Since a lot of the public land politics right now is about reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), I decided to pull out some old maps and show younger hunters, or those who only recently started hunting in SW Montana, just what LWCF has done for hunters. And in the process self-identify as one of the old coots in this process.
Here is one of the classic maps showing what LWCF has done. This shows how screwed up the Gallatin National Forest land ownership was, thanks to the checkerboard pattern created by the railroad land grants of the 1800's. The railroads were given every other section, in exchange for putting in railroads to the west. The railroads kept those lands and in the 1980's, spun off the lands to new companies, such as Plumb Creek.
In the mid-1990s, a few smart guys approached Plumb Creek about buying their lands in the Gallatin checkerboard. Mel McDougal and Tim Blixeth (now in prison) owned some timber companies in Oregon and moved to Montana to form Big Sky Lumber Company, the entity that bought all of these checkerboard inholdings.
We hunters were always able to hunt the Plumb Creek lands. And we could cross them to access the Forest Service lands behind, and intermixed. Access was not an issue.
Until, the BSL guys bought those lands. They gave notice that they would be closing their lands to hunting and that hunters would not be able to cross those lands to gain access to the NF lands.
If ever there was a shot across the bow to elk hunters, that was it. To say it created a chitstorm would be an understatement. It was a scramble to find a solution, and find it fast. The hunters were a rather unorganized bunch at that time. The discussion was being lead by the "greener" world. It was only until hunters started standing up and demanding a voice did the discussion become more hunter-centric.
It started at these local levels. Then involved County Commissions, FWP, businesses, and most any group who had some interest in preserving access. We were able to get our Senators, Baucus and Burns, along with Congressman Rick Hill to support the project. I think they realized that supporting this was a function of their own political salvation. Though Burns and Hill were rather luke-warm on the idea, they did agree to it, which for a "no-net-gainer" like Burns, that was a big concession.
The end solution involved a series of land exchanges. In summary, BSL ended up with a lot of land around Big Sky, some of which became the billionaires club known as The Yellowstone Club. They also got a lot of land in the Bangtails.
We got the inholdings of the Gallatin Range. Most of the Porcupine drainage. A lot of stuff in the Madison Range. Some of Taylor's Fork (would 2004 before we finished TF).
If you look at this map and see the bright green pieces, those are what we consolidated for access. If you can, try to envision No Trespassing signs on those segments and how it would negatively impact the places you hunt or access through them to get to places you hunt.
Big Creek, Trail Creek, Hyalite, Porcupine, Buck Creek, Swan Creek, Squaw Creek, and many others would all be off limits to hunting. Where we filmed Randy11's goat hunt last year would have been off limits. Where we filmed a lot of our wolf hunt would be off limits. Where a lot of elk get shot every year by many locals and many non-residents would be off limits.
The amount of land/access we received was way more than what we gave up. To balance the transaction, we had to some provide timber receipts to BSL from the properties marked in Red. We did not have to give up the lands, only the proceeds from the timber, which in time, will grow back.
Most the cash to balance the values came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Without LWCF, none of this would have been possible. The State of Montana did not have the cash. RMEF did not have enough cash, though they provided some. None of the local groups had the cash.
It was the LWCF program that preserved this hunting access for thousands of hunters. It preserved access for the tens of thousands who come here to hike, camp, fish, and the many businesses built around the outdoor economy.
I know some of you probably get tired of me making a big deal of the LWCF program. Well, to me, it is a big deal. This is just one big project of the hundreds that LWCF has made possible. Not just in my backyard, but in your backyard. If you hunt the west, the odds are there is a map like this that relates to an LWCF access project near where you hunt.
If you hunt in the west, I hope you will contact your elected folks in DC to ask them to reauthorized this program. It needs to be reauthorized this year, or it goes away. You read threads on this site about a Montana Senator, Steve Daines, who was on the wrong side of a vote that would have reauthorized LWCF. If I were to post a pile of my other maps that demonstrate how much hunting access has been preserved/created by LWCF, it would be pretty easy to see why this is such a hot button issue in Montana, and elsewhere.
