Collaborators on the Ropes as Wilderness Advocates Fight Back
Emigrant Peak Trail in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest. Photo by Jacob Frank, National Park Service.
Somewhere, the industry lobbyists who successfully introduced “collaboration” to the arena of conservation policies and politics are toasting their success at splitting the conservation community. The proof is playing out right now over the collaborators’ Gallatin Conservation and Recreation Act — which is meeting significant opposition from long-time wilderness advocates.
This is nothing Montanans haven’t seen before in a number of collaborator bills, including Jon Tester’s failed Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. Likewise, his Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act is resting peacefully in the Senate since Montana’s Sen. Steve Daines, who now heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and will never give Tester a legislative win in an election year.
Yet, despite the utter failure of those oh-so-highly lauded collaborator bills, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Montana Wilderness Association (now doing business as Wild Montana), and The Wilderness Society are pushing their attempt to chop up and dole out the remaining wilderness quality lands and Wilderness Study Areas located between Yellowstone National Park and Bozeman-Livingston.
Like the former collaborator measures, this is another “slice up the pie” act that takes wilderness quality lands and deals them out to special interests — in this case, primarily the mountainbikers, snowmobilers, and other recreationists who are legally prohibited from taking their mechanized toys into the Wilderness Study Areas, which are mandated by law to be managed as wilderness until Congress decides otherwise.
In their own words, the collaborators contend it’s “Act now or lose it all” — which is nothing more than fear-mongering by these big-dollar groups who have been milking the collaborator-friendly foundations for millions of dollars for decades.
Given the fact that Wilderness Study Areas are already protected by law, there’s no particular Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, nor any deadline on Congressional action, nor any chance of development pressures intruding into these wilderness-quality lands.
Not only are they lying about “losing it all,” they’re equally lying about “permanent protection.” Perhaps it’s merely a sign of their incredible legislative naivete, but there is no such thing as “permanent” in law. In fact, laws are meant to be changed or they would still be burning witches at the stake, women couldn’t vote, and slaves would be in chains. If and when Congress decides to, they can amend the Wilderness Act, change designations and allowable uses, or even repeal it completely.
Moreover, their “act” hasn’t even been introduced yet in the rapidly-closing session of Congress and it’s clear they’re blowing a lot of smoke at Montanans. And guess what? True wilderness advocates are fighting back against their attempt to chop up the wildlife habitat of these incredible wilderness quality lands.
Some 40 former staffers for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition as well as a former Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park penned a strong rebuttal to the collaborators in a column titled “Let’s Not Squander Our One Opportunity To Protect A Nationally-Significant Wild Mountain Range.” Likewise, a group of prominent long-time conservation advocates and former board members of the collaborator groups put their opposition to the plan in their “Park County Leaders and Citizens Call for Protection of Wilderness Landscape” column.
While the collaborators fear-monger, the lesson, as one long-time conservationist put it, is to “advocate, not capitulate.” The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Wild Montana and The Wilderness Society have obviously lost their way from years of wandering in the fruitless weeds of collaborative capitulation. That they’re now facing significant opposition from former staffers, board members, and long-time conservation advocates is good news for wilderness — and a wake up call to the big money collaborator groups and their plan to dole out our remaining wilderness quality lands.
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