OPINION: Our national public lands must be protected from the states

During the 2015 Montana legislative session, and among some citizens, there was an effort to convert management of our national forests to state or private control. They failed — this time.

If this ever succeeds, it will change our public lands, our waters, our way-of-life, and our economic well-being. We need to think about what that means to us.

The American West is a semi-arid land. There is not enough rainfall in our valleys to grow crops and support cities without irrigation. That irrigation water comes from winter snows that pile up in our mountain forests. An infrastructure of canals, reservoirs and ditches delivers water throughout the summer to support our crops and cities. The forests, serving as places where snow is collected and stored, can be changed by management with disastrous effects.

Irrigation in semi-arid places began in the Middle East 7,000 years ago at the beginning of civilization. Fueled by irrigation, civilizations grew into empires, the Persian Empire with its capital, Babylon, and its famous Hanging Gardens was one. Today that area is a desert. What happened? The people who controlled these lands had two big flaws: Their perspective was too small, and they did not do long-range planning. They cut the forests that stored moisture and protected the soil, then they grazed the deforested slopes with sheep and cows until there was no plant cover to hold the soil, so it eroded. The irrigation canals and reservoirs filled with silt. Crops and cities could not survive without water, wars for resources followed and civilizations failed.

This same destructive story was beginning to happen in the American West in the late 1800s. At that time, short-sighted land policies were primarily to produce profits from logging and grazing.  But then a big thing happened. A few visionaries recognized the problems these policies would cause for the semi-arid West and the forest reserves were established to protect watersheds. What those visionaries did to protect the mountains from being denuded is why we now have shining cities and the agriculture to support them in this semi-arid land.

But, protecting our mountain forests and watersheds is never a done job. This great experiment of sustaining thriving cities and agriculture in a semi-arid land is only 150 years old, and that isn’t much when stacked up against 7,000 years of destruction of forests, grasses, soil, crops and cities. We can still lose this hard-won management strategy because sustaining what we have is an ongoing political process as well as a scientific process.

Often, today’s political jabs and decisions are led by big money and it’s not hard to imagine that big money would like to get control of the West’s public lands — and water. So, it’s likely we’ll continue to have these jabs to privatize (steal) what all Americans own by using legislative means and a few individuals making noise supporting such action.

Montana’s top four elected officials — governor, two U.S. senators and a U.S. representative — have, in the past, supported continued federal management of the federal lands in Montana. These officials understand the obvious: The state simply cannot afford to suppress the wildfires, keep forest roads usable, keep trails and campgrounds open and provide suitable habitat for the state’s fish and wildlife.

Managing fire and these resources are a money drain and there is not enough economic income possible from timber and grazing on these lands to balance the costs, even if every commercial size tree is cut and cattle are allowed to over-graze every stream bank in Montana.

When an elected official or a citizen group pushes for state control or privatization of federal lands, we need to know who is financing this drive and what they will be gaining from it. It is a pretty safe bet, whoever is putting out the money to push state control or privatization is not interested in benefiting the land, the wildlife or the way-of-life for those of us living here.

For a more in-depth look at the relationship between people and forests go to a computer and put in the address www.forestsforpeople.blogspot.com.

Covault is a resident of Missoula.