Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wildlife and Recreation Management Area: A Place of Coexistence

This summer, my family and I hiked into an area of the Gallatins I had yet to explore for an overnight backpacking trip. We spent a relaxing evening at Ramshorn Lake enjoying the tail end of wildflower season and clear blue skies. The lake is tucked along the border of the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act’s recommended Gallatin Wilderness Area in the Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Area east of Big Sky.

A bluebird day at Ramshorn Lake. (Photo Kathryn Eklund)

The next morning, we set up our fishing poles and went down to the lake to try our luck. After some time and experimentation, we figured out what the fish were eating and each landed a gorgeous, healthy cutthroat. As I was bringing mine in, we heard a group of dirt bikers coming up the trail to our west. They pulled into a camping area and waved at us, found a spot in the shade to have lunch, and then turned around and went back down their designated trail. Shortly after they left, we ate lunch, threw on our backpacking bags, and turned back down our designated trail. 

Looking back on this day, it was heartwarming for me to see this variety of recreationists – all out on the landscape connecting with nature through their mode of choice – being respectful and kind to one another and the land. 

Not only does the Porcupine-Buffalo Horn area support a variety of trail users, it is critical habitat for some of our region’s most iconic and beloved species. Moose and elk are prolific here, with a resident elk herd that relies on the porcupine drainage for winter habitat. Grizzly bears, the namesake porcupine, and native trout also call this area home. Many locals from Big Sky love this area, from hikers, to horseback riders, mountain bikers, dirt bikers, and snowmobilers, as it is one of the main places folks can get out for a quick adventure on public land after work.

A cow moose walks among willows. (Photo NPS/Neal Herbert)

As things change around us, it reassures me to know that under the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act, the magic of Porcupine-Buffalo Horn will remain. The act will permanently protect 31,000 acres as the Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wildlife and Recreation Management Area. This designation will maintain access to all trails in this area, while preventing trail expansion, development, and timber harvest to protect wildlife. 

It will also replace the Porcupine Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area (WSA), thereby making management of this area easier for the Forest Service to administer, and easier for the public to understand. Currently, the wilderness study area permits motorized and mechanized uses that were established before the 1977 wilderness study area designation. In Porcupine-Buffalo Horn, this means dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and mountain bikes can access the Big Sky Snowmobile Trail, Porcupine Creek Trail, and Buffalo Horn Trail. The Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act allows these uses to continue and prevents them from expanding - permanently containing them to their current footprint. Put another way, motorized and mechanized use will only be allowed in places where it already legally occurs and predates WSA designation.

At present, wildlife and recreationists successfully coexist in this area, and the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act will ensure that remains true into the future by preventing habitat fragmentation. The act will cap the trail and road footprint to what it is today, and prevent timber harvest, mining, oil and gas exploration, and development. This ensures wildlife will be able to move freely and access the open space and low-elevation resources that Porcupine-Buffalo Horn currently provides them, forever. 

The Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wildlife and Recreation Management Area is a unique place where recreationists of all kinds cross paths with one another and a range of remarkable wildlife, including elk, moose, grizzly bear, bighorn sheep, and wolverine. We have a duty to protect it now through the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act so that our human and wildlife friends can all continue to roam. 

– Kathryn Eklund, The Wilderness Society