18
Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands
• Reservation Class I Airshed Designation;
• Ronan municipal water supply lease (Middle Crow Creek);
• Snow Survey Measurement Agreement; and,
• Ordinance 44D subject to Joint Tribal/State Hunting & Fishing agreement. In addition to the policies established by the tribes and the
BIA, other agencies involved in management of similar resources adjacent to the Tribal Wilderness and Buffer Zone make an effort to standardize management goals. For example, the U.S. Forest Service is attempting to adopt the tribes’ regulation limiting group size. In 1992, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Flathead National Forest developed a joint wilderness map for the Mission Mountains wilderness complex to increase visitor awareness of the tribal wilderness regulations and wildlife protection zones and to reduce visitor pressure on highuse areas. The first Flathead Nation wilderness manager stated: “Wilderness is, to a segment of the tribal population, vitally important. It is one part of the Indian culture that remains as it was. Preservation, then, expresses reverence for the land and its community of life, as well as respect for Indian culture.”
The Buffer Zone The management goals of wilderness differ dramatically from the goals of nonwilderness. Land management strategies change abruptly at the Tribal Wilderness boundary, with impacts from activities occurring outside the wilderness encroaching, to some degree, on the wilderness. Accordingly, the Tribal Council decided to establish a buffer zone to act as a cushion to the Tribal Wilderness.