Cowboys and Bureacrats

In Lewistown I camped next to a guy who had worked for ten years for the Bureau of Land Management. He was part of a team whose job it was to determine what land satisfies the criteria for being designated as a "Wilderness Area" under the Wilderness Act of 1964. The idea is that wilderness areas should be preserved and protected.  If a parcel of land is so designated it becomes the property of the Federal government without compensation to the prior landowner, but a rancher can still apply for a grazing permit so that he can continue to use the property on his ranch.

My fellow camper told me of a meeting he and his colleagues had with area ranchers to discuss the criteria for designating property as a wilderness area and involving them in decisions. Five minutes into the meeting a rancher who happened also to be a state court judge stood up and interrupted. Young man, he said in a menacing tone, if you want solitude I have a jail cell just for you. The ranchers all stood up and applauded. With that the meeting abruptly concluded.

The second largest wilderness area in the continental United States is near Lincoln and extends northward almost to Glacier National Park. It is home to many grizzlies (who I am told are becoming so common in this area that they may soon be taken off the list of endangered species) and a wide variety of other wildlife, including even some wolverines (Go Blue!).

In response to the question of how much wilderness area America needs, early 20th century conservationist Bob Marshall, who fought to have much of this land protected, famously replied, "How many Brahms symphonies do we need?"

One person who did not subscribe to Bob Marshall's view was James Watt, a Wyoming native who served as Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan Administration. My campground neighbor told me that he and his colleagues did fieldwork for months to come up with a comprehensive description of a huge amount of Montana ranch land and delivered the report to Washington. Without ever looking at the report, Watt announced publicly that not one acre of land would be designated as wilderness area.

East of Missoula, it is hard to find a Montanan who does not believe that the Federal Government is too big, too intrusive and not to be trusted.

The activities of the Bureau of Land Management contribute greatly to this perception. Someone I met in Lincoln told me that the Federal Government is continually closing off access to private roads in wilderness areas.

He said it is common for local sportsmen to rip out locked fences blocking these roads so that they can gain access to hunting and fishing areas not designated for public use. He added that there have been times when firefighters needed access to these roads to fight forest and grass fires and the government was unable to find anyone with keys to unlock the gates.


In Great Falls, I ran into two of our founding fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. A quote in the plaque for Washington is reflective of the attitude of most Montanans I have met: 

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is a force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

The relationship between ranchers and the federal government is complicated by the fact that most ranchers grow wheat or other grains on a portion of their property. Many participate in the FSA’s Conservation Protection Program under which they are paid “rent” in exchange for not planting in environmentally sensitive areas.

As one guy told me that farming in Montans is all about negotiating with the government these days.