Montana Wilderness News

There are those who believe in the old school way of doing
things and those of us who believe in a new way of doing
things.

Unfortunately for Montana's forests and the people who depend on
them, the old school way of doing things hasn't worked out so well.
Years ago, even mainstream conservation groups like the Montana
Wilderness Association were at war with the timber industry.
Because of years of fighting, neither side got what they wanted.
Nobody won. And everyone paid the price.

The current public wrangling about Senator Jon Tester's jobs and
wilderness legislation heralds the many opinions about land use and
protection policies. Perhaps somewhat disguised at the moment, but in a
very real way, this heated debate represents a celebration of the
passion we Montanans hold for the land and waters.

If Montana's timber interests can team with wilderness advocates on a forest compromise, shouldn't Montana's Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg be able to work with Democrat Sen. Jon Tester on advancing the federal legisla tion that flowed from that partnership?
 
One would hope so.

My son Sander and I dawdled for a while on the summit of Swan Peak one scorching afternoon last August. From where we stood, we could have imagined ourselves to be in the center of a world made up of nothing but a sea of wild and untracked country.

When Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester introduced his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act last July, he did something that is all too uncommon in today’s political world. He kept a promise.

He’d told conservationists, loggers and recreationists that if they could reach agreement on contentious issues involving public lands – including wilderness designation, deciding where logging and habitat restoration is appropriate, and, most importantly, getting popular support for their ideas – he’d introduce a bill to help implement their vision.

The economy might have soured in 2009, but the world’s love of Yellowstone National Park certainly didn’t. Despite thinning pocketbooks and growing anxieties — or perhaps because of both — a record-shattering 3.3 million people visited the world’s first national park. The lesson here is that whether the economy is bullish or bearish, Yellowstone is a magical place where people of all backgrounds can restore their spirit.

DEER LODGE - Rep. Denny Rehberg said he's not trying to "fix" Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, but he's certainly looking at what's under the hood.

"I'm not a logger, and I'm being asked to legislate a logging standard," Rehberg told about 125 people at a listening session in the Deer Lodge Community Center on Friday.

"If you get 670,000 acres of wilderness and no logging, you'd be mad at me. I need to know where's the assurance of the promise that that's going to occur."

In a recent guest opinion (Missoulian, Nov. 9), Paul Edwards calls Sen. Jon Tester’s bill “a federal welfare program for the forest products industry” in the state of Montana. Edwards is far from right. Tester’s bill is not an act to save a few mills but is a necessary step toward better forest management.

Since Sen. Jon Tester introduced his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act in July, it has been praised as the first legislation in two decades to bring Montana wilderness advocates and logging advocates together. It also has been criticized by people on both sides of the public-lands debate who want more or less than the proposal would provide.

The bill, which deals exclusively with portions of national forests in Western Montana, had a Senate Energy Committee hearing earlier this month.

It can be difficult to see the bigger picture when our immediate needs and wants are at stake. Ask a first grader this holiday
season if they would rather have a new toy or the cash equivalent put into a retirement fund. The answer will undoubtedly be
the toy. That's a first grader, though. As adults we would have really appreciated that retirement fund. This type of foresight is
something that is sorely missing in legislation these days, and this is why the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is so important.