Montana Public Trust Coalition

[Andrew Posewitz]

Hello All,

As you may recall, the last legislative session in Montana threatened a great number of things that many of us collectively value. From the last-minute insertion of outfitter guaranteed tags with no public comment, which overrode a citizen-passed initiative, to the attempts to give wealthy landowners transferrable tags; management by science was eroded in favor of management by political donor.

Since the last session, it has gotten worse. From failed efforts in front of the FWP Commission during the season setting process to get what they couldn’t get through the legislature, to new lawsuits seeking to make management even more political. The two most absurd efforts came in the form of a bill to limit who private landowners could sell their land to and an effort to eliminate prescriptive easements as a form of access.

We have seen a Montana representative at the federal level co-sponsor a bill to remove Pittman Robertson money (and consequently defund Habitat Montana) and 2 members of the land board reject the entirety of public opinion and hunters in favor of out of state real estate developers:

https://helenair.com/opinion/column...cle_e8108b4d-2da5-54d8-8664-be32d1910cc2.html

In addition to prescriptive easements, we have seen continued efforts by wealthy out of state interests figure out new ways to stop you from accessing public lands. The Hughes creek road was twice declared public and yet landowners gates went unchallenged by local officials while they debated the definition of “immediately” and told the public “..access is at best marginal, but it’s sort of a hill to die on for public land and access folks,” Chilcott said. “I think you can make a case to find a better place to provide real access.”

https://dailymontanan.com/2022/01/08/hughes-creek-road-blocked-again/

All of this is evidence that we have not yet been loud enough as these continued efforts to erode the public trust and undo 100+-years of our accomplishments continue. We have been promised that if we “liked” what happened last session, we are “really going to like” what will be proposed in this session.

The time to become involved is now, not after folks have been elected. To that end, a group began meeting last year to explore avenues to be more involved with policymakers than we have been and begin a dialogue much earlier in the process. As a result, the Montana Public Trust Coalition, a bi-partisan group of people who value Montana’s heritage, was formed and has sent a note to each candidate asking them to promise to protect our heritage.

The first story of our coalition can be found here:

Montana coalition seeks candidates’ pledge on hunting, conservation

The Montana Public Trust Coalition, a new bipartisan grassroots group, went live with a website aimed at holding state legislators accountable for their votes related to hunting, fishing and conservation during the 2023 session.

missoulacurrent.com

Our story and the promise can be found here:

https://www.montanapublictrustcoalition.com/

On that website, you can see who has endorsed our efforts, including former governors from each party, a number of former Commissioners who served under both parties as well as a substantial number of current living Outdoor Hall of Fame inductees. In addition, we are asking grass roots citizens to sign on as well and provide their own personal testimonials if they wish. Lastly, we are tracking candidate responses to our request. We were honored to do a podcast with Randy which we would expect to drop any day now to further explain what was happening.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and we will leave you with the following asks:

• Please check out the website.
• If, after doing so, you support our efforts we encourage you to sign on and leave a testimonial.
• Please check to see if the candidates in your district have responded in a way that is consistent with your values, if not, please contact them during the election cycle and let them know how you feel.
• Please find a way to discuss these items with them during the campaign, not during the session. It is really hard to get their attention during the session. Remember they have 90-days to take on all the challenges of the state, be fair to them and give them time to hear you and ask questions.

Thanks

Andrew Posewitz
Proud Member of the Montana Public Trust Coalition

 

[Big Fin]

If you want to listen to the podcast, here is the link - https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/hunttalk/22081020-20HT20Podcast20-20Andrew20and20Jeff.mp3

Huge kudos to Andrew, Jeff, and the rest of their team in pushing this issue. I hope you will support this effort by going to the website and doing what Andrew is asking in his post above.

 

[brocksw]

Thank you for your and others work on this @Andrew Posewitz . Thank you Randy for providing a platform for these folks.

 

[GoGriz]

Just finished listening to this podcast. Great stuff! Thank you guys for putting your blood, sweat and tears into the issues that matter and that will matter to our children. Such a shame that this effort is even needed, but I guess it’s better to be on the offensive than defensive any day when it comes to something so near and dear to all of us.

My hope is that an effort like this gets as much attention as it deserves from this crowd who rely so heavily on these ideas (from whatever State they are from). I’ll be chatting with people about this and spreading the awareness.

Thanks!

 

[Andrew Posewitz]

Just finished listening to this podcast. Great stuff! Thank you guys for putting your blood, sweat and tears into the issues that matter and that will matter to our children. Such a shame that this effort is even needed, but I guess it’s better to be on the offensive than defensive any day when it comes to something so near and dear to all of us.

My hope is that an effort like this gets as much attention as it deserves from this crowd who rely so heavily on these ideas (from whatever State they are from). I’ll be chatting with people about this and spreading the awareness.

Thanks!

You are most welcome. One of the common threads that came up in our conversations was that whatever we have that is good, was won with hard work and grass roots folks. It was won on the boots and backs of people from across the political spectrum and that to protect it will require the same effort. It is our turn and that means being willing to do the heavy lifting associated with protecting and improving what we have. This means doing the hard work of figuring out who is willing to work for it and finding ways to support those folks be they organizations, politicians or fellow citizens. Thank you for agreeing to talk to others about this, that is the bedrock of our progress.