As far as Western outdoor destinations go, it doesn’t get any more iconic than Montana’s Yellowstone River.

So it comes as little surprise that word of the July 1 Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture dumping more than 1,000 barrels of oil into the pristine river sent a shudder through the sportsmen’s community extending all the way to Colorado.

The potential degradation of fish-and-wildlife habitat soaked in some 42,000 gallons of oil has an impact reaching well beyond the nation’s longest undammed river. Due to high water, long-term effects on aquatic life remain unknown for the time being, but it’s the economy that’s most likely to feel the impact in the short term.

“Hunting and fishing — especially fishing — drives this town,” said Dan Vermillion, a member of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission and owner of Livingston-based Sweetwater Travels, upstream from the spill site. “It’s just a big part of what we do in Montana, and right now tourism in general is under a lot of pressure because people are not as prosperous as they once were. To that extent, this spill can have a huge impact on our way of life.”

According to a 2006 report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife-related activity in Montana generates $1.1 billion annually. Of that, $750 million comes specifically from hunting and angling.

While Yellowstone National Park and a majority of the namesake river’s fabled trout water are miles upstream from the spill site, the river below the town of Laurel, where the rupture occurred, is also considered a world-class fishery. The affected area is an important transitional habitat between a cold-water trout fishery and a vibrant warm-water fishery.

“The Yellowstone is a big part of who we are. I grew up in Billings and I’m a big fan of that lower river,” Vermillion said. “As fly-fishermen, we tend to get focused on trout as a target fish, but this is a great warm-water fishery that holds smallmouth, walleye, saugeye and some of North America’s rarest fish — sturgeon — in it.”

Since many tourists associate the entire Yellowstone with the cold-water fishery upstream, communities all along the river are stuck dealing with the public relations nightmare.

Some concern is emanating from right here in Colorado, as sportsmen’s groups recognize that this high-profile spill is not an isolated occurrence. To some it serves as a real-time, worst case scenario demonstrating the need for increased vigilance over potential degradation of the fish-and-wildlife habitat shared with the oil and gas industry here at home.

“I’ve never been one to say that oil and gas development should not take place,” said Gaspar Perricone, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission member and co-founder of Denver-based Bull Moose Sportsmen’s Alliance. “But, if we get to where extraction activities damage the resource to the degree that it no longer sustains a robust wildlife population, then the value of quality hunting and angling opportunities has been diminished, and we’ve damaged the Western heritage we all grew up with.”

“This accident demonstrates the very real need for diligence when it comes to how we develop and transport oil and gas in the West,” said Kendall Van Dyk, a Montana state senator (D-Billings) who doubles as energy field coordinator for Montana Trout Unlimited. “Incidents like this one, where oil was spilled into one of the nation’s most treasured rivers, are simply not acceptable.”

Although Colorado has not endured a spill comparable with that of Montana in recent history, Perricone’s Bull Moose Alliance released a report in May listing nearly 1,000 small spills amounting to more than 5.6 million gallons of oil, wastewater and contaminated drilling fluids in Garfield, Mesa and Rio Blanco counties over the past decade. Less than half of the spilled fluids during that period were recovered.

“If we develop our natural resources in an appropriate manner, then wildlife-related activity is a well that can be tapped in perpetuity,” Perricone said. “But we only get one bite at this apple. When the resource is gone, it’s gone.”