Consensus approach is best for Montana
Montana's Congressman
One of the best qualities of Montana's diverse landscape is our ability to access the outdoors. Millions of acres of public land provide a variety of unique and exciting recreational experiences. Whether it's snowmobiling through the woods or hiking into the mountains for a hunting or fishing trip, these are some of the opportunities Montanans cherish the most and the activities that have defined our state as "The Last Best Place."
Montana's long tradition of protecting public access to public land has been built upon the principle that sound land management decisions are best achieved through cooperation. Montanans understand that decisions affecting our lands must be consensus driven, local efforts that balance the protection of our natural resources, recreation and economic development.
One of the best examples of this is the Blackfoot Challenge. Over the past two years, this proposal has made great strides toward creating thousands of acres of wilderness in the Seeley Lake Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest and balancing it with a reasonable plan for sustaining timber harvest and motorized access.
Most importantly, it has brought diverse groups such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Pyramid Lumber, Montana Wilderness Association, Rolling Stone Ranch, and the Wilderness Society together, at the same table, to hammer out a consensus agreement.
On a larger scale, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Proposal recommends that more than 500,000 acres of public land be designated as wilderness. Every acre has been negotiated and scrutinized, in Montana, by organizations like Sun Mountain Lumber, Montana Trout Unlimited, and the National Wildlife Federation. In Montana, consensus approaches created by local groups have shown to be the most effective way of managing our natural resources.
Unfortunately, legislation in Congress is threatening the Montana way of making land management decisions. Since 1992, several of my urban colleagues in the House have attempted to pass a bill which would convert millions of acres of western public land into Wilderness areas. The bill, entitled the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), would affect 23 million acres of land in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. The members of Congress involved in creating this bill hail from eastern states where increasing populations have limited access to quiet backwoods. They believe that turning Montana and several surrounding states into wilderness will lock up the west in a mythical "the way it was" image so they can have a getaway spot for their weekend vacations.
What they don't understand is that this bill is a truly bad way of managing our nation's public lands and it's not the way we do things in Montana. In essence, it would undercut much of the "on the ground" work that is already being done. Cooperative approaches, such as the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership and the Blackfoot Challenge, are, while not perfect, a much more thoughtful and inclusive way of building consensus among diverse interests.
The 7 million acres of public land that would be impacted by NREPA include many areas where some of the best local, cooperative agreements are being negotiated. It would replace these local agreements with a top down directive from Washington, DC. Before we triple the amount of wilderness that currently exists in our state, we should rely on input from the people it would affect most, Montanans. A cooperative approach will ensure we address the needs of everyone from our hard-working firefighters who require better access for forest fire management to the elderly and handicapped who can't access the wilderness on foot. This way, in the end, we can truly accomplish public access for all.
Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing on this legislation. On my website and in the news, I asked for your feedback and Montanans responded in overwhelming opposition to this bill. Thousands of Montanans contacted my office to let me know they think this bill, this idea, this plan, is wrong. I'll continue to work with my colleagues and encourage them to approach land management decisions in Washington, DC the same way we do it in Montana, through local input and consensus building.