History always repeats itself, often the same story, just a different location and new characters. And in telling the story, some of us age ourselves.
In the early 1990s, the Gallatin River Drainage looked almost exactly like that Lochsa map. All checkerboard. We were lucky that at the time, Plumb Creek allowed hunting on their lands and access to the Federal lands inside the checkerboard.
Along comes some dudes from Oregon, Tim Blixeth, the McDougal brothers, and a few other characters of varying reputations. They buy the lands from Plumb Creek in early 1992.
By 1993, hunters are put on notice that lands will be sold, and/or subdivided, and/or logged, and eventually made off limits to public recreation. Mad scramble. Not only at risk are the 90,000 acres of former Plumb Creek lands, but the many hundreds of thousands of acres of Forest Service land that stood behind those gates.
That year, the MT delegation, under some serious heat from hunters and in cooperation with the USFS, RMEF, and many other groups, a deal is struck. 16,000 acres of public lands are traded for almost 38,000 acres of timber company lands. It happens in a manner that eliminates a lot of checkerboard in some of the higher recreation use areas.
The deal is funded with land, timber receipts, and money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The deal almost dies a thousand deaths as so many competing interests are trying to make it "perfect" for them, at the expense of all others. Tempers flare, but the deal gets done. It includes some term certain agreements for access across other timber company lands, unless sold.
Roll forward to 1997 and the access agreements are expiring. The largest portion of the prime hunting grounds on the crest of the Gallatin and Madison Ranges will be lost to public access.
The MT delegation is again put in the hot box to get a deal done. This time, we are to give up 29,000 acres, including the prime location that is now "The Yellowstone Club." We are to get 54,000 acres in return. More whining and sniveling happens. The deal is so close to dying, the delegation tells the hunters that odds are we will be losing our hunting spots. Finally, the fringe operators realize they will be hung in the streets of Bozeman if they continue their protests, and the mainstream groups push the ball across the goal line.
As a result of this, the checkboard pattern on much of the Gallatin is gone. We have given up, much of the Bangtails. We have given up the amazing ground that would become a billionaire's club. We have lost Jack Creek.
But, we have all the rest of the Gallatin, Madison, and Bridger Ranges now accessible in perpetuity. If not for the hunters and their groups, both local and national, these deals would have never got done.
And without Land and Water Conservation Fund seed money, the exchanges would have required huge amounts of land to be traded from the public to balance the scales. There would be a lot less hunting in SW Montana and hundreds of thousands of acres off limits to all recreationists.
Here we are, over 15 years later and LWCF is up for reauthorization next year. If LWCF does not get reauthorized, the possibility of these Idaho lands ever ending up in public ownership gets pretty low.
None of these are ever easy. Getting groups to put aside differences and settle on something good, rather than demanding perfection, is the biggest challenge. Well maybe the new climate against public lands has emerged as even a greater challenge.
We had to let some of the lands be logged prior to receiving them, or accept less land. Trees grow back, so that was a no brainer for hunters, but almost killed the deal for some who cannot accept logging. Some lands that were sold and subdivided before the deals were completed are still pieces I drive by and have a feeling of "what could have been." Once they are subdivided and sold, they are gone forever.
I hope the issue gets solved.
