Last year, hundreds of Montanans traveled to several Big Sky cities to speak their minds about the future of outdoor recreation, hunting and fishing opportunities, and the clean and healthy future of our Treasure State environment.
"The LWCF is important because it protects an idea: That every Montanan can be a part of the hunting and fishing traditions that run so deep in our state."
The occasion was the Great Outdoor Initiative sponsored by the Obama administration to learn how the American people wanted their federal government to manage these vital national and state interests. I attended the session in Bozeman along with a couple hundred of my fellow Montanans. There, and at sessions in Helena, and Missoula, sportsmen from all over our state talked with officials from the Interior Department and the White House about their top priorities for protecting Montana’s outdoor heritage.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has released the “America’s Great Outdoors Report,” which lays out a comprehensive national conservation and recreation agenda that aims to protect our outdoors and connect our children with nature. That report was built, in part, right here in Montana, and every Montana hunter and angler will benefit by supporting its recommendations.
The America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions were an important and unusual idea — our policymakers in Washington actually asked regular citizens what we wanted in America’s conservation policy. And we told them.
One message Montana hunters and anglers delivered loud and clear was that Montana sportsmen want full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund — the single most important source of federal funds we have for increasing public access to federally managed public lands and waters.
The LWCF has protected the Flathead National Forest and the Beartooth Mountains. It maintains the hometown ball fields, fishing holes and local trails and parks that make Montana such a great place to live and raise a family. As a member of the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission, I work hard to make sensible stewardship a priority for our state. But with full and dedicated funding, the LWCF can make the federal government a better and stronger partner.
The LWCF also plays a critical role in Montana’s economy, because outdoor recreation is big business in this state. Hunting, fishing, nature tourism and other outdoor recreation industries generate $2.5 billion in economic activity for the state every year and support 34,000 Montana jobs.
The LWCF is important because it protects an idea: that every Montanan can be a part of the hunting and fishing traditions that run so deep in our state. In some other countries, only the privileged hunt and fish, because only they have access to the lands and waterways that serve as wildlife habitat. It should never be that way in America, and strengthening the LWCF can help to ensure that it never will be.
We Montanans spoke out at the listening sessions. Now we must speak out to our U.S. senators and congressman to let them know we want LWCF funding to stay in the federal budget.
Ron Moody of Lewistown is District 3 FWP commissioner and a long-time advocate for hunter-conservation ethics and values.