A recent report on Congressman Rosendale’s attempts to block the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act reveals once again his ignorance about public lands, or his unwillingness to learn the facts.
The Act would protect about 2.7 million acres with about half of it going into wilderness status. Rosendale claims wilderness status would completely eliminate recreation on these lands, a complete falsehood as he well knows. Wilderness lands are open to hiking, fishing, horseback riding, camping and hunting.
He describes the act as a top-down approach, another falsehood. All of these lands went through a local nomination process in the respective congressional districts. To the contrary, Rosendale’s failed amendment to release all of the wilderness study area lands is definitely a top-down approach, rather than advocating for a process for each WSA tract to be studied and evaluated at the local levels.
Rosendale also fails to mention that even if all of the WSA lands and those lands under the proposed Act were added to wilderness status, the percent of federal lands in Montana under such protection would only reach 5.0%, up from the current 3.4%. You can’t characterize this as excessive or overreach.
Lands currently under wilderness status are not known to be prime for extraction of “critical minerals”, another smokescreen Rosendale put forward. If such critical minerals exist, in commercially viable grades, on any of the WSA lands, then that certainly can be considered for any future wilderness designations.
Lastly, Rosendale fails to acknowledge that protected public lands in Montana are a primary driver of the state’s economy, much more so than all of the extraction, drilling and timber industries combined.
He needs to do his homework and advocate for benefits for all Montanans, not just for the special interest industries that fund his campaigns.
Swep Davis
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 3/11/21