Multimillionaire Out-of-Stater Tim Sheehy Only Offered Pricey “Pay-to-Play Hunting Access” For Rich Tourists
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
Sheehy is refusing to allow free public hunting access on his newly-acquired prime elk-hunting land
Helena, MT – This week, HuffPost reported on how multimillionaire out-of-stater Tim Sheehy offered “exclusive, pay-to-play hunting access” on his land by “contract[ing] with a private outfitter to sell paid hunting excursions and chose not to participate in a state program that allows free public hunting.”
After reporting that Sheehy was blocking hunters from accessing his land, Sheehy’s ranch “deleted a section of its website that advertised the ranch’s ‘impressive game’ and its five-mile border with U.S. Forest Service land.”
Read more below.
HuffPost: Sen. Jon Tester Backhandedly Accused His Opponent Of Turning Montana Into A Millionaire’s Playground
June 10, 2024
Chris D’Angelo
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) wasted no time painting his Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy, as a threat to public lands and the Montana way of life during the first debate of what is widely seen as one of the most contested races in 2024.
“The bottom line is Montana is changing. We’re seeing a lot of folks come into the state — rich folks — who want to try to buy our state, to try to change it into something it’s not,” Tester said. “Unfortunately, many of these folks are coming in, they’re buying big ranches. They’re locking people off of not only that ranch, but the public lands around it. And that’s not what Montana is about.”
“Folks are coming in here and buying two, three houses, making this into their personal playground. That’s not right,” Tester said, adding that when it comes to Montana’s housing crisis, Sheehy is part of the problem.
With his wealth, Sheehy has purchased multimillion-dollar properties on Flathead Lake and in the lavish resort community of Big Sky. In 2020, he purchased three contiguous ranches, spanning some 7,000 acres, in Martinsdale, Montana, and co-founded the Little Belt Cattle Company.
Little Belt [...] has also offered exclusive, pay-to-play hunting access.
As NBC News reported, Little Belt contracted with a private outfitter to sell paid hunting excursions and chose not to participate in a state program that allows free public hunting. In a now-deleted listing on LandTrust, a network that connects outdoor recreationists to private landowners, Little Belt touted itself as a “premier destination for hunters” with “private access to over 500,000 acres of National Forest.”
In 2022, the ranch was offering what the Montana Free Press identified as “the most spendy package currently available in Montana” — a five-day, five-person archery hunt costing $12,500.
Shortly after NBC’s story on Sheehy’s ranch was published, Little Belt deleted a section of its website that advertised the ranch’s “impressive game” and its five-mile border with U.S. Forest Service land.
“If you want a Montana that continues to be a place where people can continue to hunt and fish without being millionaires, this election is really important,” Tester said Sunday.
Along with previously marketing his ranch as an exclusive destination for deep-pocketed hunters, Sheehy recently embraced a toxic position on public lands. As HuffPost reported last year, the multi-millionaire businessman advocated for federal lands to be “turned over” to states — a position that voters in Western states, including Montana, overwhelmingly oppose.
“Local control has to be returned,” Sheehy told the Working Ranch Radio Show in October. “Whether that means, you know, some of these public lands get turned over to state agencies, or even counties, or whether those decisions are made by a local landlord instead of by, you know, federal fiat a few thousand miles away.”
###
