In August 1910, the largest wildfire in American recorded history roared across two million acres along the Idaho/Montana state line in just over two days — with ecological impacts felt to this day.
The proposed Great Burn Wilderness, spanning the state line west of Missoula, Montana, is so-named because it bears the striking visual and ecological evidence of the massive 1910 fire. Located on the Clearwater (in Idaho) and Lolo (in Montana) National Forests, the Great Burn contains outstanding wildlife habitat and numerous threatened species — black bear, moose, elk, deer, mountain goats, wolverine, cougar, fisher and wolves — as well as clean wild trout streams, ridges with gnarled whitebark pine and old-growth cedar stands. National Geographic has called this mountain wonderland "a gem of wild beauty."
The proposed Great Burn Wilderness is part of a 1.8 million-acre swath of unprotected wildlands, the largest in the continental United States. It affords a critical wildlife corridor connecting the Selway-Bitterroot Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.
Courtesy GBSG
Working to protect this remote landscape of forests, mountains, rivers, and wildlife, the Great Burn Study Group (GBSG) has been built from the ground up since 1971, with the goal of gaining wilderness designation for the proposed Great Burn Wilderness and conserving the wild and remote character of the northern Bitterroot Mountains in western Montana and northern Idaho.
But preserving wild places in perpetuity needs people. Recognizing this fundamental point, GBSG devotes itself to building relationships with rural communities, keeping in mind, as it leaders say, the "Triple Bottom Line: Ecology, Society and Economy." The group works to encourage collaborative solutions to land management problems-solutions that preserve the ecological integrity of the lands while respecting the social and economic needs of small rural towns surrounding them, and the varied interests, including timber and recreation, that have historically fought to a stalemate in this region.
The GBSG is devoted to a very local focus. As the leaders of the group put it: "If you haven't heard of the Great Burn Study Group, you're not alone. Since we started thirty-seven years ago, we've maintained a low-profile. We work from the ground up, we know the land and we speak from the heart."
Courtesy GBSG
GBSG has a strong on-the-ground presence in the Great Burn and in surrounding roadless areas through its Forest Stewards program, a year-round monitoring effort focused on wildlife, vegetation, recreation and user impacts. Up from just 12 volunteers in 1999, GBSG last year drew 250 volunteers who contributed to the group's on-the-ground presence and stewardship work, making direct improvements to the forests.
As one example, in 2004 GBSG's field crew discovered an acre of knapweed—a prolific, non-native species that crowds out native species—located in a remote basin in the proposed Great Burn Wilderness. Volunteers have visited this rogue knapweed patch every year since then to hand-pull the invasive plants. Last year, more than 50 pounds of knapweed were removed. This year, only 15 pounds were eradicated, and volunteers noted that native columbine and purple aster had become the predominant vegetation in the patch. GBSG continues to monitor this area annually.
Courtesy GBSG
Small victories like this help maintain the Great Burn's wilderness characteristics, and are building the kind of local credibility that can set the stage for Congressional action to designate the wilderness area that is the Great Burn Study Group's goal.