The Biggest Threat to Our Public Lands? The MTGOP.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, September 24, 2022
CONTACT
hadley@montanademocrats.org
Helena, MT – Happy National Public Lands Day! As Montanans, we know just how important our public lands are to our way of life, our wildlife, and our economy, and that’s why Montana Democrats work day in and day out to protect our public lands for generations to come. The single biggest threat to Montana’s public lands? The Montana Republican Party.
Meet the players:
Multi-millionaire Governor Greg Gianforte famously sued Montanans to block access to a stream in front of his riverfront mansion. He then took his anti-public land crusade to Congress, where he introduced a pair of bills to strip protections from 700,000 acres of public lands, and supported the appointment of the ousted William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management, who has advocated for “selling off almost all public lands.” From the Governor’s mansion, Gianforte has publicly opposed the President’s plan to conserve 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030.
One of his party’s most radical, Representative Matt Rosendale went veering sharply off to the right this year, when he cosponsored a bill that threatens wildlife management and public hunting and public access, by gutting Pittman-Robertson Act funding. In doing so, Rosendale is disregarding public hunters and anglers, and ignoring a broad swath of Montana sportsmen and women in every corner of the state.
Scandal-plagued former Secretary Ryan Zinke led the largest sell-off and revocation of public land protections in American history, during his short, corrupt tenure at the Department of the Interior. Zinke failed to protect big-game migratory corridors, instead selling out critical public lands habitat to his big oil buddies. He refuses to oppose his colleagues efforts to gut the Pittman-Robertson Act. As secretary, Zinke supported and pushed for a budget that essentially zeroed out the Land and Water Conservation Fund to less than 1 percent of its maximum allotment, which would gut this popular public lands and access program. As Outside Magazine described it, Ryan Zinke Sabotaged Our Best Public Lands Program.
“It’s simple. The single biggest threat to Montana Public Lands is the Montana GOP and they’ll stop at nothing to lock you out of your public lands,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “The Republican’s on the ballot will always prioritize monied special interests over our public wildlife, access, and lands.”
###