Lolo Peak/Carlton Ridge and Wildife Migration Corridors

Lolo Peak and Carlton Ridge are part of a larger ecosystem which includes protected lands such as national parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges -- all connected in the  Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and the Bitterroot Ecosystem.

The Lolo Peak area is a critical, protected, roadless habitat because wildlife migrates from the Continental Divide through the Mission Mountain Wilderness into the Great Burn/Lolo Pass areas.  The Lolo Peak area serves as a bridge to the Salmon-Selway wilderness and the Montana-Idaho crest that eventually converges on the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wildlife movements into the Lolo Peak / Carlton Ridge country are enhanced by the 41 wildlife passages between Polson and Evaro as part of the Highway 93 “People’s Way” road modifications.

The Lolo Peak and Carlton Ridge landscape provides a habitat for wildlife migration across the northern end of the Bitterroot valley.  Its lower elevations offer crucial winter habitat for the largest elk herd in the north end of the Bitterroot valley, according to annual wildlife survey counts.  Deer, elk and other wildlife moving through the north end of the Bitterroot valley are attracted to the high quality wildlife habitat in the Lolo Peak area.

Wildlife agencies and conservation groups have identified the presence of numerous game and non-game species in the Lolo Peak area including black bear, wolverine and lynx.  Local streams support cutthroat trout and threatened bull trout. The quality of the Lolo Peak area as prime wildlife habitat can be characterized in the words of one wildlife biologist as:

“From summer range that reaches high into subalpine basins on the mountain’s forested shoulders, to winter haunts where timber crowds the low valley grassland, Lolo Peak is home to deer and elk. Black bear, mountain lion, coyote and wolf roam the slopes, as do wolverine, lynx and fisher. Among the rocks and scree in the high country live hoary marmots, a species that is currently considered a special concern in Montana. We Montanans place a very high and special value on wildlife and wild places, and we guard them jealously, for our own sake, and for the sakes of our grandchildren.”     John Vore, wildlife biologist.

The importance of the public lands around Lolo Peak and Carlton Ridge for wildlife migration and habitat compels permanently protected roadless and backcountry areas. Public land protection needs to be coordinated with conservation easements on private land to maintain the viability of wildlife migration corridors and linkages to the broader ecosystem networks throughout Montana.