Crazy Mountain Public Access

[katqanna]

Fair Chase, to be honest, after setting the channel up, right after my tbi, with all those appointments and therapy, I didn't have as much time to work on taking or producing videos, so there was not much up.

But recently, needing to replace my old, limited video and graphics editing software, I bit the bullet and had to lease the Adobe CC Pro all apps to be able to get work done properly. I will now be able to get more videos produced. I do network info through the Newsletter, which has almost 1000 subscribers now, I think that is the more important subscriber source. The new set of videos will be linked on the Interactive map I am setting up after I get back to Bozeman.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Looking forward to it and thank you for your passion. Not wanting to overstep, but what lead to the tbi?

 

[katqanna]

Scraping ice off my truck windshield in sub zero temps after major snows. The plows had it banked so high on the side, I foolishly grabbed my custom grill to slingshot myself over the 3 foot hill banks, lost my footing on the top and did a header into the tree trunk about 6 feet away, multiple impact spots including the brainstem jamming. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Thanks to a new optometrist, I now have prism glasses to correct one of the few remaining problems (I am like the Fly, I see 5 of everything in my left eye, 3 in the right. Makes it hard hunting with a rifle, knowing which one to shoot. Shotguns are easier, the shot spread helps to compensate for the Fly eye.) This alleviates the visual confusion on my brain, so I can do more computer work now, like videos, without it giving me a headache.

CRAZY MOUNTAIN PAGE UPDATE: Due to a number of people, including journalists, asking about prescriptive easements, I have set up a quick page on some of the basics, documents and some legal examples of one private landowner having to sue a new private landowner for their historic access to their own property, a Federal public lands management agency and a Montana utility company having to sue with yet another new landowner.

Montana Prescriptive Easement Overview

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Crazy how the most mundane activities can end not-well. Here's to a speedy recovery.

P.S. Shoot the one in the middle.

 

[katqanna]

My news feed just showed an article from a tiny newspaper in Texas, reporting that Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell resigned, effective September 1, 2017. I couldn't find it anywhere else, not even at the USFS newsroom/press release page so I called his office, he has indeed resigned.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tidwell Closes Distinguished Forest Service Career, Announces Retirement

So for anyone sending in public comments to various levels of USFS personnel about Alex Sienkiewicz/Crazy Mountain public access, Tidwell will no longer be there.

 

[katqanna]

Tony Tooke Named New Chief of U.S. Forest Service

Tooke has worked for the Forest Service since he was 18 and currently is the regional forester for the Southern Region...

Tony Tooke is the regional forester for the Southern Region of the USDA Forest Service. Tooke has worked for the Forest Service since age 18, including many assignments in Region 8 and the Washington Office.

He is responsible for 3,100 employees, an annual budget exceeding $400 million, 14 national forests, and two managed areas, which encompass more than 13.3 million acres in 13 states and Puerto Rico.

His previous position in Washington, D.C. was associate deputy chief for the National Forest System, with oversight of Lands and Realty, Minerals and Geology, Ecosystem Management Coordination, Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers, the National Partnership Office, and Business Administration and Support Services.

As associate deputy chief, Tooke was the Forest Service Executive Lead for Environmental Justice; Farm Bill implementation; and implementation of the Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment Improvement Strategy. Another priority included implementation of a new planning rule for the National Forest System.

 

[katqanna]

I just got back to Bozeman, spending most of the day at the Park County offices, speaking with the road guy, showing him my pictures of what is going on on our county roads, as well as copying tons of beautiful research that local historian Jerry Brekke did for the County (his work saved me a lot of time), photographed a bunch of maps and the County Commissioner tomes where they have the petitions for county roads.

There are violations currently on these roads, so I have to send the Commissioners the documentation to get it corrected.

Just another way we can lend a hand for our public lands.

As soon as I get the documentation and letter to the commissioners I will post so y'all can see what is going on. We have a way forward.

 

[Southern Elk]

Thanks again for all you do Kat. Hopefully this new path forward will work.

 

[katqanna]

Brad Wilson just got his oped out.

Will grandkids have access to public lands in Crazy Mountains.

 

[katqanna]

I heard this afternoon, from several sources, that Alex Sienkiewicz was going to be restored to his District Ranger position. I called the Livingston Forest Service office for confirmation and was told by the acting District Ranger that Sienkiewicz was being restored as District Ranger, about Oct. 20th.

