Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke introduced a major public lands proposal Wednesday, gathering supporters at outfitter Smoke Elser’s barn in Missoula to announce legislation he is calling the “A River Runs Through It Act,” according to montanafreepress.org. The Republican congressman, who served as Interior secretary under President Trump and said in March he would not run for another term, plans to formally file the bill next week.
What the Legislation Would Do
The bill’s centerpiece is roughly 130,000 acres of newly designated wilderness, concentrated along the southwest edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in the stretch between Seeley Lake and Lincoln. A 30,000-acre wilderness zone around Nevada Mountain, south of Lincoln, is among the specific areas included.
Beyond wilderness, the measure would convert 181,000 acres of inventoried roadless land between Seeley Lake and Lincoln into forest restoration areas where commercial logging and similar activities could take place. North and east of Lincoln, another 60,000 acres would become Conservation Management Areas focused on public access, grazing, and wildlife habitat.
The bill also carves out 60,000 acres for motorized and non-motorized recreation — snowmobiling, mountain biking, and off-road vehicles — along the southern edge of Mission Mountain Wilderness west of Seeley Lake and through the Swan Mountains between Seeley Lake and Ovando.
Two Wilderness Study Areas south of Lincoln, Hoodoo Mountain and Wales Creek, would be released back to standard Bureau of Land Management forest management under the proposal. Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Troy Downing had separately pushed for the release of those same areas.
Bipartisan Roots, Tight Deadline
Tracy Stone-Manning, who led the Interior Department under former President Biden, attended Wednesday’s announcement — an unusual show of cross-party alignment on a lands package. The bill draws on more than two decades of work tied to former Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act and Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act, with communities in the region having advocated for a similar framework since at least 2006.
John Maclean, son of author Norman Maclean, gave his blessing to the bill’s name and purpose, a gesture that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the novella A River Runs Through It. The last wilderness addition in Montana to become law was the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, championed by former Sen. Max Baucus in 2013.
The clock is working against the bill. The House is set to adjourn its 2026 session in approximately 40 working days, a compressed window for legislation of this scale. Zinke declined to identify potential cosponsors at Wednesday’s event but told those gathered, as reported by Montana Free Press, “Among Montanans, we can meet at the fenceline and we can work things out.” He added that he is “pretty confident that the Montana senators and congressmen will all get on board and push it through.”
