| |||||||||||||
|
Published on Monday, November 05, 2007 Guest Opinion: Lack of legislation for Montana
wilderness imperils public lands
Will the most recent
congressional legislation intended to designate new wilderness areas in
Montana become law? Not a chance. Does it deserve to become law?
No.The prime co-sponsors of the bill, known as the Northern Rockies Environment Protection Act or NREPA, are a Republican from Connecticut, Chris Shays, and a Democrat from upstate New York, Carolyn Maloney. Their bill, if passed into law, would triple the Wilderness in Montana to a total of 10 million acres and add an additional 22 million acres of designated Wilderness in the Western states of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington. Many folks out this way are asking why Eastern representatives have introduced a bill to finally settle Montana's 30-year question about which of our remaining wild lands should be protected as wilderness. That's a fair question. But here's a better one: Why has it been more than a decade since a made-in-Montana bill was introduced by our own congressional delegation? The lands in question are critically important: assuring pristine habitat for the last of the nation's great herds of animals, protecting the unspoiled headwaters and basins for the Missouri to our east and the Columbia to our west, and securing Montana's landscape as our cash register, beckoning hunters, anglers, hikers and campers. These wild lands are what make this the last best place. Only Idaho, Montana left out It is wrong, if not downright embarrassing, that Montana and Idaho are the only states in the entire nation to not have satisfied the imperative of providing the ultimate protection of wilderness designation to the most important of our remaining wild lands. Here in these two states of the Northern Rockies, 15 million acres of our soaring, sparkling landscape remain in jeopardy. The threats are from not only the inappropriate uses that would scar and degrade the land and waters, but the threats are also internal to us and our abject failure, year after year, to provide the appropriate protections for these places. Yes, these are national lands, belonging not only to us but also to all Americans. Under federal law, the fate of these lands must be decided by acts of the U.S. Congress. However, the history of wilderness designations has been that the Congress has followed the guidance of those who represented the area, the states within which the lands under consideration were located. The Congress has, with Alaska as the lone exception, waited until a state's senators or representatives introduced a wilderness proposal and then followed the lead of that state's delegation. 12 years of inaction But how long shall we wait? It's been 30 years since the first Montana-made wilderness proposals were brought before the Congress. Twelve years have passed since a Montanan has even introduced a bill to protect this place. Why do we delay on this matter of such significance? No, the Congress will not pass the NREPA bill now before them. It is flawed in many ways, including changing the formulas for how our schools are funded through timber harvest fees, adjusting boundaries of our National Parks, and the virtual confiscation of private property rights. No, NREPA should not pass but neither should Montana continue to ignore the imperative of securing wilderness protection for the remaining wild slivers of the last best place. Pat Williams, who served nine terms as a U.S. representative from Montana, teaches at the University of Montana and serves as a senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West. Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. Talk Back!Billingsgazette.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. By submitting a comment, you are agreeing to the terms & conditions set out in our comment policy.If you have any problems with the new Talk Back! system, please email us. The comments below are from readers of
billingsgazette.com and in no way represent the views of The Billings
Gazette or Lee Enterprises. Comments currently hidden on this story.
All comments on bilingsgazette.com hidden.
|
.gif){kind=spacer} |
|
|
||||||||||
 Contact
Us | Subscribe |
Log In | Register |
Comment
Display Options
