In its continuing effort to reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas drilling, Trout Unlimited has purchased leases on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front from a private energy interest.
The acquisition, from energy investor Donald Epperson of Helena, marks the second time in less than a year the organization has accepted leases along the Front, an environmentally and socially sensitive area.
In June 2006, the Questar Corp. donated oil and gas leases that were returned to the Bureau of Land Management and retired.
The latest exchange, involving 4,900 acres on the Badger-Two Medicine wilderness south of Glacier National Park, involves lands sensitive to fishing and hunting and also sacred to the Blackfeet Indian tribe.
Concerned outdoorsmen worked for federal legislation that would ban future oil and gas development on the Front and allow for retirement of existing leases.