Thank you to all those that called, wrote emails, letters, opinion pieces and articles to advocate for one of our public trust employees and public access. Without such dedicated employees, how can we ever hope to preserve our public lands and access to them from privatization?

This battle is hardly over, there is still much work to be done involving Crazy Mountain public access to our Forest Service public lands. I am thankful for this wee bit of good news though.

 

[Jerky]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-25/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land

Great article in Bloomberg this morning.

 

[katqanna]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-25/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land

Great article in Bloomberg this morning.

I feel that is debatable.

They missed the key threat against our prescriptive easement process and roads/trails being removed from future maps/publications nationwide. Instead, they went off against "elitist big game trophy hunting" with Trump Jr., Daines, Gianforte and the Dallas Safari Club.

 

[RobG]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-25/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land

Great article in Bloomberg this morning.

Cool. I knew it as coming out Monday but couldn't find it online.

 

[katqanna]

Just a reminder, the Friends of the Crazy Mountains will be having their fundraiser and raffle tomorrow evening.
Katabatic Brewing Company in Livingston from 4-8 pm
117 W. Park St., Livingston

 

[Irrelevant]

That Bloomberg article makes my blood boil. Where's my pitchfork there's a barn burning to be done (metaphorically of course).

 

[katqanna]

I prefer to fight them with documentation. Spent another afternoon at county records, this time looking up railroad grants. They have this beautiful sentence in there about public access roads/trails being retained when they sold those grant parcels to individuals or companies.

Afterward, I was at the FOCM fundraiser. We were joined by 4 of PLWA's directors: Bernard Lea, John Gibson, Ray Pearson and JW Westman, two of which took the mic and shared about public access.

It was great to meet some locals who live out there and have used these trails that have been sticking up the no forest service access signs recently.

Met a member of the public that was up at the same trail Brad and I had been with the locked gate. A new No Trespassing sign is up, she got pictures and thankfully used the trail despite the sign, has been for years. So they are going to write out an affidavit for the records, send pictures, as well as write our congressmen. Nice to meet people willing to get engaged.

 

[katqanna]

Another one bites the dust...

After having shown one of the Parks County Road department officials my pictures from the first west side Crazy Mountains trip I made with Brad (Friends of the Crazy Mountains), especially the signs saying "No Forest Service Access", and speaking with one of the county commissioners, we were wanting all the documentation together to present before moving forward.

But, I just got an update from Park County Roads that they did already deal with one of the illegal signs, removing it and are looking into the encroaching archway. A landowner had illegally attached their privately made sign to a Park County sign post, trying to make it look official. Their "No National Forest Access" sign has now been removed.


This image is the property of EMWH and cannot be reproduced without EMWH's permission (have to put a disclaimer up due to poaching of work by organizations not actually doing the work and using them for different objectives, which sucks.)

Brad Wilson, who has assisted in some of this documentation I have been amassing (when I say amassing, I am not exaggerating, and I just got another dump of documents from an anonymous source, on top of all of my records research), just put out an oped on the Crazies work.


Protect access rights in the Crazy Mountains

Absent from the Losing Ground "Portfolio" report is any mention of historic roads and trails in the Crazy Mountains, which is at the heart of these access conflicts. While the report notes that landowners and recreationists are looking for ways to improve access in the range, the first step to finding a solution is for the U.S. Forest Service to follow its direction and policy and take action necessary to protect these existing access rights to National Forest Service land.

I would add that documenting, especially the legalities, what we already have, is foundational towards protecting any access.

Hell, I just spent time at two access areas already fought for in Teton County last week and a number of hours at their courthouse copying some records. One of the roads has signs up saying no public access on the road when there is. I had to send the pictures and GIS coordinates to the Teton County road department so they can be removed, and will need to make sure that they are removed. Those damn signs were up during the hunting season, when they shouldn't have been. So even when you win the cases, you have to keep an eye on things to make sure they don't slip back to obstructed.

 

[Southern Elk]

Kat, is there any legal penalty for putting up those signs?

 

[RobG]

Where was that sign at and who was the landowner?

 

[OhBoneCollector]

Those putting up those ILLEGAL signs need punished... interrupt that how you will.