Abstract

Federally owned lands in the western United States have long been a source of legal and political conflict. Clashes between development interests, environmentalists, legislators, and indigenous groups throughout the 1980s defined federal land policy in Montana as well. In 1988, after nearly a decade of effort, S.2751 – the Montana National Resources Protection and Utilization Act – was poised to designate over 7 million acres of federal land in Montana as wilderness, recreation areas, or for development,ending years of legal limbo. Despite broad support from both houses of Congress, President Reagan killed the bill with a pocket veto, and those lands remain undesignated today. This paper examines the political actors and processes behind S. 2751, and investigates the bill’s place in the changing political climate of 1980s American politics, particularly on issues of environment in the west.

Keywords: environment, 1980s

How to Cite:

Christianson, M., (2022) “Legislating the Landscape: The Battle for a Federal Wilderness Bill for Montana, 1979-1988”, Iowa Historical Review 9(1): 2. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/2373-1842.31400

Rights: Copyright © 2022 Megan Christianson