Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 7.16.14

22 | FEDERAL LAND
JULY 16, 2014 | FLATHEADBEACON
Montana Federal-Lands
A feller buncher places a tree in a pile to be hauled out by a grapple skitter at a trimming project on state land near Echo Lake.
BEACON FILE PHOTO
For the past eight months, a panel called the Environmental Quality Coun- cil has been cutting through the political rhetoric and examining the guts of the issue, outlining a blueprint for making federal land management a more effi- cient and collaborative process.
The panel on July 10 voted to ad- vance a report on how to encourage more state involvement in management of federal lands in Montana, but amend- ed the document to peg a land transfer to the state as a “last resort.”
Composed of legislators and citizen members, the council also amended the report to say the governor should con- vene a “federal lands committee” to co- ordinate land management with federal officials.
The votes came one day after the council’s Democratic members said the original version had a “hidden agenda” of promoting the transfer of federal lands to the state.
The report, called “Evaluating Fed- eral Land Management in Montana,” makes recommendations for public land management, including reducing wild- land fire fuels, increasing economic pro- duction and maintaining multiple-use access.
In recent months, some conserva- tives in a 12-state western region have been pushing the land transfer, say- ing state management would eliminate yards of bureaucratic red tape, promote quicker decision-making on logging, mining and other activity on federal public lands and be a boon to local econ- omies.
Opponents – including Montana’s two Democratic U.S. senators and Gov. Steve Bullock – say the transfer is a radi-
Policy Turns Political
Should Montana attempt to wrest control of public lands from federal government? Land managers are pushing back against the notion of a land transfer, but the idea has gained momentum among some state legislators.
Ty TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
he textured debate over federal
land management sprouted an-
other partisan wrinkle last week when a panel of Montana lawmakers, charged with scrutinizing the direction of the state’s public landscape, voted to
relegate the proposed transfer of federal lands to state ownership – a GOP-driven platform plank that has gained leverage in recent months – to a course of last re- sort.
Once a fringe idea given its logistical, legal and constitutional hurdles, assum- ing control over lands now controlled by
federal agencies has become a popular stance adopted by Montana’s conserva- tive legislative candidates, particularly as flaws in federal management prac- tices become more pronounced in the wake of devastating wildfire seasons, di- minished timber harvests and economic harm.
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