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$10 Fine For Gating a County Road Absurd

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pic road closed

Billings residents who don’t shovel the snow on their sidewalks face an initial penalty of $300, then up to $500 per day thereafter until the sidewalk is cleared.

In Helena, if a resident’s lawn sprinklers shoot water onto the street or sidewalk “to the annoyance of passersby,” they can face a fine of up to $500.

But if someone gates a county road that leads to public land – and keeps the public from enjoying thousands of acres of their land – they face a fine of $10 per day under state law.

It’s ridiculous. In fact, it’s so low that nobody can find any examples in which it’s ever been levied.

The result: there are examples around the state in which people have put a gate across a county road and had exclusive access to vast swaths of National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and other federal and state public lands.

That in effect turns our public lands into private playgrounds. It keeps Montanans from enjoying hunting, angling, hiking, backpacking, wildlife watching, and so many other outdoor activities. It makes the areas of public land that are accessible that much more crowded. And it impedes wildlife management for state biologists, who need to spread out hunters and help spread out the wildlife in a way to get the needed harvest, keep them from zeroing in on private lands and damaging crops and fences, and prevent concentrations of wildlife.

The Montana Wildlife Federation last Legislative session brought a bill to increase the fine for gating a county road to up to $500 per day, with no minimum fine. This session, we plan to bring the bill back.

This bill would increase public access to public land, respects private property rights, and gives county attorneys a powerful tool to resolve gated county roads right away. It’s just good public policy.

The stiffer fine would serve as a strong deterrent to prevent roads from being gated in the first place. It’s similar to the fines for not shoveling snow. The goal isn’t to fine people – it’s to have the sidewalk cleared. The road fine would be the same thing. Montana’s hunters, anglers and outdoor recreationists don’t have an issue with landowners, but rather with lawbreakers, and this bill would go a long way toward improving public access to public land.

It’s long overdue.

Nick Gevock is the conservation director for the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Fish, Wildlife, and Montana’s Economy Threatened by Clean Water Rule Repeal

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Water

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled plans to replace the Clean Water Rule which they repealed last year with a new, substantially weaker set of requirements for protecting water quality. The new proposal would drop Clean Water Act protections for a wide expanse of Montana’s streams and wetlands.

In response to the proposal, Dave Chadwick, Executive Director of the Montana Wildlife Federation said the following:

“This new proposal throws out protections for Montana’s headwater streams and isolated wetlands, which will have a severe impact on fish and wildlife habitat as well as drinking water supplies for our communities. Headwater streams are Montana’s fish hatcheries, supporting our world-class fishing opportunity. This proposal will endanger that resource, which will ultimately hit our outdoor economy.

“Equally troubling, today’s proposal is yet another effort by the federal government to throw out years of hard work for no good reason. In addition to being bad policy, this change is going to provoke more lawsuits and unleash chaos for water and land users. At some point, we need our leaders in Washington to lead our nation forward instead of spending all their time rolling back existing policies.”

According to geologists:

  • 60% of Montana’s wetlands are geographically isolated
  • 60% of Eastern Montana’s streams are ephemeral
  • 30% of Western Montana’s streams are ephemeral

These areas will lose protection from dredging, filling, dumping, and other development activities under the proposed rule.

Federal Rewrite of Sage-Grouse Plans Throws Out Years of Hard Work

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/
Photo by Jennifer Strickland, USFWS.

On December 6, the Bureau of Land Management released a proposal to rewrite conservation plans that were intended to conserve the greater sage-grouse. Dave Chadwick, Executive Director of the Montana Wildlife Federation, said the following:

“The 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans were the product of years of hard work by wildlife managers, conservationists, hunters, ranchers, local government and the energy industry. It wasn’t easy, but we worked together to find a way to protect sage-grouse habitat, prevent the species from becoming endangered, and maintain all the different ways people use our public lands.

