LETTER: Protecting public land and water access more critical than ever
As a veteran who volunteered for the military during the era of the Korean Conflict, and who had two older brothers who served with honor during World War II, it’s very appalling to me that a very wealthy gubernatorial candidate, Greg Gianforte, and his attorney, have threatened to sue several newspapers for running certain ads.
The Billings Gazette did confirm Gianforte’s tenure in New Jersey as well as his opposition to stream access along the Gallatin River. This approach by a candidate with unlimited funds obliterates our constitutional freedom of speech and freedom of the press. These are freedoms that countless Montana veterans served their country and state to protect.
In Montana, my most cherished freedoms were the freedom to roam out public lands and recreate on our public waters. Many of us didn’t see any action, but our service overseas reinforced our desire to cherish our way of life here in the West. As many of us entered civilian life, we didn’t realize the fight to protect our freedoms was just beginning. It was surprising to me that veterans stood out as leaders during the fight for stream access in 1985 as well as gaining recreational use of school trust lands in the 1990s.
The conflicts still continue to this day over transfer or sale of our public lands and the ultimate dismantling of stream access. The GOP state platform has a plank mandating the sale or transfer of public lands, and even though Gianforte and other Republican candidates try to tell the public just the opposite, they are standing on their party platform plank.
Dark money from wealthy individuals, mostly non-residents, is promoting some of the very candidates that are trying to unravel our way of life in Montana. They will be successful if they take control of the Supreme Court and the Land Board.
Gov. Bullock as well as other land board members, Monica Lindeen, Denise Juneau and Linda McCulloch, have done an excellent job of protecting our public lands and waters. They are mandated by the land-banking statute to sell isolated parcels of school trust land and purchase high value accessible recreational land. They have done this.
One of the most critical races is the seat on the Supreme Court. In my opinion, Kristen Juras is not a qualified candidate because of her lack of experience as a judge as well as her relationship to her uncle, Jack Galt. Jack Galt took his opposition to the stream-access law all the way to the Montana Supreme Court, but didn’t win.
Time, sickness and age have thinned our ranks considerably, but new, like-minded young recruits are emerging here in Montana. They will carry on the fight to protect our freedoms. None of us want to lose our freedoms in the state where we grew up. —Tony Schoonen, Butte, president, Montana Coalition for Stream Access