Montana is the second largest congressional district in the United States, stretching from east to west the same distance as it is from Washington, D.C. to Chicago.  With less than a million people, there’s a lot of dirt between light bulbs in Big Sky Country and all that open space has become a part of the Montana mystique.

Montana is also quite a bit different from out East because so much of our land – 29.3 percent, an area slightly larger than the entire state of Virginia – is owned by the Federal Government.  As a state, we’ve developed a strong working relationship with public land management agencies to ensure that we have access to our own back yard.  We love to play outside – whether it’s hunting, hiking, skiing or riding snowmobiles.

Last November, the National Park Service issued its final rule for a winter-use plan in Yellowstone National Park which included limited access by commercially-guided snowmobiles.  This process, which started seven years earlier, exhaustively gathered information from all interested parties.  Well over 100,000 public comments were considered, as well as proposals from recreational and environmental organizations.  Every angle and detail was scrutinized and a conclusion was reached that everyone could live with.

Everyone, it turns out, except for radical environmentalists and an east-coast judge sitting 2,500 miles away in Washington, D.C.  A judge that had no role in the compromise that was brokered between Montana, Wyoming and the National Park Service.  A judge with a radical environmental agenda and no concept of the difference between a cow and a Kawasaki.

This bad decision disregarded the seven-year process that got us to where we were – a plan that worked.  While the judge’s decision cited concerns about pollution, that concern would also justify closing Yellowstone to all vehicle traffic year-round.  Recreation advocates had ceded a lot of ground, agreeing to limit access to commercially-guided ventures, investing in cleaner, quieter machines and capping the number of snowmobiles to 540 per day (by comparison, Yellowstone admits about 39,000 vehicles per day during peak summer months).

While public access and multiple-use management of Federal lands is a water cooler topic east of the Mississippi River, out West it’s a matter of livelihoods and a foundation of our way of life.  Montanans are justifiably outraged by this decision, not only because it sets a dangerous precedent, but also because it negatively impacts small businesses that have come to rely on outdoor tourism for the wellbeing of the state and local economy.

A visit to Yellowstone National Park can be a life-changing experience, and all Americans should have the right to partake in the natural beauty at least once in their lives.  That decision shouldn’t be made by a judge acting like a referee determining a winner after the game clock has expired.  The decision should be made freely by all Americans, and this ruling has made Yellowstone National Park into an exclusive gated community in the winter months.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized .