A letter to Gianforte about wilderness study areas

Dear Congressman Gianforte,

At the roundtable meeting you conducted in Lewistown on Aug. 15, you announced that you would be accepting comments regarding your two wilderness study area bills — H.R. 5148 and 5149 — at this email address.

On behalf of Montana Wilderness Association, I would like to share with you the myriad ways in which thousands of Montanans have already made it known that they oppose your legislation stripping protection from 29 wilderness study areas comprising more than 800,000 acres. We feel that it’s extremely important for you to consider all of these expressions of opposition to your legislation, not just the emails you receive at this email address, MontanaPublicLands@mail.house.gov.

  With that in mind, please note that since you introduced H.R. 5148 and H.R. 5149:

  • Your office has received more than 800 calls objecting to that legislation.

  • You received an open letter in April, addressed to Montana’s entire Congressional delegation, calling for a balanced, bipartisan, and collaborative approach to our WSAs that includes a diversity of interests. More than 2,700 Montanans and 100 businesses, organizations, and elected officials have, to date, signed that letter. You can read that letter at https://ourlandourlegacy.org/. The lists of signers are attached.

• More than 100 op-eds and 100 letters-to-the-editor have appeared in Montana’s newspapers in opposition to your and Senator Daines’ WSA legislation.

• Governor Steve Bullock sent you and Senator Daines a letter on April 25 requesting you change your approach to the resolution of our WSAs. “I am particularly troubled by the lack of public engagement used to formulate these (WSA) proposals,” he writes. “All Montanans value their public lands and have a stake in their future management. No matter how hard fought, our state’s citizens value the ability to gather around the table and advance solutions born of compromise and of collaboration.”

• The University of Montana released its bipartisan Public Land Survey on May 8 revealing that 81 percent of Montanans across the political spectrum favor keeping WSAs as they are now or taking a tailored approach that adds protection in some areas while removing protections from others. A mere 11 percent expressed support for your and Sen. Daines’ legislation.

• Hundreds of Montanans have appeared at several county and city commission meetings to voice their objections to your and Senator Daines’ WSA legislation. At a Beaverhead County Commission meeting on July 30, 182 were in attendance with 72 voting for your legislation and 110 against.

At a Ravalli County meeting in February regarding Senator Daines’ WSA bill, to which your H.R. 5148 is a companion bill, around 80 percent of the roughly 200 people at the meeting opposed Sen. Daines’ bill.

• Between February and May, the cities of Whitefish and Helena, Missoula County, and the joint city-county commissions from Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deerlodge all sent letters to you and Sen. Daines expressing concern with the legislation and requesting public meetings.

As you review the comments that you receive at this email address, please remember each of the above bullet points demonstrating that thousands of Montanans would like you to withdraw your bills and start over with a legislative approach that includes the following principles:

• Begin with a clear, bi-partisan commitment to getting results in Washington D.C.

• Be the outcome of a collaborative process that includes various stakeholders, and

not force a one-size-fits all solution.

• Recognize the history of collaborative dialogue in Montana and past legislative

compromise.

• Be fair, transparent, inclusive, and fact-based so as to produce outcomes that are

implementable and durable.

• Include public input gathered from communities closest to the areas at issue in the proposal, while recognizing these public lands belong to all Americans

Thank you for considering this request.

Sincerely,

Ted Brewer 

Communications director 

Montana Wilderness Association