PUBLIC LANDS, HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? AND WHY?

On several auspicious occasions during the 2013 Montana legislative session, public sportsmen were asked an important question by legislators who represent private land interests.

The question was: “How much public land is enough for you?” Standing in the shadows behind this question are the people who demand the taking over of federal public lands by state governments where back-scratching politics ensure the public estate would be sold off or effectively given away to private interests.

If the American people cannot provide an informed, reasoned answer to this key question they are at a critical disadvantage in the perennial struggle to keep public lands and waters in public hands. Embedded in the larger question are such sub-questions as: what important values are served by public ownership that can’t be served by private?  Who will be turned away from enjoyment of the American land by privatization versus who will sip the cream in the future. There are more such sub-questions but you get the picture.

So I will attempt to provide my brief response to that question:  “How much public land is enough?”

I will not quantify my answer in terms of acres, square miles, and so on.  I will answer it qualitatively as I once heard a rancher answer the question of how much land he needed to make a profit. The rancher’s answer was ‘enough to run 200 cow/calf pairs, however many acres that turns out to be.’

My Answer

For the urban population of Montana who overwhelmingly desire opportunity to recreate in our great outdoors, we need the following:  – however many acres that turns out to be - .

We need enough river and stream access, and enough access facilities, so that families and anglers can easily drive to fishing and other water-bourne opportunities near their homes.

We need enough huntable wildlife habitats proximate to our population centers so working-class families with young children and tight budgets can economically enjoy nearby hunting opportunities. Montana families should not be priced out of the Montana outdoors.

We need enough large wilderness areas so that we can maintain a healthy biotic community supporting all native large game species while, at the same time, making wild adventure available to those folks who hike and thrive on the wilderness experience in all seasons.

We also need those high-quality wilderness habitats to be big enough to serve a growing demand for such hard-to-reach hunting opportunities from hunters both resident and non-resident.

We need enough acres of publicly owned lands within large working landscapes so all Montana hunters can pursue game in fair-chase hunts amid natural surroundings – and this in the same locale where, farmers and ranchers are earning a living with profitable agricultural businesses.

We need large spans of open prairie in our central and eastern regions of Montana – places where sage grouse and pronghorn can share the horizon with an occasional publicly owned bison herd – because Montana possesses only half its natural heritage without those wild prairies and their native wildlife.

We need large open landscapes of land still wild in its character simply because we are Americans and Americans have always, and will always, need these frontiers of the heart in which we can feel free. As Aldo Leopold once observed: “What use forty freedoms and no blank space on the map?”

When these needs are met we will have enough public land.

  ~~ Ron Moody

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~