By Marilyn Wolff, Stevensville
Montana public lands deserve a public process when significant change is proposed. Daines and Gianforte avoided that entirely by crafting their bills in DC without one well-noticed, public meeting in Montana. Over 700,000 acres of wildlands are at risk of losing their wilderness protections due to a stale review 40 years ago. To prove my point, the Helena and Lewis and Clark National Forest has recommended the Big Snowies WSA for wilderness designation in their new forest revision plan. The Blue Joint WSA in Ravalli County, per the Bitterroot National Forest, has 28,500 acres that qualify for wilderness protection but that isn’t in Daines bill. These two WSAs are on the chopping block.
Mr. Kubista, Montana Wilderness and WSAs are open, not locked, for anglers, hunters, trappers subject to state and federal laws and regulations. There are five Forest Service WSAs and 24 BLM WSAs in the bills Mr. Kubista, not five as you claimed. Right now these are managed by their agencies and there are trails to access their beauty and wildlife bounty. There is no need for the stealth bills by Daines and Gianforte. As the various agencies scientifically re-evaluate their lands, the WSAs can be studied, and most importantly, the public will be able to comment. I trust our Montana government agencies more than I trust two congressmen who are pushing one of the biggest land grabs in Montana’s history.
Releasing these pristine places will strip their wilderness character. By far some of the biggest threats are not only motorized use but mining and gas leasing. The Montana Petroleum Association is supporting the release (Great Falls Tribune 2/5/18). The 2000 Roadless Rule doesn’t offer the protections after release that many think. It allows some mining and gas exploration and temporary roads which will destroy forever the wilderness character of these lands. The Roadless Rule does not apply to BLM WSAs!
Fire management by logging is another bogus argument for just cutting old growth in some of these WSAs. So much points to the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) as the real culprit where development is allowed in fire prone environments. Thinning and prescribed burns in the WUI can help prevent fires from reaching larger communities and those living in the WUI have a responsibility to keep their homes and land fire safe as much as possible.
Mr. Kubista’s organization is new to Montana where we have other time honored and trusted hunter and angler organizations and many of these support protecting the WSAs. After a little googling, I was surprised to learn Keith’s organization, Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, along with the Safari Club, the Montana Trappers Association, and state senator Jennifer Fielder tried to pass SB 236 which in a nutshell would have removed Montana FWP from managing all game limits in Montana. Fortunately the bill failed or our wild game would disappear as fast as bison did over a century ago.
Marilyn Wolff is a hiker and public lands/WSA advocate. She lives in Stevensville.