There was a recent letter in the Flathead Beacon disparaging state Sen. Jennifer Fielder for supporting the transfer of lands issue. I don’t like to be picky, but the authors of that diatribe are Emmon Snyder and John Sullivan. Emmon Snyder is a board member of, and John Sullivan is co-chair of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Montana Chapter. I did a little research on this supposed “sportsman’s” group. It was a very enlightening few minutes. If you search online you will find that they are funded by very radical environmentalist organizations. The money trail is irrefutable. There are other groups listed there who would try to fool you as to their areas of interest.
The public lands issue is important to both sides of the aisle in this debate. The environmentalist side wants the land to stay in the hands of the Feds because they, although a small minority of the population, have massaged the system that they use to force the Feds to do whatever they want – like close the roads that we the taxpayers originally paid for; like stopping private landowners from drilling on their own land due to sage grouse.
On the other hand, the constitutionalists can follow the paper trail from the original Articles of Confederation to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, that showed the promise made by the Feds to transfer to the states, any land they held prior to statehood. This provided a tax base to fund the new state. Here, again, you can follow the money. The Feds lose a little money holding the land they call theirs, while the state makes quite a lot of money on the land they manage. That is where the money to pay for administration would come from, and it could lower your taxes.
So it appears to me that the stealth environmental groups are afraid of losing their power base, which allows them to force the Feds to lock up the public lands.
As for Fielder, she is working hard to help all of us reclaim some of our rights as citizens, and help reduce the size of government.
Robert Pierson
Trout Creek