Montana Wilderness News

MOUNT JEFFERSON -- Near the crest of the Centennial Mountains on the Continental Divide a small spring bubbles from a black rock.

There are no trails to this spring.

There are no signs that guide the way.

Known as Brower's Spring, it flows steadily from its humble beginnings through lodgepole pine and aspen forest to a place called Hell Roaring Canyon. There it joins other rivulets to form Hell Roaring Creek, which flows north into Alaska Basin and the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s a positive step for Rep. Denny Rehberg to get out in Montana to hear public comment on Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, and we urge the Congressman to pay more attention to his constituents than the fringe groups claiming they had no voice in the development of the fundamentally sound, compromise bill.

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which was introduced by Sen. Jon Tester in July, had a committee hearing on Dec. 17. Getting a hearing on this bill amid the nation’s concerns over health care and climate change shows that Tester really is looking out for Montanans.

This bill was built by local collaborative projects and provides local solutions to our forest problems, not the least of which is making sure we have access to the places to recreate.

Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg said Monday he plans a series of public meetings to solicit ideas for "fixing" legislation from U.S. Sen. Jon Tester that seeks to both expand wilderness and increase logging in Montana.

Tester, a Democrat, introduced the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act in July, promoting it as a consensus-driven balance between preserving the environment and creating new jobs.

In a Monday teleconference with reporters, Rehberg said he's heard from constituents saying they were excluded from the drafting of the bill.

For many years, the timber industry has faced job loss and shortage of supply. Our communities have also been threatened by wildfire and our forests by beetle kill. We need to take action, and the time is now.

Although Montana's senior Senator, Max Baucus (D), has garnered more headlines recently for his key role in health care reform, the Treasure State's junior Senator is touting a bill of his own that could redefine public land policy, one of the West's longest standing and most contentious political disputes.

In Montana, we have a strong commitment to preserving the natural beauty of our state and integrating our connection to the land in our livelihoods. We all believe in the campsite rule – keeping a place they way we found it.

Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act will help us keep our forests intact, accessible, and profitable for future generations of Montanans.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” may not have the word “wilderness” in its title, but it’s proving to be just as much of a lightning rod as any that have included that word in the past.

Tester’s bill is the result of an unprecedented compromise crafted by a coalition of industry and environmental interests. It would set aside some 677,000 acres of land as wilderness – mostly in Southwest Montana – while mandating logging on some 7,000 acres of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest land per year for the next 10 years.

Sen. Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is the best solution to forest management our state has seen in years. The bill brings all kinds of regular, everyday Montanans together to find homegrown solutions to our forest issues. The process and the resulting bill represent good and reasoned efforts in communication and cooperation, which is sorely needed in our public discourse.

WASHINGTON — Citing precedent and cost, the Obama administration says it cannot yet endorse a bill by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., that seeks to reshape Western Montana's national forests by striking a balance among timber, recreation and environmental interests.