Conservationists oppose Gianforte bill removing wilderness areas

Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., has introduced two bills in the U.S. House of Representatives that would release more than 690,000 acres in Wilderness Study Areas, including 74,650 acres within the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, and has drawn the ire of some conservationists.

A press release from Gianforte’s office said Thursday that the Protect Use of Public Lands Act and the Unlocking Public Lands Act will open access to lands found not to meet the criteria for federal wilderness protection.

“Nearly 700,000 acres of Montana’s public lands have been in limbo for as long as 40 years, stuck in a perpetual study that was actually completed years ago. Congress didn’t act then like it should have, and it’s about time we did,” Gianforte said. “Unlocking these lands and returning them to Forest Service and BLM management will increase Montanans’ access to their public lands.”

Hugo Tureck, chairman of Friends of the Missouri River Breaks Monument and a public lands rancher, said Gianforte’s bill is not the way to manage the land.

“We ought to take a look at each piece (of land) individually and it should be the choice of the people, not the corporations,” he said.

The Unlocking Public Lands Act, the release says, would release 24 Wilderness Study Areas in Montana that would total more than 240,000 acres the Bureau of Land Management found by 1980 not to be suitable for wilderness designation.

The legislation says the WSAs lifted would include the Woodlawk, Stafford, Ervin Ridge, Dog Creek South, Cow Creek and Antelope Creek, all within the Breaks.

Gianforte also introduced a second bill, the Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act, a version of which by Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., introduced in the Senate late year would release 449,500 acres of wilderness study areas all on national forest lands.

Conservationists criticized the bills. Montana Wilderness Association Executive Director Ben Gabriel said Gianforte’s bills represent the single biggest rollback of public lands protections in Montana’s history.

“Today, Congressman Gianforte joined Sen. Daines in a full-on assault on the public lands that provide our communities with drinking water, enable our fish and wildlife populations to flourish, and serve as the foundation of our $7 billion outdoor recreation economy,” Gabriel said in a release Thursday. “Congressman Gianforte is following Sen. Daines’ incredibly unpopular and damaging lead with two bills of his own that fail to include the interests of the vast majority of Montanans who use and cherish these lands.”

Tureck said the Breaks as a national monument already has some protections, but he is worried restrictions on oil and gas development, logging and off-road vehicles could be weakened. He added that he is also worried lands outside the monument would be developed.

If WSA protections are removed, Tureck said. it should be done after taking into consideration why it was set aside for a WSA, what has changed. how releasing that land from a WSA will affect wildlife on the land and the experiences of the people who want to use it, and after the public has offered input.

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Information from the Associated Press was also included in this story.