This Rural Montana County is Rallying Local Governments to Stand Up for America’s Public Lands

October 23, 2017

Anaconda-Deer Lodge county commissioners join a growing list of elected officials across the West to pass resolutions of support for public lands, and they are urging other Montana counties to follow suit

After passing a resolution opposing any effort to transfer or sell federal public lands to the state or local governments, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commission is trying to rally other Montana county governments around the value of public lands.

In a late-September meeting, Anaconda-Deer Lodge county commissioners voted unanimously to officially recognize the importance of public lands to the county’s 10,000 residents for attracting outdoor recreation tourism that drives the local economy. The Anaconda Sportsman’s Club approached the county commissioners about a public lands resolution, resulting in the vote. Nearby Georgetown Lake is a year-round fishing destination, and hunters from across the country come to the Pintler Mountains and Lost Creek to pursue elk, mule deer, and world-class bighorn sheep. The county seat of Anaconda is also located within driving distance of some of the most iconic national forests in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with numerous opportunities for hunting, fishing, wildlife watching, hiking, skiing, and backpacking.

Now, the ADL commissioners have sent a copy of the resolution with a letter to elected officials in every Montana county, urging them to take up official statements of support for America’s public lands and oppose public land transfer as a “short-sighted and ill-conceived” idea.

The letter claims that although land transfer has largely been defeated at the local level, special interests and lobbyists are pushing their agenda in Washington, D.C., by convincing lawmakers from states with few public lands that counties in Western states support the idea of transferring ownership. “As fellow Commissioners, we encourage your Commission to pass a similar Resolution supporting federal management of local public lands and honor the dedicated federal employees who manage the public lands and wildlife in your county,” the commissioners write.

“The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioners and the Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club should be commended,” says Scott Laird, Montana field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “They’re the first county commission in Montana to pass a resolution supporting our public lands and opposing the transfer of these lands to state or local governments. It’s heartening to see this movement grow at the county and local level, where a vocal minority would have lawmakers believe that Montanans want transfer.”

“The County’s resolution recognizes the importance of public lands,” says Terry Vermiere, chairman of the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commission. “These lands bring irreplaceable value to our county’s economy, recreation, heritage, and quality of life.” Ben Krakowka, the county’s attorney adds, “This action was meant to send a message that selling off or giving away public lands is a bad idea. People come here from all over to vacation on our public lands. That opportunity doesn’t exist for many people from the eastern part of the country.”

A total of 30 pro-public-lands resolutions have been passed by county and municipal governments across the West in the past two years. Anaconda-Deer Lodge County is the first in Montana to do so. For links to these resolutions and other official statements of support for public lands, visit sportsmensaccess.org.

10 Responses to “This Rural Montana County is Rallying Local Governments to Stand Up for America’s Public Lands”

tom warner October 24, 2017

We certainly approve of this move. And HIGHLY disapprove of those in Washington and elsewhere who would attempt to steal our lands from us!

October 24, 2017 at 9:33 am

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Karl Findling October 24, 2017

Absolutely awesome! Now each State needs to get this kind of issue into the Constitution; Hunting and Fishing on Public Land to be retained!

October 24, 2017 at 10:02 am

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Lynn October 24, 2017

this is a GREAT idea. Would be nice if ALL counties did this and then MAYBE 45 and his minions would take notice, that they can’t destroy this nation

October 24, 2017 at 10:49 am

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Nicolas Solberg October 24, 2017

Born and raised in the Flathead Valley in Montana who still visits frequently and has family there, I wholeheartedly approve the County’s plan to oppose any sell-off or transfer. Montana remains one of the most amazingly beautiful natural places not just in America, but in the world.

October 24, 2017 at 11:00 am

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Tim Jorgensen Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club October 25, 2017

Great article, but from my standpoint I am dissapointed to see that the Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club was not even mentioned on your article when you came to us for our help to get your foot in the door. Again thankyou for all you do. Tim Jorgensen P.S. this is my own opinion and down not reflect the Clubs view

October 25, 2017 at 9:24 am

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- Kristyn Brady October 26, 2017
  
  Hi, Tim. So sorry for this oversight. A line about Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club’s role in requesting the vote was mentioned in the version that went out to reporters, but it was somehow left out here. I’ve added it back in. Thanks for letting us know.
  
