Fake bills to protect public use of public lands

To the editor:

What are Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte doing for Montana public lands? They’re pushing for the biggest protected land grab in Montana’s history - 700,000 acres.

Daines wants to develop five Forest Service Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) S.2206, and Gianforte just added in 24 BLM WSAs, H.R. 5149 and 5148 for logging old growth, hard rock mining, oil and gas development without a single well-noticed public meeting. They sprinkle in a few motorized interest groups to make it seem like a public access problem to areas managed as wilderness.

They defend the heist by saying logging prevents fire. They deny science and ignore that drought and climate change have everything to do with wildfires. They claim these lands should have been released 40 years ago, but much has changed and these lands are now even more valuable. If anything, new studies should be authorized, as a number of these WSAs have recently been recommended for wilderness protection in forest plan revisions.

In other words, we don’t need these egregious bills.

These two congressmen made backroom deals with hungry corporations, leaving out those who disagree, which is a considerable number of Montanans. I live in Ravalli County, where we have two of the five Forest Service WSAs at risk.

Those who don’t respect public lands are wrong for Montana. The best thing you can do is vote the scoundrels out.

—Marilyn Wolff

Stevensville