Map from the AWL GIS lab

he “Old West.” This label conjures up images of cowboys running cattle across sagebrush dotted hills, or sitting by a campfire listening to coyotes howl. Above all else, this old west is a place of vast expanses of wild lands full of wild things, with small pockets of independent, hardy members of human civilization. Arguably, nowhere else in Montana is the flavor of the old west more alive and visible than in the High Divide —the interconnected system of valleys and mountains in southwest Montana and eastern Idaho.

The High Divide is the vital east-west regional wildlife corridor between the wilderness lands of Central Idaho and the well known Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This is a beautiful place with dramatic snow capped peaks, mountainsides draped in conifer forest interspersed by sagebrush plains, cottonwood galleries along rivers, and wetland areas big enough to be designated a National Wildlife Refuge. The area is teeming with wildlife. The highest concentration of elk in Montana is found here. Mule deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and moose can be found in the plains, open mountain slopes and valley bottoms. The forests are home to bears, wolves, wolverine, and other sensitive wildlife. The bird diversity is equally impressive, as waterfowl and thirty-one species of birds of prey can be found throughout the region.

As for human presence, the High Divide is still sparsely populated compared to many other parts of the Northern Rockies. Here, cattle outnumber people. Many of the ranches in the High Divide are big, often tens of thousands of acres. It is a place where one can see why Montana is called the Big Sky state, due to the vast, open and relatively undeveloped nature of the land.

A traditional “old west” livelihood has kept much of the High Divide undeveloped, ecologically intact, and rich with wildlife. Photo by Lee O’Dell.

As one of the most critical regional wildlife corridors in the U.S. Northern Rockies, the High Divide holds great potential as a place to conserve both of the “old wests” found there—the abundant wildlife and a traditional agricultural lifestyle. These attributes are why the High Divide is a high priority area for American Wildlands’ Corridors of Life program.

However, times are changing. Both of these “old wests” are threatened by the burgeoning “new west” development that is occurring as more people, appreciative of the abundant wildlife and wilderness areas, move to the region. This increased population threatens the very old west natural and cultural amenities that people are moving here to enjoy. In many parts of the High Divide, there are plans for big ranches to be subdivided. Along with these new homes come more roads, fences, people, and commercial areas, all posing a serious threat to the ability for wild animals to successfully move between important habitat areas.

To determine where American Wildlands should focus our conservation efforts in this region, we need to prioritize the greatest threats to, and opportunities for, maintaining corridors of life. This spring, American Wildlands initiated a new “priority linkage area assessment” for the High Divide. The bulk of this assessment involves AWL staff interviewing experts from state and federal agencies, NGOs, and independent biologists within the High Divide to identify and catalog these threats and opportunities. Sarah Olimb and I have conducted twenty-three interviews in the past three months.

American Wildlands’ original plan was to use our findings to prioritize which threats and opportunities most deserve our on-the-ground conservation attention, and encourage other NGOs and agencies to address the threats and opportunities we could not tackle. Now, two thirds of the way through this assessment, it has become clear that AWL needs to do more than just hope other groups will work in those areas we can not address.

As more local groups and agency personnel get excited about the data we are collecting, and ask for our help in using that data, we realize there is a need for AWL to play a supportive role to the myriad of local conservation efforts that will collectively help maintain habitat connections for wildlife throughout the High Divide.

Horse Prairie of the High Divide is a vast sage brush steppe, home to sage grouse, pronghorn, pygmy rabbits, and ferruginous hawks. AWL photo library.

So, in addition to developing one-to-three focused conservation projects of our own, AWL will also provide various types of technical support to others working on conservation issues in their backyards. For some community groups, we will provide our science expertise and computer GIS mapping services. For others, we may help them strategize about how they can best influence decision-makers at the local, county, state, and federal level.

American Wildlands believes that by providing useful information to locals, and implementing our own focused conservation projects, we will conserve wildlife corridors throughout and across the High Divide. We also believe that healthy ecosystems give rise to healthy economies, so an added benefit of our conservation work will be a sustainable rural lifestyle in the High Divide.

Ultimately, our success will be measured by the ability for wildlife to migrate throughout the High Divide, so that in the future, elk continue to graze in Horse Prairie, wolverines are denning in the Beaverhead Mountains, sage grouse can still dance on a lonely lek, grizzly bears can be found foraging in the Central Idaho wilderness, and the local people of the High Divide are making deliberate choices to conserve wildlife corridors and critical habitats.