  October 26, 2017 at 12:35 pm
  
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Teresa Giddens October 25, 2017

Our national parks and monuments were set aside as a legacy for generations to come. If we allow timbering or drilling or selling off parcels of these wildlife areas, we will destroy the beauty of the wilderness and decimate the wildlife populations. And those areas do not belong to the states where they are located — they belong to all Americans.

October 25, 2017 at 9:23 pm

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Peter Turnbull October 29, 2017

Part and parcel to this movement needs to be a continued right of access to public lands by way recognizing longstanding access routes through what may now be private land (or private land with new owners with new attitudes). This can all be worked out reasonably. Public land without public access is not useful.

October 29, 2017 at 12:06 pm

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- K Penn November 2, 2017
  
  Public land without public access is till “useful”. The wildlife need connected corridors of wilderness to flourish. Even if people can’t get into some of those areas they are still “useful” to the populations of large ungulates and keystone predators.
  
  November 2, 2017 at 12:36 pm
  
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K Penn November 2, 2017

Glad to see this effort to fight back against the destruction of the precious legacy of America’s Public Lands. These lands were not protected all this time to now be pillaged by greed and corruption. We should be finding ways to add areas to be protected wilderness. And if money is the only thing lawmakers understand, then it’s about time they realized the economic importance to local communities that recreation in these beautiful places represents. Thanks for raising your voices!

November 2, 2017 at 12:30 pm

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by: Kevin Farron

posted in: Hunting & Fishing Access

October 12, 2017

This Is One Lucky Dog

Meet the winner of our #PublicLandsPup photo contest and learn what her family loves about hunting and fishing on public lands

We’re excited to announce the winner of our #PublicLandsPup photo contest: Allison Carolan and her Labrador retriever Beau!

With hundreds of photo submissions to choose from, you guys didn’t make it easy for us to pick just one winner. But this lucky pup will receive a new dog bed from Orvis to rest up for her next public-lands adventure.

We talked with the winning #publiclandsproud photographer, Allison Carolan, and asked her to tell us more about the photo, her dog, and what public lands mean to both of them.

TRCP: Congrats on winning the #publiclandspup contest, Alli! Where were you when you took this amazing photo?

CAROLAN: I took this photo in December in the Nemadji River bottoms on public land near Wrenshall, Minnesota. My husband, Andrew, and our 7-year-old Labrador retriever, Beau, and I were looking for grouse at the time, and we had just walked some single tracks for an hour or so before pausing to take in the sunrise over the Nemadji River valley.

It was about three degrees that morning, and everything was covered with hoarfrost in the valley. The frost was so heavy that some of the crystals were blowing off the trees and shimmering in the air in a crazy, otherworldly sort of way. We stopped to stare at the scene and didn’t even care that we hadn’t flushed a single bird yet. It was actually so cold that some of my breath distorted the light just slightly in the photo.

7-year-old Labrador retriever, Beau, will be rewarded for her hard work with a plush dog bed from Orvis. Image courtesy of @alli_ac on Instagram.

TRCP: It made for a truly amazing shot. How does Beau like to enjoy public lands?

CAROLAN: Beau loves to hunt, especially pheasants, Hungarian partridge, and sharptails. She specializes in long, challenging retrieves on the big grasslands of western Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and central Montana. In fact, at this very moment, Beau is with my husband at a base-camp on public land outside of Lewiston, Mont., on the Pheasants Forever Rooster Road Trip. (You can follow along with the adventure here.)

Beau is a wild bird snob, loves an authentic hunting experience, and we really only take her to hunt on public lands. You can tell she loves the challenge of flushing late-season roosters that are holding tight in thick cover, the ones that other dogs might have missed.

TRCP: What about you? What attracts you to our public lands?

