Legislating the Landscape: The Battle for a Federal Wilderness Bill for Montana, 1979-1988

Federally owned lands in the western United Stateshave long been a source of legal and political conflict. Clashes betweendevelopment interests, environmentalists, legislators, and indigenous groupsthroughout the 1980s defined federal land policy in Montana as well. In 1988,after nearly a decade of effort, S.2751 – the Montana National ResourcesProtection and Utilization Act – was poised to designate over 7 million acresof federal land in Montana as wilderness, recreation areas, or for development,ending years of legal limbo. Despite broad support from both houses ofCongress, President Reagan killed the bill with a pocket veto, and those landsremain undesignated today. This paper examines the political actors andprocesses behind S. 2751, and investigates the bill’s place in the changingpolitical climate of 1980s American politics, particularly on issues ofenvironment in the west