Senate candidates contrast on land transfer

Voters in Northwest Montana’s vast and sparsely populated Senate District 7 are likely to hear a lot about public land issues in the final run-up to Election Day.

The district extends from west of Kalispell to the Idaho state line, containing most of Sanders and Mineral Counties, along with Marion, Thompson Falls, Superior, Plains and Hot Springs.

Running for reelection is incumbent Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, who has emerged as the Montana Legislature’s foremost champion of a movement to force the federal government to transfer some federal public lands to the state.

Thompson Falls Mayor Mark Sheets, a Democrat, won a three-way primary to advance to the general election, and also listed the proposed public land transfer as his central motivation for entering the Senate race.

“I’m totally against the transfer or turning over the management of federal, public lands to the state,” Sheets said during a Tuesday interview, noting that Fielder is the CEO of the American Lands Council, a national organization driving the proposal throughout states in the Western U.S.

“Our federal lands belong to all of us. I own those lands in Oregon, Washington, California and everywhere else, and everyone else owns them too,” Sheets said. “The cost just to maintain firefighting infrastructure and to pay for fighting fires is way beyond what the state could come up with ... and I’m afraid what would happen would be access would be restricted and lands could be sold off.”

Fielder objects to the idea of a “sell-off” as misleading, and during the 2015 Legislature she sponsored a bill that would have precluded the state from selling any of those lands acquired from the federal government. The bill died in committee after Democrats lined up against it, labeling the measure as a “gotcha” bill that would have laid the groundwork for a federal land transfer.

“It’s been grossly misreported that I introduced a bunch of legislation to transfer lands,” Fielder said last week. “I’ve been trying to work on a plan to put some safeguards in place, so we can see some state and local control of the lands and resources in our state.”

While she said most of her work on the issue has been directed at the federal level, Fielder defended state-level legislation she’s supported as a realistic attempt to unlock timber and mineral resources. The loss of natural resource industries in recent decades has taken a substantial toll on the economies of Mineral and Sanders counties, which have some of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

“We’re the ‘Treasure State,’ and our treasure is locked up by the federal government,” Fielder said. “We’re literally seeing millions of dollars go up in smoke on lands that are controlled by the federal government.”

Several bills related to the transfer proposal failed to pass during last year’s session, and a University of Montana poll earlier this year concluded that the state’s voters oppose the idea, 55 percent to 41 percent. But the survey also found the strongest levels of support in Northwest Montana.

Fielder doesn’t see much hope for a return to economic prosperity in her district, short of reestablishing those “foundational economies” through deregulation and more use of federal public lands. But she said part of the answer lies in getting citizens more involved in government.

To that end, both Fielder and Sheets said they would make themselves accessible to their constituents if elected. But Sheets said other options include looking at a possible increase in the state’s minimum wage (which Fielder opposes) and taking steps to boost the fledgling tourism industry in the region.

“I think it would help to give direction to use something like [the state-funded initiative] ‘Glacier Country’ for other areas, using the state bed tax for promoting those areas,” Sheets said. “Glacier is very well advertised, but I think its outlying areas, I think they could help increase the possibilities for those areas, too.”

Fielder touted several successful bills she sponsored last session, including one to prohibit visual observation and recordings without a person’s permission and a measure that directed the state attorney general to pursue money possibly owed to the state by the federal government.

Sheets believes the tight restrictions on medical marijuana providers passed by the Legislature is a missed opportunity to boost Montana’s tax revenues, and if a ballot initiative to decriminalize the drug fails this November, he would like to revisit the issue if elected.

Fielder and Sheets are at odds on several issues from the last legislative session, aligning with their respective parties on the final infrastructure bill, state-funded pre-kindergarten education, property taxes and the state budget’s $300 million ending fund balance.

ABSENTEE BALLOTS will be mailed Oct. 14 and must be returned by Election Day on Nov. 8.

Information about voter registration, absentee ballot applications and a sample ballot are available on the Flathead County Election Department website at flathead.mt.gov/election.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.