CAROLAN: As for me, I just completed my hunter safety course, but haven’t completed my field day training yet. For now, I’m content to walk along, watch Beau work, take photos, and contribute to the wild game dinners afterward. I am, however, an extreme frequenter of public lands. I’m an ultra-marathon runner and wilderness canoeist, so I spend the vast majority of my free time seeking out and training on all kinds of public lands. I’ve run on the backcountry ATV trails of western Montana, in countless national parks and forests, and around portage trails in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In general, the wilder the place, the more I like it. Since I cover a lot of ground in my training, I’m a decent scout for everything from morel mushrooms to rare plants to birdy-looking areas. I sneak up on a lot of grouse during trail runs and take note of good future hunting locations when I find them.

I also grew up trout fishing in the Driftless Area of northeast Iowa and have spent many hours fishing on public lands in that region and out West.

TRCP: Knowing all this, it seems like Beau truly is a #publiclandspup and well deserving of a new bed from Orvis.

CAROLAN: For sure! Beau will absolutely love the new Orvis bed, and I’ll be putting it in her favorite place in the house—right in front of the fireplace. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it after putting in some hard work this week.

Below are some of our other favorite #PublicLandPup captures shared with us during the campaign.

Jake Koehn’s Lab, Milo, is all smiles after a successful pheasant hunt in North Dakota. Image courtesy of @jake_koehn on Instagram.

Ryan Cavanaugh’s dog, Daly, stays warm on a chilly duck hunt in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Image courtesy of @ry.cavanaugh on Instagram.

Fishing dog, Ginger, knows how to point more than just birds. Image courtesy of @phoebe_s_bean on Instagram.

Morgan Brown’s #publiclandspup Lily loves to fish! Image courtesy of @morgan_b_1 on Instagram.

Brian Riopelle holding his first Columbian sharp-tailed grouse thanks to the aid of his dog Sadie. Image courtesy of @ab_rio and @b_rio802 on Instagram.

Matt Martens’ pointer with his first bird in Idaho! Image courtesy of @matthew_tyler_m on Instagram.

Andrew Rappl with a limit of Utah sage grouse thanks to the help of his #publiclandspup, Ozzy. Image courtesy of @rapplandrew on Instagram.

by: Rob Thornberry

posted in: Hunting & Fishing Access

October 11, 2017

Escape to Idaho’s High Divide Right Now

Explore some of the West’s most cherished backcountry landscapes through the lens of outdoor photographer Tony Bynum, and learn how you can take an active role in conserving these areas for future generations of hunters and anglers

In Idaho’s High Divide, there exists 7.4 million acres of wildlife habitat and largely untamed public land. Three times the size of nearby Yellowstone National Park, the High Divide sees just a fraction of the use that the famed park does. Beginning this year, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are undertaking expansive planning efforts to guide the future of these lands, which represent 20 percent of the public ground in Idaho. I recently explored the area with photographer Tony Bynum to document some of the stunning and valuable landscapes at stake in this process. Here’s what we saw.

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Idaho High Divide Elk

This herd of 24 bull elk summer on BLM land near the Donkey Hills then disperse across Idaho’s High Divide as the fall rut and hunting seasons approach. Thanks to progressive public-lands planning, the Donkey Hills are managed by the BLM as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The ACEC was created to protect the area’s value as an elk calving and seasonal use area. It is the keystone of a thriving elk population that numbers in the thousands. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Idaho High Divide Deer

The day after the large elk herd in the Idaho High Divide was photographed, this four-point buck appeared on the pass between the Little Lost and Pahsimeroi rivers. “I was surprised to see that deer where it was,” Bynum said. “He was on a south-facing slope, bedded in the tall grass. I jumped him and he didn’t wait around.” Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Ramsey Antelope

A herd of pronghorn follow the “green wave” of fresh feed on the flanks of Ramsey Mountain in the Beaverhead Mountains, which are the border of Idaho and Montana. Research by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has identified the High Divide as a vast pronghorn winter range that has migration routes that stretch up to 80 miles. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Pahsimeroi

