RobG
Well-known member
Hi folks,
A land swap was just made public in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Billings Gazette. I was tipped off to some concerning aspects of it a while back, but I wanted to digest the actual proposal before commenting here or in the press. Ive taken a look at it and it is still a bad deal.
In short, the Rock Creek Ranch and Wild Eagle ranch portions are good because the National Forest land they swap out aren't accessible without corner hopping. The exception is section 2, but we would get a decent inholding in exchange for that. The bad part is the Crazy Mountain Ranch (aka Marlborough Ranch) swaps. The two National Forest lands are S4 and S8.
Here are the issues:
1) Unlike the other sections, S4 and S8 publicly accessible. There is a road/trail from the east with a rock solid easement to S8. From there you can access S4 because there is an overlap. (As an aside it looks like the FS is going out of their way to hide these facts, even direct users away from these trails!)
2) S4 and S8 are excellent big game habitat.
3) S8 is the only public land on Rock Creek that has a viable fishery. Furthermore, it appears it is the only public land in the southern Crazies with a viable wild trout fishery. That section of Rock creek is excellent fishing for brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The upper sections of Rock Creek are barren. That fact is conspicuously missing from the assessment.
I will have more later but I wanted to get this out as a counter to the one sided articles that came out in the papers.
Proposal: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=56687 and http://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/112127_FSPLT3_4866932.pdf
Bozeman Chronicle: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.c...cle_b050bf47-45c3-5516-8808-cce2045a64a6.html
Billings Gazette: https://billingsgazette.com/outdoor...63ea9ea9a.html#tracking-source=home-top-story
The proposal has some other serious shortcomings. I need to write them up and I'll post them here. In spite of this impacting big game habitat more than any other thing, they chose to release it in the middle of hunting season. We have 45 days to comment.
A land swap was just made public in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Billings Gazette. I was tipped off to some concerning aspects of it a while back, but I wanted to digest the actual proposal before commenting here or in the press. Ive taken a look at it and it is still a bad deal.
In short, the Rock Creek Ranch and Wild Eagle ranch portions are good because the National Forest land they swap out aren't accessible without corner hopping. The exception is section 2, but we would get a decent inholding in exchange for that. The bad part is the Crazy Mountain Ranch (aka Marlborough Ranch) swaps. The two National Forest lands are S4 and S8.
Here are the issues:
1) Unlike the other sections, S4 and S8 publicly accessible. There is a road/trail from the east with a rock solid easement to S8. From there you can access S4 because there is an overlap. (As an aside it looks like the FS is going out of their way to hide these facts, even direct users away from these trails!)
2) S4 and S8 are excellent big game habitat.
3) S8 is the only public land on Rock Creek that has a viable fishery. Furthermore, it appears it is the only public land in the southern Crazies with a viable wild trout fishery. That section of Rock creek is excellent fishing for brook trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The upper sections of Rock Creek are barren. That fact is conspicuously missing from the assessment.
I will have more later but I wanted to get this out as a counter to the one sided articles that came out in the papers.
Proposal: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=56687 and http://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/112127_FSPLT3_4866932.pdf
Bozeman Chronicle: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.c...cle_b050bf47-45c3-5516-8808-cce2045a64a6.html
Billings Gazette: https://billingsgazette.com/outdoor...63ea9ea9a.html#tracking-source=home-top-story
The proposal has some other serious shortcomings. I need to write them up and I'll post them here. In spite of this impacting big game habitat more than any other thing, they chose to release it in the middle of hunting season. We have 45 days to comment.
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