For Graetz, Crown a special place for a lot of reasons

The 13-million acre Crown of the Continent stretches from Canada to Rogers Pass and more than 83 percent of its landmass is protected in some way, shape or form by statute, notes Rick Graetz, author, photographer and lecturer in geography from the University of Montana.

But beyond the law, the people living in and near the Crown have taken great pride in the landscape as well. On the Rocky Mountain Front, for example, more than 200,000 private acres are protected by conservation easements; in the Blackfoot Valley, 64,000 acres and in the Swan Valley, 29,500.

The Crown is one of the last great intact ecosystems on Earth, Graetz said in a lecture hosted by the Montana Wilderness Association and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

“People really care about this place,” he said.

Graetz and his wife, Susie, have been exploring the landscape for most of their adult lives. The couple started Montana Magazine in the Spring of 1970 and built the publication to one of the largest regional magazines in the nation, with a circulation at one time of more than 50,000. Graetz said they did it by utilizing a grassroots network to boost sales, giving school groups a cut of every subscription they sold.

They also started American Geographic Books and have co-authored about 30 titles.

The couple sold the magazine in the 1990s and today Rick is the co-director of UM’s Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative. The initiative also publishes an online magazine featuring the Crown.

Conservation in the Crown dates back to the 1890s when George Bird Grinnell, President Teddy Roosevelt and William Tecumseh Sherman Gifford Pinchot formed the Boone and Crockett Club.

Back then they were worried about the wholesale slaughter of game animals. By protecting the land, they protected the critters living on them and the modern age of conservation began.

But there’s still plenty of work to do, Graetz noted. 

For example, the Badger-Two Medicine region south of Glacier National Park deserves more protection, he said. While the Department of Interior recently canceled a controversial oil and gas lease there, others still remain and the courts could overrule the DOI’s decision.