Montana's side of the Powder River Basin has not been drilled as heavily as Wyoming's portion as the maps below indicate. But Montana's side also contains natural gas and could be devastated by drilling without proper planning and oversight. The BLM has forecast that over the next 20 years, as many as 26,000 wells could be drilled in Montana's side of the Powder River Basin and adjoining areas (BLM PRBDS 2006).
Montana
Chris Marchion
"Drilling activities bring roads and traffic that fragment the landscape, disrupting wildlife's use of existing habitat, dispersing animals unnaturally, and increasing wildlife conflicts with traffic... Montana has spent 75 years restoring our hunting from the thoughtless exploitation of wildlife at the beginning of the last century. We are not going to sacrifice that restoration success to an inadequate plan motivated by a failed national energy policy."
—Chris Marchion, hunter and Anaconda resident