The headwaters of the Pahsimeroi River in eastern and central Idaho make up a vast chunk of undisturbed habitat on BLM ground in eastern Idaho. It produces elk that are coveted by hunters. In the Pahsimeroi Valley, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game offers 135 premier elk tags. More than 800 hunters apply for those tags annually. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Dry Creek Fishing

TRCP Idaho Field Representative Rob Thornberry tries to entice a brook trout on Dry Creek in the Little Lost Valley. Mt. Breitenbach—in the Lost River Range—stands in the background. The headwaters of the Little Lost River—particularly the Sawmill Canyon Drainage—contain some of the highest densities of bull trout in the species’ range, according to Bart Gamett, a fisheries biologist for the USFS in Mackay. “It has been a team effort. Sportsmen, ranchers, federal agencies, state agencies, NGOs, and other landowners have all come together to protect and restore bull trout populations,” he said. “There is work to be done but the effort is in good hands.” Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Burnt Creek Scouting

A hunter crosses a ridge in eastern Idaho to glass a new drainage. A large herd of pronghorn summer on the rolling hills the upper Little Lost Valley between the Donkey Hills ACEC and the Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area and the Upper Pahsimeroi Valley. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Reese Creek Ridge

As the sun sets over the Beaverhead Mountains in eastern Idaho, a draw falls into the afternoon shadows. The area is notable because it is a place where BLM guidance touches the Continental Divide. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Tony’s Favorite Spot

Tony Bynum has traveled the world shooting photographs of fish and wildlife and the men and women who pursue them. He counts this picture from a nameless knob on the divide between the headwaters of the Little Lost and Pahsimeroi rivers as one of his favorites. “It is the solitude and sheer expanse that makes it so majestic,” he said. “What captivated me the most was being so alone in an area so beautiful. Normally, the majestic places are the most overrun. Not there, and not now, thankfully.” Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

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Released Wilderness

The rolling hills of the flanks of Lone Pine Peak in central Idaho are part of an 88,000-acre parcel that was protected by the BLM as a wilderness study area until 2015 when Congress created the Boulder-White Cloud Wilderness. The critical elk winter range is a prime place where sportsmen can be an influential voice in the future management of BLM lands. Image courtesy of Tony Bynum.

The High Divide planning area—comprised of both BLM and Forest Service land—is home to mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, moose, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep. It is where half of Idaho’s mountain goat hunters and 73 percent of the state’s Rocky Mountain bighorn hunters draw tags. In 2016, more than 18,500 hunters spent 88,842 days within the Salmon-Challis National Forest and public lands overseen by the BLM’s Salmon and Challis field offices.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has recently discovered that the High Divide is also home to vast amounts of pronghorn antelope winter range and migration routes that stretch up to 80 miles. It also features the Sand Creek Desert, which is the wintertime home of more than 10,000 big game animals—elk, deer, moose, and pronghorns.

The BLM is in the first stage of rewriting its Resource Management Plans for 3.14 million acres of this area. The plans will set the direction for ranching, mining, and recreation for decades to come, so this is a critical opportunity for sportsmen and women to rally around the need for these lands to be managed for the benefit of hunting and fishing and the $887-billion outdoor economy we support.

The Salmon-Challis National Forest is also planning for the future of 4.3 million acres of public forest. Over the past nine months, the agency has assessed the health of the forest and explored its issues and future challenges. Forest officials will present alternatives for management over the next 12 months.

This is an important public process, and as citizens of Sportsmen’s Country—the public lands where the majority of hunters and anglers have the unique privilege of pursuing our outdoor traditions—it is critical that we all speak up.

Here’s what you can do.

In addition to commenting on the individual plans (when available), there are a number of ways you can act now to influence the management of our national public lands:

Sign our new Sportsmen’s Country petition. Let decision makers know that it isn’t enough to simply pledge to keep public land public. We need responsible management of our public lands to ensure a positive future for hunting, fishing, and our way of life.
Contact the TRCP’s Idaho Field Representative Rob Thornberry directly at rthornberry@trcp.org. He is tracking the plans closely and will make sure you have the opportunity to engage in the process when the time is right.
Or, simply join the TRCP—it’s free! We’ll keep you posted on this and any other conservation issues affecting your ability to access quality places to hunt and fish.

