1. 1/24/2014
Viewpoint: Transferring public lands to the state will help protect them
Viewpoint: Transferring public lands to the state will help
protect them
JANUARY 01, 2014 6:57 PM • BY ROBERT SMAUS
For the last three decades, federal policies have continually reduced public access, killed
our state and local economies, and brought national forests into a state of maximum
combustion. That’s not good for our environment or the way of life we Montanans love.
It was just a few months ago when the federal government decided our nation’s public
lands were “non-essential”? During the shutdown, federal agents went out of their way to
barricade national parks and monuments, halt wildfire fuel reduction projects, and prohibit
concessionaires from selling the USFS’s mushroom and firewood permits to local citizens.
They even ordered hikers and hunters to leave unsupervised wilderness areas – all because
Washington, D.C. got in a tussle over Obamacare!
I know full well that Friends of the Bitterroot, Bitterrooters for Planning, et al, have an
agenda to push. Centralized planning and obstructionist management practices keeping
sportsmen out of the forests and taking game and loggers from harvesting timber is their
desire.
The question is simple, who in their right mind would want a bankrupt, dysfunctional
Washington, D.C. bureaucracy to continue wrongfully holding title to Montana’s public
lands and resources? What is there to stop D.C. from auctioning off Montana’s public lands
and resources to satisfy the national debt to China?
Think about that. Our public lands in the hands of China – the world’s biggest polluters!
They are about to construct a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, much like
the Panama Canal. However, this canal will be through Nicaragua, and will traverse and
destroy protected and highly sensitive rainforest habitat. This is serious business folks. If we
really want to protect our public lands, we need to get them transferred from the federal
government to the state as soon as possible so D.C. can’t mortgage away our children’s
future any more than they already have.
I know there are some good people working for the Forest Service. But unlike our federal
partners, Montana balances a budget every year and manages millions of acres of state
public lands responsibly and profitably, while protecting the environment, minimizing fire
hazards, and both allowing and encouraging multiple use recreation. Our state is far more
efficient at preventing and extinguishing wildfires too. Governor Bullock knows this and has
publicly stated that Montana does a far better management job than Washington, D.C.
Sadly, the federal government can’t live within their means, or even put together successful
timber sales without being shut down time and time again. As a result, the increasingly
intense wildfires on federally managed lands are decimating our wildlife by the millions,
poisoning our air and water, and endangering our communities.
As Utah Rep. Ivory repeated over and over in his presentation, under the Transfer of Lands
http://ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/viewpoint/article_3fc7b2a6-7351-11e3-b7fb-001a4bcf887a.html?print=true&cid=print
1/2

2. 1/24/2014
Viewpoint: Transferring public lands to the state will help protect them
Act, federally held public lands would simply become state public lands, managed for
sustained yield and multiple use, but with the distinct advantage of local planning and
public input. Montanans would decide how to protect and utilize our public lands, not
Washington, D.C. or the big city folks from other states. What rational person could be
against that?
It is time for Montana to take rightful ownership of the public lands within our state, as was
promised by Congress at statehood. I would like to thank Utah Rep. Ken Ivory for so
eloquently enlightening us about this lawful option, and ask others to give this careful
consideration before jumping to unfavorable conclusions espoused by the self-proclaimed
champions of a notoriously dysfunctional federal government.
Robert Smaus
Hamilton
http://ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/viewpoint/article_3fc7b2a6-7351-11e3-b7fb-001a4bcf887a.html?print=true&cid=print
2/2