Let’s put behind us the recent unseemly and inaccurate charges that Sen. Jon Tester’s bill on timber jobs and wilderness was crafted in secrecy. It’s time to focus on the future and on what the bill will actually accomplish rather than to try to paint some vague conspiracy that best belongs in a pulp fiction novel.
Tester is to be commended for his willingness to take on simultaneously the subjects of timber jobs and wilderness designation in one bill after these issues have been stalemated in Montana’s internal political wars for the past 25 years.
Let’s be clear – every bill starts out in the minds of a few select people. They then try to find a sponsor who will put their ideas into legislative reality. Such a process happened with this draft legislation. Tester listened to people in the Yaak, in the Seeley-Swan, and on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. He approached the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and asked if we had ideas about wilderness in our region. We gave him some suggestions; he took some and rejected others. That’s what happens when Americans try to craft new legislation.
He has now introduced a draft bill and an initial hearing has taken place. We don’t think the current version is a perfect bill and we are working hard to change it, but we strongly support Tester’s efforts to craft new ways to free our forests from the political gridlock that dominates debates over forest management in Montana.
When finished, this bill hopefully will provide some certainty for Montana’s hard-hit forest industry, give us new wilderness and permanent protection for some of our most beloved wild lands, improve our fisheries, and demonstrate that we can find new and creative ways to build stronger communities in this state.
Let’s get on with the job by focusing on what the bill actually says it will do rather than fighting about cobwebs of deceit and conspiracy. This is an open, transparent and collaborative process of creating new legislation. Let’s get it done this year.
Mike Clark
Executive Director
Greater Yellowstone Coalition