Need some more public lands to daydream about? Check out other BLM landscapes worthy of conservation here and here.

by: Melinda Kassen

posted in: Hunting & Fishing Access

October 5, 2017

An Underrated Bass Fishery United This Town on the Colorado River

Restoration work on waterfront habitat did almost as much to revive the community as it did to improve conditions for fishing

It was 107 degrees in the September sun in Yuma, Arizona, and yet people were out bass fishing.

Twenty years ago, this would not have been the case. But Yuma’s renewed focus on its river, the mighty Colorado, is an extraordinary story of diplomacy and determination that has resulted in benefits for the local economy, outdoor recreation, and Yuma’s people. I was able to witness this firsthand on a recent canoe trip through the Yuma Heritage Area’s wetlands restoration sites, through the downtown park—now vibrant after struggling in the late 20^th century —to below the Ocean to Ocean (“peace”) bridge—rebuilt quite literally to bring together residents of Yuma on the river’s east bank with members of the Quechan Reservation on its west bank, with whom relations had been poor.

Yuma is best known as the nation’s winter lettuce capital. But an almost impassable thicket of non-native vegetation, including salt cedar (also known as tamarisk), had been growing along the Colorado River, masking temporary shelters for the homeless and entry points for drug smugglers coming from Mexico, less than ten miles south. Recognizing the potential for a vibrant waterfront, the city hired a community developer who started meeting with the Quechan tribe, and soon after the two governments enlisted the National Park Service and other federal and state agencies to help tackle community and river restoration.

By 2014, the communities had cleared and revegetated more than 400 acres of riverfront , built parks on both banks, and established a network of hiking and biking trails for enthusiastic use by visitors (including many snowbirds) and locals. The restoration effort has improved riparian and river habitat, including flows, and has made the river a safer destination for people, too. As a result, both fish (bass and flatheads) and anglers now thrive.

As a bass boat passed us, both motoring up and floating back down river, I paddled through many of the restoration sites with Ken Conway, the recreation coordinator for Yuma’s Parks and Wildlife Department and a former Trout Unlimited chapter chair back East. Each year, he and his crew take 40 school and civic groups down the river to see how the habitat has changed and to continue testing the water quality as restoration continues and the vegetation matures. The department also offers fishing classes and holds an annual children’s fishing tournament.

The takeaway is simple: River restoration takes time, money, and lots of negotiation, but it has the potential to refresh the surrounding community as well as the habitat. At Yuma’s Gateway Park, where half a dozen anglers had lines in the water on a weekday morning, long after the thermometer had passed 100 degrees, it would have been hard to feel anything but positive about the transformation.

First photo courtesy of J. Jakobson.

Second photo courtesy of senkodontlie.

Third photo courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation.

by: John Cornell

posted in: Hunting & Fishing Access

October 4, 2017

Why the West Should Care as Much as Corn Country About Farm Bill Conservation Programs

You might be surprised just how much impact private land conservation programs and incentives have in a state like New Mexico

We already know that hunters and anglers, regardless of political party, support conservation on private lands: 75 percent agree we should provide financial incentives to farmers and ranchers to implement habitat conservation, and 87 percent do not want to see cuts to conservation programs, in the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill or anywhere else. But it may be surprising to sportsmen and women, even those who support private land conservation generally, just how much of an impact these programs have outside the Corn Belt.

New Mexico, for example, isn’t a state that comes to mind as much as Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, or even the Dakotas, when it comes to on-farm conservation needs. You might picture my home state, instead, as a mosaic of different kinds of public lands, but I’m learning that we have plenty at stake in the 2018 Farm Bill debate.

