Jon Tester Will Protect the State’s Public Lands
Tony Schoonen
Montana Public Lands/Water Access Association
It was disappointing to see a recent TV ad of John Morrison’s, using Nita Perimen of Gregson as an example of a person that had been taken in a stock swindle. Morrison was just doing his job as a state auditor in protecting folks from stock and insurance rip-offs.
The fact that he used a person who gated off an old public road near Fairmont was a very poor choice. The council of commissioners voted that the German Gulch road was a public right of way, but she is litigating their decision.
The big concern in my opinion, is that John Morrison is weak on public lands and recreational issues.
In fact, Jack Atcheson Sr. and I made a special trip to Helena to try to talk Morrison out of co-authoring a bill to sell public school trust lands. The whole purpose of the bill was to sell isolated parcels of school land and purchase lands with public access and high wildlife recreational values. Unfortunately, the bill was bad, the timing was bad, but the bill passed both houses and was signed into law.
Our Butte delegation did a good job in amending some of the worst parts of the bill. To date zero acres have been sold or traded and zero acres have been purchased, thus far.
With the ever escalating prices of land in Montana and the push by the present federal administration to sell public lands, we need a strong voice in Washington to protect the public’s heritage. Public lands are a huge part of Montana’s second largest industry —tourism and recreation.
Jon Tester, like our present governor is not in favor of selling public lands. As president of the Senate, he has worked with us on recreational issues and as a big bonus, he is a strong advocate of education and healthcare.
He is straight forward and honest and is a good example of what our next senator should be.
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Posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 12:02 pm.
