Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine is One Step Closer to Permanent Protection

Location of the now-retired Moncrief oil lease, Badger-Two Medicine, Montana. Photo credit: Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance.

After months of negotiation, The Wilderness Society has closed a deal to permanently retire the lease held by one of the two remaining leaseholders inside the Badger-Two Medicine – the Texas-based oil company, Moncrief Oil. The deal, facilitated by a grant from the Wyss Foundation and the Wyss Campaign for Nature, permanently retires the company’s 7,640 acre lease holding within the Badger-Two Medicine, ensuring that this section of the Blackfeet’s traditional homeland will remain unspoiled in perpetuity.

With Moncrief Oil formally relinquishing its lease to the Bureau of Land Management, the public lands agency charged with overseeing oil drilling in the area, the Wyss Foundation’s President Molly McUsic celebrated the news:

“We’re proud to join the Blackfeet Nation and the many people throughout Montana who have worked tirelessly over the past 37 years to protect this culturally and spiritually significant landscape. Today represents another giant step towards guaranteeing that the Badger-Two Medicine remains undeveloped forever.”

This success builds upon the decades-long effort by the Blackfeet Nation, conservation organizations, Montanans, and many, many others to successfully keep oil drilling out of the area and to safeguard an irreplaceable slice of the Rocky Mountain Front and the Badger-Two Medicine. However, the fight to permanently protect the Badger-Two Medicine is not over yet.

There is still one last remaining lease inside the Badger-Two Medicine held by the Louisiana-based oil company, Solenex LLC. The Solenex lease is the subject of ongoing litigation.