What do I know about Roadless Areas?” I started to mull over the subject, and realized I knew nothing about them. In all honesty, I didn’t even know where they are on the Beartooth Front!

My family and I live on the Montana-Wyoming state line, on the east side of the Beartooth Mountains. Our backyard is the Shoshone and Custer national forests. From our door, we can walk or ride our horses for miles and miles without being on a road; there are approximately 135,000 roadless acres from the Clark’s Fork Canyon to the Montana state line, in the Shoshone Forest. I have lived in this area for 42 of my 51 years, and my home and heart has always been here, along the Beartooths.

Although my mother’s family has lived in the Red Lodge area for only 100 years, my father’s clan has been here for about 150. As children, we never thought of the forest as roaded or roadless, primitive or semi-primitive, motorized or non-motorized. It was a beautiful and wild place that we hiked, explored and shared with other creatures; some human, some not.

On a rare occasion fresh wheel marks on an old two-track road, or a cigarette butt along a trail, would be found, but that was pretty much the extent of human sign on the land. During the summer months it was rare to hear motors; the sound of wind in the trees, water splashing over rocks, or a squirrel scolding his unwanted guests was the norm. Although some of the places we would hike were old roads, they were usually over-grown and would not have made for a pleasurable drive in the country. During the winter, there were no roads. Any that had been visible during the summer were now under a cold white layer of snow. The forest was especially still at this time of year; calmness would flow through my body and mind, I would feel I was a huge part of nature and a tiny speck in the universe, all at the same time. My father would tell us his adventures of skiing down Sunlight Basin to deliver the mail and sleeping in snow caves to stay warm. Tales of cooking rabbits and eating deer jerky along the trail; never anything about roads! My mother did have a story about roads. She talked about coming over the Beartooth Pass right after the highway had been built. How exciting it was to see the vast mountain ranges, and ride in a car, which was a rarity in her world. Other than picnic grounds and an occasional cabin, there were no roads or vehicles in the forest. The idea that the forest would be anything but wild never crossed my mind. I was naive.

As an adult, I have spent hours on horseback in the forest. Still, not many roads in the Shoshone or the Custer, but the human footprint is larger, and growing. The roads now provide access for ATV riders, snowmobiles, and people who come to recreate in the forest. As we go deeper into the forest to see the sights and return with lumber, oil and gas, the forest changes. As use grows, so does the number of roads. The forest is still a wild place. It’s not uncommon to see large herds of elk and hear them calling their babies. We have watched young wolves playing and hunting rabbits in the snow. Even a rare meeting with a mountain lion, late at night, YIKES!! But it is not as wild as it once was.

Some people believe it is our right to use the forest. That our species owns all, whether the other creatures we share the forest with survive, or not. That the forest should be a playground for those of us who can walk, ride, or fly into her center. And, that her bounty is for harvest of what we decide we need. As plans are being made for how our forests are to be used, we need to decide what is best not only for humans, but for other species that have no voice. We need to take a long hard look at what more roads in roadless areas will look like 40 years from now. Some of us try to walk softly, but still believe we have the right to go where we want; maybe we don’t. There are places on the planet that need less roads and fewer people; I believe the forest is one of them.

Deb Thomas is a member of the Wyoming Outdoor Council who lives in Park County, Wyo. Deb—along with her husband Dick Bilodeau and son Quinn—has spent the last ten years working to protect her community and the beautiful public lands on the eastern side of Yellowstone Park. Since 2004, she has been the community organizer for the Clark Resource Council.