Amidst continued news coverage of the debate on public lands, Montana’s lone Democrat in Congress, Senator Jon Tester, has announced a bill to create two new Recreation Management Areas totaling almost 6,000 acres.
Within the two new Otatsy and Spread Mountain Recreation Management Areas, timber harvest, permanent roads and mining are prohibited and motorized access is limited. The areas which remain open for snowmobiling are not areas of desired snowmobile use because of their low altitude and limited snowfall.
Motorized recreationalists have watched hundreds of thousands of acres and thousands of miles of roads be removed from public access through restrictions which seek to preserve and protect our public lands but for whom?
The National Wilderness Preservation System consists of 756 wilderness areas on 109,492,591 acres in 44 states. When combined with the many other land use allocations and designations that remove federal lands from multiple uses, including National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness Study Areas, National Monuments and Roadless Areas, less than half of federal land is open to multiple-use activities.
In Montana alone, 9,784 miles — or about 31 percent — of the 32,000 miles of federally managed roads are closed to motorized traffic within lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Like far too many recent measures to protect public lands, Tester’s wilderness bill is all smoke and mirrors. While claiming to fight to keep public lands in public hands, Tester’s proposal would have the opposite effect. The bill limits use, restricts access and marginalizes the majority of public lands users, all the while claiming to preserve and protect public lands for future generations.
In addition to the new Recreation Management Areas, the bill also expands the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness areas by almost 80,000 acres. Within the new wilderness additions, only existing grazing activities will be allowed, though Montana’s agricultural industry continues to outpace tourism as an economic driver; no surprise in a state with more cattle than people.
Tester’s proposal to expand wilderness comes on the heels of a joint resolution carried by Rep. Kerry White, executive director of Citizens for Balanced Use, to release more than 600,000 acres of wilderness study areas in Montana that have maintained their existing designation for nearly 40 years. Many of these study areas are managed as de facto wilderness, restricting public access and prohibiting many multiple-use activities.
According to recent Forest Service user surveys, 97 percent of people who recreate on public lands utilize multiple-use lands, while the remaining three percent access wilderness areas. Why then, does Senator Tester continue to support land use policies which cater to a minority of public lands users in Montana? New restrictions on public lands threaten future revenue potential from both recreation and development, including responsible timber management of our forests.
Senator Tester has proven time and time again that he sides with elitists who presume to know best, preferring protection of our public lands through prohibition, rather than management practices that recognize a broad use of lands.
The members and supporters of Citizens for Balanced Use work every day to preserve and protect our last remaining areas open to multiple use recreation and we advocate for active forest management and responsible resource development on our federally managed public lands.
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