(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Daines must think we're gullible • Daily Montanan [1] ['Chris Marchion', 'More From Author', 'March'] Date: 2024-03-24 In his recent guest column, Sen. Steve Daines tries slapping a new coat of rhetorical paint on a bill Montanans know is a lemon – a bill he’s twice introduced and his constituents have twice rejected, a bill that a pathetic 6% of Montana voters support. His bill would eliminate three wilderness study areas and strip protection from more than 100,000 acres of wildlands, prime elk habitat, and headwaters that trout populations depend on. The fact that he continues to exhume this bill – and tries selling it as something that it’s not – makes you wonder if Daines thinks Montanans are gullible. As always, his most recent effort to sell the bill doesn’t hold up under the slightest scrutiny, starting with the title: “Montana’s public lands should be run by Montanans, not D.C.” Daines’ bill does nothing to change who “runs” public lands in Montana. That’s not the intent of the bill. (And even if it was the intent, doesn’t he know by now that Montanans have rejected the idea of transferring ownership of public lands to the states?) For him to suggest that his bill isn’t top-down and wasn’t concocted in some backroom of his Senate office is as laughable as it is disingenuous. Not once since he started introducing his anti-wilderness study area bills in 2017 has he conducted a town hall meeting to discuss these study areas, nor has he sought a shred of input from everyday Montanans who know and treasure these areas. In the last month alone, he turned a deaf ear to a petition from more than 2,000 Montanans calling on him to meet “honestly, openly, and publicly” to discuss wilderness study areas. If Daines truly wanted to give Montanans a say in how public lands are managed, then he would live up to his 2019 promise – made in writing – to respect the findings of a report issued by the Montana Legislature’s Environmental Quality Council, which spent more than a year exploring the best path forward for Montana’s WSAs. During the process, the EQC invited public testimony from recreationists, timber industry representatives, conservationists and other stakeholders, the vast majority of whom supported a collaborative approach to determining the future of WSAs. Not only did he break his promise to respect the EQC’s finding, but he voted against a made-in-Montana public lands bill that is the direct result of a collaborative approach– the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act. That approach has made the BCSA extremely popular –83% of Montanans support it, according to the same University of Montana poll that found 6% of Montanans support Daines’ anti-WSA bill. It couldn’t be clearer which approach Montanans favor, and it’s not Daines’ top-down, made-in-DC approach. His refusal to support the BCSA, a bill protecting the four most important tributaries of the beloved Blackoot River, proves again that he is all talk and no walk on the issue of protecting public lands. As he writes in his recent column, “I have fond memories with my Grandpa Daines of learning how to fish and hunt north of Big Timber, and my goal is to pass these traditions on to my own children and grandchildren.” That’s a great goal, Sen. Daines, shared by myself and most other Montanans. To achieve it, you need to first throw your support behind the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act. Only by protecting headwaters, as the BCSA does, can we expect healthy fisheries – and the opportunity to enjoy trout fishing. Only by protecting habitat, as the BCSA does, can we expect healthy populations of elk and other big game – and the opportunity to hunt them. Next, you need to withdraw your made-in-DC proposal for WSAs and engage Montanans with a history of using those lands. It will be hard work but our public lands and Montanans deserve the best result. You will find your constituents are capable of working together and crafting solutions that are worthy of the moniker, “Made in Montana.” An inductee in the Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame, Chris Marchion is a member of the Montana Wildlife Federation’s board of directors and a founder and leader of the Anaconda Sportsman’s Club. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/03/24/daines-must-think-were-gullible/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/