As a long-time resident and sportsman in Montana, I oppose the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act (HR1581/S1087) co-sponsored by Rep. Denny Rehberg. This terrible bill claims it will increase sportsmen’s access to public lands, but it would not.
It threatens our best fish and wildlife habitat on public lands by opening 6.4 million acres of national forest roadless areas to industrial development. The loss of access to public lands is largely driven by the closing of public roads that cross private property long open to sportsmen use.
National forest roadless areas provide the habitat security necessary to maintain Montana’s five-week general elk and deer hunting season and provide most of the remaining productive spawning habitat for wild trout that populate streams like the Clark Fork River and Rock Creek. I hunt elk in roadless backcountry lands most threatened by the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, and I do not support Rehberg’s efforts to destroy habitat.
The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act does nothing to address this real access issue and instead would open our best public lands hunting and fishing to industrial development.
William Geer
Lolo