Public-Land Politicking
The future of our recreational freedom is at stake.
By now, we are all sick of our mailboxes bursting at the seams with flashy election mailers and flyers peddling one side while demonizing the other. This year, it appears that just about every candidate and ballot initiative is tied to public lands, to some degree or another. The message is clear, with one side promising to protect access while the other is certain to lock us out.
Here is something that cuts through this year’s politics. Our organization has been, the Public Land & Water Access Association (PLWA), has been working to maintain and defend access to public lands, public waters, and public resources in Montana for nearly 40 years. We're a grassroots, membership-driven nonprofit that was founded by some of Montana’s conservation giants. We work to ensure the public has access to public resources in Montana regardless of party or political affiliation.
The recreational privileges we enjoy in Montana are misdemeanors in other states, and our access to waterways and public land in Montana is constantly at risk from those wanting to privatize our public resources.
Have you ever recreated on a river or creek and explored the gravels and sands below the ordinary high-water mark? Have you hunted for sharpies or Huns on state School Trust Lands with your bird dog? These privileges we enjoy in Montana are misdemeanors in other states, and our freedom to recreate broadly on waterways and public lands in Montana is constantly at risk from those wanting to privatize our public resources. Don’t believe us? In just this past year alone, PLWA has investigated over 40 access issues across the state, from illegally gated public roads to flat-out attempts to block stream access and harass folks who are hunting and fishing legally.
Collectively, these issues portend a much different future for Montana. One in which “private-property rights” and calls for “local control” are used as propaganda to consolidate power and transfer public land and wildlife to the landed gentry. There are two groups here in Montana that are attempting to do just that. They have both been in the spotlight recently, and I think it would be helpful to “state the facts,” as our longtime board president Bernie Lea constantly reminds us.
The Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC) is a conservative environmental "think-tank" based in Bozeman. Just eight years ago, PERC lined up on the opposite end of the courtroom to PLWA in defense of billionaire media mogul James Cox Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy attempted to invalidate Montana’s Stream Access Law, claiming that he owned not only the water in the Ruby River, but the air and birds above the water. PLWA spent thousands of dollars and nearly a decade battling Kennedy’s lawyers and PERC’s legal team, and the recreating public prevailed with the Montana Supreme Court famously ruling that Kennedy’s arguments “didn’t hold water.”
PERC and UPOM represent a much different future for Montana than the one most of us cherish and boast about to friends in neighboring states.
Another group that has been in the headlines recently is the United Property Owners of Montana (UPOM). UPOM has been protecting the interests of Montana’s wealthiest landowners for decades and in addition to cozying up with Mr. Kennedy on the Ruby River, just recently attempted to up-end elk management in the entire state of Montana for the benefit of their exclusive membership. Supreme Court candidate Cory Swanson lists his campaign manager as Chuck Denowh. Chuck also just happens to serve as the long-time executive director of UPOM.
PERC and UPOM represent a much different future for Montana than the one most of us cherish and boast about to friends in neighboring states. If UPOM and PERC ran Montana, every duck and goose that flies through the sky would have a dollar value attached to its head and every trip to your local creek would include a landowner payment, if they let you in at all. Make no mistake, our broad ability to access public resources in Montana is the ire of those who believe they should own it all, from the water to the air to the elk on land and birds above.
The hard fact is, the Montana that we grew up in, or moved here for, is changing. For better or for worse, the choice is up to us. Do we want our state—our home—to be a place where everyone has access to public lands, water, and wildlife, or just those with the deepest pocketbooks?
—Alex Leone and the PLWA Board of Directors
This is an op-ed from PLWA and as such does not necessarily represent the opinions of Outside Bozeman. Except that in this case, it pretty much does—our freedom to enjoy our state's land and water is under constant assault from various individuals and organizations, with PERC and UPOM among the most grievous offenders.
