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Last week, a major milestone — nearly 20 years in the making — for the broadly supported Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) was reached. The BCSA finally received a markup in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (SENR) thanks to Sen. Tester’s continued championing of this Montana-made legislation. What should have been a cause for celebration in hopes of passage to the Senate floor was quickly doused by Montana’s junior Sen. Steve Daines with his vote of “no,” despite his own admission of support for the bill.
Polling released this spring by the University of Montana showed a record number 83% of Montanans support the BCSA, which would provide needed forest restoration work and timber jobs, create an insurance policy for the storied Blackfoot River with wilderness protections to headwaters streams such as Monture Creek and the North Fork of the Blackfoot, and pave the way for additional recreational uses on Forest Service land, bolstering the local recreational economy.
In that same polling, just 6% of respondents supported eliminating protections from wilderness study areas, which is exactly what Sen. Daines wants to do to over 100,000 acres of Montana’s public lands currently designated as wilderness study areas. During last week’s SENR hearing Sen. Daines stated that he supports the BCSA yet intends to withhold his support unless his own wilderness study area release bill is allowed to advance with it. In 2017 Sen. Daines released a similar WSA release bill that was roundly objected by Montanans.
As parents, we don’t condone this kind of self-serving behavior in our children. We certainly don’t appreciate it in our elected officials.
By effectively holding nearly 20 years of work by ranchers, business owners, snowmobilers, mountain bikers, outfitters, anglers, and wilderness advocates hostage — Sen. Daines is sending a clear message that what he says he wants (broad support by a variety of stakeholders, thoughtfully vetted) isn’t enough. The work we were assigned on the ground in Montana around Pyramid Mountain Lumber’s conference room table, or kitchen tables, or the tailgates of pickup trucks, isn’t enough to secure support by those we elected and sent to Washington, D.C. to advocate for us. For those of us who have continued to show up in good faith year after year, crafting and honing a proposal into something where we all come away winners, this is a tough pill to swallow.
If passed, the BCSA would protect families’ livelihoods who depend upon access to wilderness to support their outfitting businesses. The BCSA would protect sensitive bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations. The BCSA would provide new snowmobile terrain and support the businesses that depend on the Seeley Lake area drawing in visiting snowmobilers to stay in hotels and eat at restaurants each winter. The BCSA would protect generational backpacking destinations like Grizzly Basin – one of the wildest places left in Montana. The BCSA supports local timber jobs and needed forest restoration activities to help reduce risk of wildfire resultant of climate change.
We’ve done our work on the ground. Sen. Daines, Montana women and families implore you to stop holding the BCSA hostage to advance your own agenda. It’s time to pass the BCSA, we’ve waited long enough.
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Becky Edwards is the executive director of the Mountain Mamas, and lives in Bozeman with her husband and three daughters.
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