GUEST COMMENTARY

Forest Jobs Bill: Working Together for Montana

The numbers are painful.  Last year, 1,700 Montanans lost jobs in our timber industry.  Timber harvest across our state plummeted a staggering 40 percent.  Several mills—including Montana’s largest—boarded up.

If we do nothing, Montanans who work in the woods will get hit even harder.  It’s an industry that today directly employs just over 7,000 Montanans.  Thousands more rely on the industry indirectly.

If we do nothing—or if we let partisan politics trump the ideas of Montanans who worked together for years on a common sense solution—all those jobs will be on the rocks. 

In order to put Montanans back to work in the woods, we need to rethink the way we manage the woods.  We need a 21st century plan.

That’s exactly why I introduced the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.

HANDS OFF PLAN NOT WORKING

Obama Needs to Change Approach to Congress

It isn’t the American people who aren’t eager for change.  It’s Barack Obama.

The President spent his first year in office either unwilling or unable to change his approach to the Congress. His virtually hands off, milk toast attitude toward providing legislative leadership has stymied the public’s demand for change. But it appears that the President may have stepped on a bold new path.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR GEEZER POWER!

Congress, Greens: Time to Spike RAT, Out-of-Control Forest Service Fees

The bad news is we’re getting older, and the good news is we’re getting older.

Nobody likes the older-slower-fatter succession, but at least when you get to be a geezer--and yep, I’m officially a geezer, so I take it personally--you usually have more time, but less money, to enjoy the outdoors and our public lands for camping, hiking, fishing, or scenic driving.

But not if the Forest Service has its way.

CONSERVATIVES MOCKING CONSERVATIVES

The Politics of Avatar

I might as well disclose my little problem right upfront. I’m a sci-fi nut. That’s even worse than being a gun nut and fishing nut, but I’ve learned to cope with my problem. Along the way, though, I’ve had to go to almost every sci-fi flick ever made, even some really bad ones, and I think Avatar is a fascinating showpiece of ground-breaking technology and no doubt the best 3D film ever. Not the best sci-fi movie ever, though, but close. I’d rank it as the fourth best.

What makes Avatar even more fascinating is the ironic political battle raging in the background.

AT LEAST WE HAVE EQUALITY

Brady Campaign and NRA Agree, Give Obama “F” on Gun Issue

I’ve been writing about the gun issue for a long time, but I never thought I’d live long enough to see the Brady Campaign for Gun Violence and the National Rifle Association agree on anything, nor would I see any President get an “F” from both groups.

Well, believe it or not, it just happened.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Rehberg on Wilderness: Montanans Want Issue Resolved

Last week, Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) had 21 public meetings, all or mostly on the hot-button issue of Wilderness. In an exclusive phone interview with NewWest.Net this morning, he said that still wasn’t enough listening for him. Next Saturday, he’ll be in Libby hearing learning even more.

One thing he has learned, though, as he noted in his own guest column posted on NewWest.Net earlier today, is that collaboration doesn’t equal consensus.

“There’s a huge difference between the words consensus and collaboration,” Rehberg said. “Collaboration is two groups getting together and agreeing on a plan and then tried to convince everybody else to agree with it.”

Guest Column

Rehberg: What I’ve Learned About Tester’s Wilderness Bill

In early January, I held 21 public listening sessions and meetings, to hear what Montanans had to say about Senator Tester’s bill to designate more than 600,000 acres of new wilderness.  Hundreds of Montanans attended, each with the opportunity to stand up to offer an opinion.  Next weekend, I will finish my listening tour in Libby, although I will continue taking input by phone, letter, email, fax, Facebook or any way Montanans care to contact me.

You don’t need to spend too much time in Western Montana to see the need for good forest stewardship.  While problems like fires and beetle infestations were around long before man settled among the trees, we now have the ability to manage these challenges to create healthier forests and build a stronger economy.

The hard part is finding a balance between stewardship and wilderness because too much of either can damage the health of both the forest and the economy.  It’s also important that such a balance come from a broad consensus of stakeholders. 

SIGNATURE GATHERING UNDERWAY

Montana Outfitter-Sponsored Big Game Licenses in the Crosshairs

There hasn’t been much news about I-161, yet, but if supporters manage to get it on the ballot, watch out. This ballot initiative could reverse the trend of declining hunting access to private land, but it also could have a profound impact on Montana’s outfitting and tourism industries.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) sets aside “not more than an average of” 5,500 nonresident deer and elk and 2,300 deer-only “outfitter sponsored guaranteed licenses” for nonresident hunters. To be eligible for licenses, according to the FWP, nonresident hunters must first contract for the services of a licensed Montana outfitter and “must conduct all sponsored license hunting with the outfitter.”

GUN LOBBY ON A ROLL

The Year of the NRA

UPDATED, January 8, 10 am. See Update at end of article.

I’ve left 2009 behind, almost. Bear with me for one more look back.

Remember the insane paranoia among gun owners during the 2008 election season and throughout most of 2009?  The gun lobby whipped firearm owners into a fervor before and after the election of Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress with dire predictions about the impending demise of the Second Amendment if not all freedoms we cherish.

I wrote several commentaries saying the opposite--basically that a lot of Democrats are pro-gun, pro-2A and many others wouldn’t touch the gun issue because it’s a political poison pill.

So, what happened?