N.D. wilderness protection efforts

Areas conservationists have proposed in North Dakota as wilderness areas:

* Bullion Butte: Up to 9,720 acres proposed for wilderness, including 640 acres owned by the state and 40 privately owned. Located 14 miles northwest of Amidon, a landmark, distinguished by its sandstone caprock at the summit.

* Kendley Plateau: Up to 16,810 acres proposed for wilderness, including 1,510 state-owned acres. Called the “heart of the badlands,” it’s located at the core of the Little Missouri National Grassland, noted as habitat for bighorn sheep, located 15 miles northwest of Amidon.

* Long X Divide: Up to 10,670 acres proposed for wilderness. Located immediately south of the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, includes pockets of aspen forest, rare in the Little Missouri River valley, common sightings of mule deer, bighorn sheep and elk.

* Twin Buttes: Up to 13,590 acres originally proposed for wilderness, including 1,920 state-owned acres, with draws and slopes sparsely wooded with ash, juniper, cottonwood and willow, with rolling grassland. Located eight miles north of Medora, near the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

* Lone Butte: Up to 11,510 acres originally proposed as wilderness, including 560 state acres. Areas leased for oil development, rich cottonwood in flood plains, located 18 miles south of Watford City.

* Sheyenne Grassland: Up to 5,410 acres proposed, tallgrass prairie and rare oak savanna, considered an oasis within an agricultural landscape, one of two North Dakota populations of greater prairie chickens, includes threatened western prairie fringed orchid. Located 6 1/2 miles northeast of McLeod.

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