Guest Commentary

“Peaceful Enjoyment of Your Property” Except in Montana

The Montana Supreme Court finally handed down its long awaited ruling on the so-called “Mitchell Slough case.” Brought by the Bitterroot River Protective Association (BRPA), the appeal challenged the right of “rich out-of-state landowners” to limit public access to the Mitchell Slough. The plaintiffs argued that the Mitchell is a “natural, perennial-flowing stream” and as such is open to access by the public under Montana’s Stream Access Law (SAL). The state supreme court bought BRPA’s argument and reversed a lower court ruling denying public access.

The fact that the lower court found the Mitchell to be man-made while the supreme court found the opposite illustrates the slippery nature of the definition. Like so many legal battles, however, the technical legal sparring in the Mitchell case missed two truly important implications of the decision.

Update

Court Opens Mitchell Slough in Landmark Stream Access Case

For more than 20 years, the Mitchell Slough in Montana's Bitterroot Valley has become a showcase of the battle between public access and private property rights and Monday the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the former.

With a 54-page ruling, the Supreme Court deemed the waterway a natural stream, which means access to it is protected by Montana's stream access law, which is among the strongest in the country. The ruling has been coming for more than two years and overturns two lower-court decisions that had defined the stream the way the Bitterroot Conservation District and several high-profile landowners had advocated it be: Just a ditch.

The case, which has been watched closely across the West as a crucial test of stream access law, has been a long-running extravaganza of protests, celebrity, and political maneuvering but more than that, it has been a spur for complex and often heated discussions on water rights, landownership, what's natural and what's not and most of all, how to square the values of the Old West with the demands of the New.

The Ravalli Republic's Perry Backus has a detailed story on yesterday's ruling here and to catch up on the case and it's implications, Greg Lemon wrote a very good primer for NewWest.Net when the case first went to the high court.

Guest Opinion: Children Chant

Children’s Chant Against Obama: Never Again

When second- and third-graders chanted "Assassinate Obama" on a Madison School District bus recently, district spokeswoman Janet Goodliffe explained that most of the children didn't understand what the words mean. According to The Associated Press, she attributed the chant to the community's being "highly conservative" and overwhelmingly for John McCain.

I admire Janet Goodliffe as a preschool education leader. But as a teacher, she offered tortured excuses instead of capitalizing on a great teaching opportunity.

This is not an isolated incident. As a former teacher and Idaho Falls school volunteer, Luella Hendrickson, wrote on this page Thursday, after the election, children in her daughter's elementary class condemned Obama for being a Muslim, not being a U.S. citizen, selling out to the Arabs, taking away our guns, etc.

Anyone with ears to hear know these children were parroting their parents. Children get the drift from home: The new president is radical, dangerous and not to be trusted.

How terribly sad.

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Parting Shots from the Bush Interior Department

The Bush administration has given the incoming Obama team (and the American people) yet another middle finger. First they announced--on Election Day, the day the American people decisively rejected "drill, baby, drill"--that they were putting huge swaths of Utah's most beautiful and fragile canyonlands under the auction block. Now they think they've figured out a way to make their policy of "rape the land first, don't bother with the questions ever" permanent.

Missoula City News

Missoula Wants a Chance to Tap Its Visitors With a Tax

Rising costs and slower growth mean a municipal budget that's tighter than ever at Missoula's City Hall.

Missoula Mayor John Engen has asked department heads to cut costs, and he has planned with Alec Hansen of the Montana League of Cities and Towns to lobby for a local option sales tax at the upcoming legislative session in Helena.

"We're going to come back with the same thing we've promoted for years and years, which is the local option tourist tax," Hansen said.

Guest Column

Building the New Rural West

As newly elected legislators prepare to join returning Westerns in the halls of Congress they have an opportunity to help build a new economy in the rural West. By supporting programs that unlock the entrepreneurial spirit of rural America, Western legislators can deliver on their promise to create opportunity for rural communities in their states.

Guest Column

Regime Change Must Bring Open Government

There is a time to be sanguine about the past and let it go, and a time to take stock of reality.

Nearly eight years ago, David Orr, a distinguished professor of environmental studies at Oberlin College, joined a group of leading natural resource experts who sought a meeting with newly elected president George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to discuss green issues they believed were pressing for the nation.

The concerns were packaged in a white paper. Among them: addressing climate change and the need for a sound American energy policy that would emphasize renewable fuels as a way of reducing CO2 emissions, achieving a healthier environment, and enhancing our strategic defense against hostile Middle Eastern nations with huge oil supplies.

A Westerner in the White House: Messina Tapped as Obama Deputy Chief of Staff

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Jim Messina, former chief of staff for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as one of his deputy chiefs of staff in the White House.

Messina, who partly grew up in Boise and graduated from the University of Montana, worked as Obama’s campaign chief of staff and will now be part of Obama’s tight inner circle as the President-elect prepares to take over in Washington.

Messina is a long-time political figure in Montana who started his career in the statehouse in 1991. In August, Messina did an interview with High Country News‘ Ray Ring, (You can read the full interview, titled “Obama’s Western Ace-In-The-Hole” here) in which he he said:

I think that’s what (much of the West) is—Westerners are not partisan. ... People ask me all the time, “Why are Democrats doing so well in Montana?” It’s because we are able to speak to all Montanans about issues that are important to all, like public access to lands—that’s not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but the fact is, Democrats are better at it than Republicans are, and it speaks to a whole bunch of people who are unaffiliated and who care deeply about it.

Column: Politics

Mountain West Cities Join National Protest Against Prop 8

No matter your feelings about gay equality and marriage, the issue is firmly political. It’s the civil rights movement of our day, and can no longer be relegated to a fringe few --especially after the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, in California ten days ago.

Donors from many states gave money to help pass Prop. 8, but Idahoans donated more than $400,000 to pass it, second only to Utah in out-of-state contributions.

Several publications, including Pride Depot, are calling for a boycott of businesses on the donor list.

A national day of protest called “Join the Impact – Promote Love and Equality in Your City” on Saturday aims to bring national attention and a collective experience to people who want to claim their support for gay marriage and their objection to the California initiative.

In the Rocky Mountain West – at least in the states where New West publishes - there are 19 events scheduled for tomorrow, all at 11:30 Mountain Time, which are listed here.