Columbia Falls man part of Badger-Two Med conservation

Since 1985, the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance has been working to preserve one of the wildest patches of land in the West.

Leading that effort for the organization today is Columbia Falls resident Peter Metcalf.

Metcalf was a graduate assistant at the University of Montana when he went to the Alliance’s annual fall gathering in 2018. While there, he was approached to be the new executive director of the organization.

Metcalf didn’t give an answer straightaway, but instead mentioned the offer to his then girlfriend and now wife, Renee.

“Go back and tell them, ‘yes,’” Renee implored.

Metcalf would eventually take the position and is the only paid staffer for the Alliance.

He is no stranger to the 130,00 acre Badger -Two Medicine, having hiked there numerous times in the past. His first hike was in 2013 with Lou Bruno and the Wilderness and Civilization Program at University of Montana into the Badger Canyon and rapids area.

“It reminded me of some of the most wild country I’ve ever been in,” he said.

From the top of Family Peak to the canyons of the South Fork of the Two Medicine, the largely unroaded region is home to herds of wild game and the predators that eat them. It has long been threatened by oil and gas development but a recent federal appeals court ruling upheld the Obama Administration’s cancellation of the last remaining active lease owned by the Solonex Corp.

While the coming years could potentially see more legal wrangling over the issue, the future is looking brighter for the region when it comes to permanent protections.

Metcalf is happy to be part of the process.

“This land is profoundly significant to the Blackfeet,” he said in an interview last week.

The primary focus of the organization is “promoting the ecological integrity of this region’s wild lands, the conservation of its native fish and wildlife species, and the preservation of the free-flowing character and water quality of local headwater streams.”

To that end, the Blackfeet Tribe last week proposed federal legislation that would codify the vision, the Badger-Two Medicine Protection Act. The Act not only looks to preserve the landscape, it looks to preserve the tribe’s right to have a say in future management decisions — something that hasn’t happened with past land management decisions, even lands that have been protected, like national parks and some wilderness (see related story).

The history has been one of “exclusion and dispossession,” on many past occasions, Metcalf notes.

The hope is to change that with Badger-Two Medicine, creating a land management model that could be used elsewhere to protect lands important to indigenous peoples across the U.S. while giving tribes a permanent seat at the proverbial table.

Metcalf grew up in Oregon and moved to Montana when he went to college as an undergraduate studying English literature. Today he is slowly working on a doctorate in Forestry and Conservation Sciences with an emphasis in natural resource management and policy.

Work on the legislation began about three years ago when then Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke proposed making the Badger-Two Medicine a National Monument. The Blackfeet Tribal Council under Harry Barnes and the tribal historic preservation office, in conversation with conservationist allies like the Alliance, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Montana Wilderness Association and others began to lay out what the Blackfeet wanted in a national monument. The national monument didn’t go anywhere, but that work laid the foundation for this current legislation, Metcalf noted.

Metcalf notes the tribe’s effort to fight for the region has been paramount in its continued preservation and its future.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for the efforts of the Blackfeet,” he said.

There is a significant difference between legislation and a national monument. Monuments can be undone by the whims of administrations, while an act would be law, and thus would take cooperation by both houses of Congress and the president to be undone — something that is far less likely, even over generations.

The Alliance also hosts annual walks in the region and other gatherings, though many have been postponed or canceled this year due to coronavirus concerns. To learn more, visit its website at glaciertwomedicine.org