I recently attended a listening session on Farm Bill topics with staffers from the office of New Mexico Representative Lujan Grisham, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee. In that meeting, on behalf of TRCP and the partners in our Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group, I shared some of the recommendations we’ve arrived at as a community and highlighted three ways the next Farm Bill can be beneficial to New Mexico’s agricultural producers, sportsmen, and overall economy.

Access and Habitat

Nothing will serve sportsmen’s access needs better than boosting the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, which provides competitive block grants to state agencies and tribal governments to fund recreational access and habitat improvement programs on private lands. State and tribal agencies then use this funding to compensate and provide technical and conservation services to landowners who voluntarily open their land to the public for hunting and fishing.

By offering grants to states to create or improve walk-in access programs, VPA-HIP is the only federal program that incentivizes public hunting and fishing access on—or right-of-way access through—private lands. The program has been reauthorized twice now, yet New Mexico—despite having an excellent Open Gate Program—has never received a grant. VPA first needs to be reauthorized and then we’d like to see $150 million allocated to conservation and access programs over the next five years of the Farm Bill, compared to just $40 million in the current Farm Bill.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides assistance to landowners enabling them to replace antiquated and inefficient pivot systems, benefiting both domestic and and wild game species. Image courtesy of USDA/Flickr.

CRP Works Here, Too

The Conservation Reserve Program has helped restore wildlife habitat and improve thousands of waterways nationwide since the program’s inception. CRP acres in the Northern Plains make up a vital share of nesting habitat for more than half of North America’s waterfowl, and CRP is helping landowners to voluntarily restore and supplement sage-grouse habitat across the West, providing much needed aid to a species in decline. Whitetail deer, black bears, pheasants, quail, wild turkeys, and countless other game species have also rebounded thanks to the conservation of millions of acres of grasslands and buffers through CRP.

The impact CRP has on water is especially notable, particularly in parched states like New Mexico. Through smart land-management decisions—like the installation of waterway buffers in riparian areas—CRP protects more than 170,000 stream miles with naturally filtering trees and grasses. These improvements mean cleaner drinking water, more effective groundwater recharge, and better fish habitat in areas where a little water has to go a long way.

In addition, many farmers, ranchers, and forest owners also open CRP acres to hunters and anglers in their communities. There are nearly 450,000 acres of CRP currently enrolled across 1,300 individual New Mexico farms and ranches. CRP enrollment is a win-win for farmers, ranchers, wildlife, clean water, and sportsmen—that’s why we are committed to telling lawmakers that CRP works. However, there is a nationwide cap of 24 million acres for CRP, which is far below the demand and the need, and we’d like to see that increased to 35 million acres enrolled nationwide.

An increase across the country can only help our numbers here in New Mexico.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps fund projects to improve everything from livestock fencing (on both public and private lands) and better irrigation systems, to upland bird habitat restoration and invasive species removal. Image courtesy of Larry Lamsa/Flickr. Cover image courtesy of Jim Hickcox.

New Mexico’s Favorite

Used for everything from livestock fencing and better irrigation systems to upland bird habitat restoration and invasive species removal, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is the Farm Bill tool that gets New Mexicans most excited. While at least five percent of overall EQIP spending has to be used on wildlife practices, we’d like to see that requirement doubled to ten percent. Based on current spending, that modification would boost annual nationwide spending for wildlife practices on private lands from around $70 million to $140 million.

And here’s the kicker: New Mexico received $33 million in EQIP funds in fiscal year 2016, which was almost half of the total funds allocated through the Farm Bill. EQIP encourages farmers and ranchers to promote agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible goals, and it helps landowners meet state and federal environmental regulations.

EQIP’s high funding levels have made the program one of the most important tools for wildlife habitat and water quality, and through special initiatives it has helped keep wildlife—such as the iconic greater sage grouse—from being listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Farm Bill at Home on the Range

As you can see, even in a state not known for its agricultural dominance, strong conservation funding in the Farm Bill is vital for the future of New Mexico’s sporting access and wildlife habitat. To see the conservation impact of the Farm Bill where you live, check out these ten maps that show these programs at work across the country.