Welcome - to the Gallatin Wildlife Association website.

We certainly hope you become more knowledgeable about GWA as you wander through the pages of our website. We are a small, but vocal non-profit organization located in Bozeman, Montana advocating for wildlife, their respective habitat, and migration corridors across southwestern Montana, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and the northern Rocky Mountains. We advocate for wildlife and fisheries by utilizing science and the law. GWA, founded in 1976, has long recognized the intense pressures on our wildlife from habitat loss and climate change, and we advocate for science-based management of public lands for diverse public values, including but not limited to hunting and angling.   

To learn more about GWA, who we are, and what we've done: click here                                                      

Sign with Us won't You,

If you agree that the Full Extent of the Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo-Horn Wilderness Study Area should be designated as Full Wilderness.

Note: The purpose of this action is to display your signature in an upcoming Newspaper Ad in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

If you agree with this letter, please sign the form at the above link!

"Certain government actions and private interests are threatening our public lands and roadless areas without open discussion or assessment of public opinion.  As a group of concerned citizens united in the belief that the last fragments of wilderness in Greater Yellowstone should be fully protected, we are making our views known and asking you to join the cause.

The science on wilderness is clear:  MAXIMUM ACREAGE = MAXIMUM PROTECTION of our wildlife heritage.  Protection is needed now more than ever.  Urban sprawl is pressing farther into fragile wildlands.  Backcountry recreation demands are growing at a once-unimagined rate, and climate change is making our region hotter, drier, and more fire prone.   

While efforts needed to heal our beleaguered planet may seem a tall order, we can save a vital place in America’s remaining wild and roadless land, one in our own back yard.  We urge keeping the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest as intact wilderness.

Let’s not give up two-fifths of it—about 63,000 of 155,000 acres, much of it prime area for wildlife habitat—for motorized and mechanized recreation when so much of Greater Yellowstone is already available for such use. 

We stand for keeping the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as intact and connected as possible, including critical lands in the Gallatin Range.  Wildlands, like the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn WSA, need legal Wilderness protection.  Once lost, they are gone forever.

The final decision to protect—or reduce—wilderness in the Custer Gallatin National Forest rests in the hands of the US Congress.  Please contact our elected members of Congress and ask them to protect Yellowstone’s wildlife, clean water, and ecological heritage, all of which are fundamental to sustaining our economy.  Join us in the fight to preserve the entire Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn WSA as wilderness—while we still have time!"

Thanks to members of Montanans for Wildlife and Wilderness for the content of this letter!

Become a Voice for

Hyalite/South Cottonwood Canyon -

We're trying to find 1000 Voices to Say -

Leave South Cottonwood Alone!

Concern over the future of South Cottonwood Canyon is once again on the hearts and minds of residents of Gallatin County. Many residents have been through this agony once, if not more than twice. It seems as if  the forces determined to log South Cottonwood just won't take a hint.

LEAVE SOUTH COTTONWOOD CANYON ALONE!

We at GWA highlight this issue once again because the public has to become involved. The Custer Gallatin National Forest has requested and they have been approved to receive emergency status for the slightly less than 8,000 acre logging project with logging, fire regiment, and road building. The fight to save South Cottonwood drainage from logging decades ago was a glorious victory with fond memories, it is going to take that same kind of cohesion and passion again among local residents to fight off another logging venture into South Cottonwood. The goal this time should be outright protection, by making this drainage part of the wilderness campaign. We need to do so for many reasons. The protection of the biodiversity of the GYE for one. Timber harvesting and road building will destroy what so many residents have been trying to protect for generations.

To learn more: click here

South Cottonwood and Hyalite drainages are critical for wildlife habitat and for connectivity. While the public comment period has officially closed, GWA is urging the Forest Service to hold public meetings and extend and reopen the comment period again. We do so because the majority of the residents of Gallatin County have no clue as to the potential threat that is about to be imposed upon them. We need an explanation and a robust discussion of why now, why is there an emergency now. Will these vegetative treatments really protect homes and fire threats in the Gallatin Front range? We know the answer to that.

WE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD NOW!

We're looking to find 1000 Voices in opposition to this Fuel Reduction Project, a project that could very well cause harm to endangered and threatened species as listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Engage in the process and become a voice for Hyalite/Cottonwood. The map and legend below showcase those areas to be affected by the different fuel treatments. However, we don't have information on the proposed road building in the treatment zone.

Our National Forests

and Public Lands are under attack by our

own Government.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R. 1):

Not Surprisingly - This Bill Passed and is now Law!

While it may be Big, it is not Beautiful.

The Gallatin Wildlife Association has been in service to the community for 49 years, leaving next year as our 50^th anniversary. In all that time, I seriously doubt that our organization has seen the amount of negative impact as we will from this moment in time, much of that coming from the passage of H.R. 1, the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill along with the series of other horrible efforts by this administration will surely affect the ecological quality of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as we know it.

This bill’s passage will prioritize timber harvest across the west, including lands in our own backyard. This act alone will degrade the landscape and the ecological integrity of GYE by the construction of more roads and increasing timber production. All of this design action will cause habitat fragmentation, degrade wildlife habitat security, decrease the forest’s ability to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change, and increase the likelihood of inviting invasive species to the landscape. For us that means more time fighting the system with more hours during the day, and less time enjoying the world as we would like to live it.