Here are links to contact your DC delegates.
Congressman - http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Senator - http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Here is one of the classic maps showing what LWCF has done. This shows how screwed up the Gallatin National Forest land ownership was, thanks to the checkerboard pattern created by the railroad land grants of the 1800's. The railroads were given every other section, in exchange for putting in railroads to the west. The railroads kept those lands and in the 1980's, spun off the lands to new companies, such as Plumb Creek.
In the mid-1990s, a few smart guys approached Plumb Creek about buying their lands in the Gallatin checkerboard. Mel McDougal and Tim Blixeth (now in prison) owned some timber companies in Oregon and moved to Montana to form Big Sky Lumber Company, the entity that bought all of these checkerboard inholdings.
We hunters were always able to hunt the Plumb Creek lands. And we could cross them to access the Forest Service lands behind, and intermixed. Access was not an issue.
Until, the BSL guys bought those lands. They gave notice that they would be closing their lands to hunting and that hunters would not be able to cross those lands to gain access to the NF lands.
If ever there was a shot across the bow to elk hunters, that was it. To say it created a chitstorm would be an understatement. It was a scramble to find a solution, and find it fast. The hunters were a rather unorganized bunch at that time. The discussion was being lead by the "greener" world. It was only until hunters started standing up and demanding a voice did the discussion become more hunter-centric.
It started at these local levels. Then involved County Commissions, FWP, businesses, and most any group who had some interest in preserving access. We were able to get our Senators, Baucus and Burns, along with Congressman Rick Hill to support the project. I think they realized that supporting this was a function of their own political salvation. Though Burns and Hill were rather luke-warm on the idea, they did agree to it, which for a "no-net-gainer" like Burns, that was a big concession.
The end solution involved a series of land exchanges. In summary, BSL ended up with a lot of land around Big Sky, some of which became the billionaires club known as The Yellowstone Club. They also got a lot of land in the Bangtails.
We got the inholdings of the Gallatin Range. Most of the Porcupine drainage. A lot of stuff in the Madison Range. Some of Taylor's Fork (would 2004 before we finished TF).
If you look at this map and see the bright green pieces, those are what we consolidated for access. If you can, try to envision No Trespassing signs on those segments and how it would negatively impact the places you hunt or access through them to get to places you hunt.
Big Creek, Trail Creek, Hyalite, Porcupine, Buck Creek, Swan Creek, Squaw Creek, and many others would all be off limits to hunting. Where we filmed Randy11's goat hunt last year would have been off limits. Where we filmed a lot of our wolf hunt would be off limits. Where a lot of elk get shot every year by many locals and many non-residents would be off limits.
The amount of land/access we received was way more than what we gave up. To balance the transaction, we had to some provide timber receipts to BSL from the properties marked in Red. We did not have to give up the lands, only the proceeds from the timber, which in time, will grow back.
Most the cash to balance the values came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Without LWCF, none of this would have been possible. The State of Montana did not have the cash. RMEF did not have enough cash, though they provided some. None of the local groups had the cash.
It was the LWCF program that preserved this hunting access for thousands of hunters. It preserved access for the tens of thousands who come here to hike, camp, fish, and the many businesses built around the outdoor economy.
I know some of you probably get tired of me making a big deal of the LWCF program. Well, to me, it is a big deal. This is just one big project of the hundreds that LWCF has made possible. Not just in my backyard, but in your backyard. If you hunt the west, the odds are there is a map like this that relates to an LWCF access project near where you hunt.
If you hunt in the west, I hope you will contact your elected folks in DC to ask them to reauthorized this program. It needs to be reauthorized this year, or it goes away. You read threads on this site about a Montana Senator, Steve Daines, who was on the wrong side of a vote that would have reauthorized LWCF. If I were to post a pile of my other maps that demonstrate how much hunting access has been preserved/created by LWCF, it would be pretty easy to see why this is such a hot button issue in Montana, and elsewhere.
Here are links to contact your DC delegates.
Congressman - http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Senator - http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
