Sponsors
The bill shifts many acres from wilderness-study status into active management under existing plans, trading increased local access, economic uses, and management clarity for reduced prospects of permanent wilderness protection and heightened risks to habitat, scenic values, and local consensus.
Rural communities, local governments, and recreationists gain clearer ability to open and manage specific lands (e.g., Middle Fork Judith, Hoodoo Mountain, Wales Creek and ~104,000 acres) for public access, hunting, fishing, and other uses allowed under existing plans.
Rural communities and small businesses can pursue economic uses (timber, grazing, recreation development) consistent with current Forest Service and BLM land-use plans on the released acres, creating local economic opportunities.
Local land managers can more readily carry out active wildfire mitigation and habitat-improvement projects on lands freed from wilderness study constraints, potentially reducing wildfire risk and improving ecological resilience for nearby communities.
Recreationists, rural communities, and conservation-minded residents lose the possibility of future formal wilderness designation and long-term protections for large acreages (including ~104,000 acres released and references to over 1,100,000 acres awaiting action), reducing permanent wilderness preservation.
Nearby residents and recreation users risk scenic, habitat, and wilderness-quality degradation because reduced protections can permit motorized access, resource development, or other activities valued as harmful to pristine public lands.
Local governments, stakeholders, and residents may face increased conflicts or litigation over permitted uses if stakeholders disagree with how land-use plans are applied once lands are removed from wilderness study status.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Removes three Montana wilderness study areas from WSA review and directs they be managed under existing Forest Service or BLM land and resource management plans.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Troy Downing · Last progress December 17, 2025
Removes three specific Montana wilderness study areas from the statutory review process that could lead to wilderness designation and directs that those lands be managed under the agencies' existing land and resource management plans instead of as wilderness study areas. The change affects approximately 103,960 acres across the Middle Fork Judith (about 81,000 acres), Hoodoo Mountain (about 11,380 acres), and Wales Creek (about 11,580 acres) study areas and shifts management to multiple-use plans to improve access, sportsmen opportunities, habitat treatments, and wildfire mitigation while still following applicable environmental law.