gravellys.
"Rather than accessing that part of the Gravellys from their back yard, they're forced to drive around and come back to within a few miles of where they started," Rick Waldrup, Dillon BLM office recreation manager.
The commissioners said their constituents in Virginia City originally asked that the Bachelor Gulch road be reopened. Bachelor Gulch road was closed in 1982 because it was severely eroded and passes close to wetlands.
Instead, commissioners and the BLM agreed to consider reopening the stock driveway, which was closed in 1990.
Most of the 200 public comments -- including remarks from American Wildlands, the Montana Wilderness Association, GYC and the Wilderness Society -- were against the proposal, Waldrup said.
The concern is that the BLM is jeopardizing the wilderness study area by creating easy access for vehicles, which would bring more people to the area, threaten wildlife habitat and cause erosion.
Although the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks doesn't necessarily oppose the plan, the agency has some concerns, FWP Region 3 Manager Pat Flowers said.
FWP uses one of the alpine lakes in the area as a home for endangered arctic grayling, which are milked for their eggs that are then reared in a hatchery.
Flowers wrote that more people using the area could introduce disease, illegally stock other fish species or overfish the lake.
However, FWP likes the fact that the road could provide better hunting access to the northern Gravellys, Flowers said.
Madison County residents who commented on the road were about evenly split on whether the road should be reopened, Waldrup said. Reasons cited included easier access and a possible boost in tourism by creating more routes for off-road vehicles.
Virginia City resident Bill Babcock, who has mining interests in the Axolotl Lakes area, said he spends a lot of time up there. He supports reopening the road and dropping the area from wilderness consideration.
"The people that have mining claims up there have been fighting the wilderness study area for years," Babcock said.