“In Montana, a deal is a deal. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to hold true in Washington, DC. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has decided to walk away from the bargain that the federal government made with Montanans – and all Westerners. By throwing out local input and multiple-use management in the name of ‘energy dominance’, the federal government is putting the sage-grouse back on the road to extinction, endangering hundreds of other species, and threatening public access to public land.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/
Photo by Tom Koerner, USFWS

“The federal government’s reckless move has emboldened some Montana legislators to call for backing out of the sage-grouse conservation at the state-level as well. More than a dozen bills have been unveiled that would repeal hard-negotiated habitat protections at the state level. The ‘not warranted’ decision was predicated largely on the strength of state plans. If we roll those back, on top of the rollbacks we’re seeing from Washington, we leave it up to a judge to decide the fate of not only the sage-grouse, but all Westerners who live, work and recreate on our public lands.”

Clock is Ticking for Congressional Action on Public Lands, Wildlife

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winter capitol The midterm congressional election was bruising in Montana and nationwide.  Fortunately, conservation was one issue that was not a point of contention in these divided political times.  Montana saw the re-election of Senator Jon Tester and Representative Greg Gianforte, both of whom are on record supporting several important Montana conservation priorities. Immediately after the election, Congress returned to Washington for a “lame duck” session that will continue through adjournment in December.  MWF and our conservation partners will be watching closely and working tirelessly to get several Montana priorities enacted in this crucial window of time.

Restoring the Land and Water Conservation Fund

At the end of September, Congress allowed the 50-year old Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)  to expire. LWCF is one of the nation’s most important programs, funding the acquisition of public land and public access.  In Montana, the program has funded projects in every county of the state, including everything from wilderness lands to local soccer fields.  It has been crucial to our state’s unmatched access to the outdoors and abundant wildlife populations.

Unfortunately, the authorization for LWCF expired at the end of September, endangering future conservation projects.  Senator Jon Tester has long been a champion for permanent authorization and full funding for LWCF, and in recent months he has been joined by both Senator Steve Daines and Representative Greg Gianforte in supporting this important Montana priority. LWCF also enjoys broad, bipartisan support nationwide.

During the closing weeks of the year, MWF will be working with our partners in Montana and across the nation to secure permanent reauthorization and full funding for LWCF.

MWF Gears Up to Fight

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Photo by Marcus Strange.

The 2019 Legislature will, as always, be a busy one for issues that affect wildlife, habitat, and access for sportsmen and sportswomen, as well as recreationists. The session will be dominated by issues surrounding the state budget, Medicaid expansion, infrastructure funding, and education issues. But as always, natural resources bills will be prominent with Montanans.

In the state Senate, Republicans will hold a 30-20 majority, while in the House of Representatives, Republicans will have a 58-42 seat majority. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, will again serve as Senate President, while Jon Sesso, D-Butte will be the Senate Minority Leader. In the House, Greg Hertz, R-Polson, will serve as Speaker, and Casey Schreiner, D-Great Falls, is Minority Leader.

As the majority party, Republicans will chair committees in both houses. The Senate Fish and Game Committee will be chaired by Senator Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls and the Senate Natural Resources Committee will be chaired by Sen. Jeff Wellborn, R-Dillon. In the House, the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee will be chaired by Rep. Bob Brown (R-Thompson Falls) and Natural Resources Committee will be chaired by Rep. Kerry White (R-Bozeman). MWF will be working closely with lawmakers of both parties to ensure that FWP’s budget is sound and that key conservation priorities get the staffing and funding needed to manage our public trust resources.

Our ability to give Montanans a voice at the Capitol depends on your support.  Please make a quick donation to help us speak up for wildlife, hunting and fishing, and public access in 2019!”
Jeff Lukas – MWF Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas

Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas is a passionate conservationist who has been fishing and hunting his entire life. Whether it’s floating a small stream chasing trout, pursuing elk in the high country, or waiting in a blind for ducks to set their wings, Jeff is always trying to bring more people afield to show them what we are trying to protect. He loves being in the arena, and he will never shy away from conversations about the beautiful and unique corners of Big Sky country.