Backing the Front: Fighting Oil and Gas Development in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front

October 31, 2012

When Gloria Flora took the helm of Lewis & Clark National Forest in Montana in 1995, she found priceless wildlands threatened by oil and gas speculators. Defying convention, she declared the area off-limits to oil and gas development, adding a definitive new twist to the interplay between community groups, the fossil fuel industry, and the government that is playing out in surprising ways.