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| Protect
Our Wildlands by Paul Richards, Candidate for U.S. Senate Montana |
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| We
are so fortunate to live in Montana! Our state is blessed with
many National Forests. We take pride in our gorgeous mountains,
our pure streams abundant with fish, and our native forests full of
game and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
Montana’s roadless lands provide some of the best hunting, camping,
wildlife habitat and trout waters in our nation. We Montanans
enjoy a lifestyle unavailable to most Americans. Yes, our quality of life is envied by those living in most other states. But our situation has changed dramatically in recent decades. Growing up in Montana, we always heard about “multiple use” for these forest lands. When I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, that meant hiking, backpacking, wildlife viewing, hunting, grazing, and fishing. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, however, we saw more and more National Forest wildlands converted into single uses: Roads, clearcuts, same-species tree plantations, and toxic mine waste dumps. Now, in the National Forest nearest my home, two-thirds of the Forest has been developed. Roadless lands in Montana are fast disappearing. Roads on Montana’s National Forests increased four-fold: From 8,600 miles in 1945 to 32,900 miles in 1997. Nationally, the Forest Service now tries to maintain more than 380,000 miles of roads, a road system eight times larger than our entire Interstate highways system! It’s time to protect our few remaining wildlands in the National Forest system. To this end, Montanans overwhelmingly supported the original “Clinton Roadless Conservation Rule” that safeguarded 6.4 million acres of roadless Montana forests. This wildlands rule was developed by the people and for the people. It received the most public participation of any proposed federal regulation in the history of the nation. In Montana, 34 hearings were held in communities across the state, while over 600 hearings were held throughout the country. In total, more than 1.6 million Americans wrote comments on the federal roadless protection policy. An overwhelming majority – 78 percent of all Montanans and 95 percent of all Americans – supported full protection for these roadless wildlands. |
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| Threats
From the Bush Administration Now, the Bush Administration is trying to eliminate these protections and turn our wildlands over to special single-use development interests. Upset with the strength of public opinion, the Administration is working behind the scenes to hand over 58.5 million acres of our precious public wildlands resources to energy, mining, and timber industries. The Administration is even proposing enormous taxpayer-provided subsidies to develop these precious lands. These funds should instead be spent restoring damaged ecosystems, protecting clean water for drinking and irrigation, and enhancing wildlife habitat, particularly for those species requiring seclusion, such as elk, mountain goat, grizzly bear, and wolverine. Congress needs to stand tall against the Bush Administration’s planned development of America’s few remaining wildlands. Congress needs to speak clearly for our beautiful roadless wildlands. Montanans throughout the state treasure the fact that we all live in or near wild country. It is Congress’s obligation to keep at least a small part of that public lands legacy wild. We owe it to future generations. What Will Paul Richards Do About Our Roadless Wildlands? As United States senator, Paul will tell President Bush that Montanans support protecting all of remaining public wildlands, not turning them over to a handful of extraction-oriented transnational corporations. As United States senator, Paul will work to codify the Clinton Roadless Rule. To secure even more effective protection for our public wildlands legacy, Richards will sponsor and work tirelessly to secure passage of the U.S. Senate’s version of H.R. 1204, the “Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act,” or “NREPA.” Back in 1986, after consulting with our region’s leading scientists and conservationists, Paul wrote the first draft of what-was-to-become the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. After securing even more scientific participation, particularly from wildlife, aquatic, and conservation biologists, Paul wrote the bill’s second draft in 1987. Our Northern Rockies public wildlands are the only places remaining in the entire lower 48 states where all native species still flourish! Since it was co-written by our region’s and nation’s leading biologists, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act protects habitat essential for the survival these at-risk species. By officially designating our remaining public roadless wildlands as wilderness, the NREPA provides the strongest protection that the federal government can confer on public wildlands and dependent species that are extinct everywhere else, such as the gray wolf, bull trout, lynx, cutthroat trout (Montana’s official state fish), and grizzly bear (Montana’s official state animal). This bipartisan Act is currently co-sponsored by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and 187 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Paul will carry this bill through the U.S. Senate. When passed by Congress and signed by the President, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act will preserve the biological integrity of the Northern Rockies ecosystem, by designating as wilderness nearly 7 million acres of our public roadless wildlands in Montana, 9.5 million acres in Idaho, 5 million acres in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington. Included in this total are over 3 million acres of backcountry wilderness in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks. The Act has been endorsed by President Jimmy Carter, many of the world’s top scientists, and more than 700 organizations and businesses nationwide. In addition to ensuring a priceless fish-and-wildlife-rich legacy for all future Americans, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act provides for employment of thousands of Montanans, reclaiming old logging roads and rehabilitating watersheds previously damaged by roading, overcutting, and mining. Studies by University of Utah economist Michael Garrity (1997) show that the Act will create more than 2,000 new jobs through wildland restoration work, while saving U.S. taxpayers more than $245 million dollars over a ten-year period, by ending taxpayer-subsidized timber sales in roadless public wildlands. Montana has the best hunting season in the country, and it’s not by accident. Our five-week-long hunting season is due directly to the habitat provided by these nearly 7 million acres of public roadless wildlands. The streams from these wildlands provide some of the best fishing in the world. Montana hunters and anglers want these public wildlands protected! The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act provides this needed protection. Conclusion: Montanans support our roadless wildlands for the most basic reasons: They help cultivate new industries capable of generating new jobs and higher incomes. Montana’s wildlands are one of our greatest natural resources and recruiting tools. New companies, and the jobs they represent, are locating in Montana because they admire and desire our quality of life. Economic studies show conclusively that communities and counties that protect their natural resources – keeping them wild – enjoy faster growth and job incomes than those that fail to conserve their natural resources. Let us not forget companies already located in Montana that benefit from our roadless wild lands. Outfitters who utilize roadless areas have an annual economic impact of $83 million and employ more than 3,300 Montanans. By keeping a part of Montana wild, we set a long-term policy that promotes economic growth and better jobs for all of Montana. Our roadless wild areas remain a place where one can escape the crowds, the noise, and traffic of daily life and return to nature as it once was. We need these wildlands for our psychological, spiritual, economic, and societal well-being. |
| Paul
Richards 2006 • Richards for U.S. Senate P.O. Box 422 • Boulder, MT 59632 406-225-4235 paul@richards2006.us |