No one knows just when the
West decided it had had enough of being run from Washington, D.C.
The indications that Montanans have had it with federal
mandates became evident in the state Legislature this March.
Although the capital routinely ignores the opinions of a state like
Montana, which boasts fewer than a million people scattered across
the fourth-largest landmass in the union, it better think twice
when it comes to charging Montanans to use the national lands and
waters that surround us.
House Joint Resolution 13,
sponsored by State Rep. Paul Clark, D, demands the repeal of the
misnamed Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which in the
more popular vernacular is known as the Recreation Access Tax, or
RAT. The resolution doesn’t have the power of law, and it surely
won’t stop the federal government, but at last week’s hearing, such
a stunning political cross-section of Montanans showed up to
support it that maybe, just maybe, it might garner a little
attention from the federal powers.
Who could have
predicted that backpackers of the Montana Wilderness Association
would be on the same side as the four-wheelers and dirt bikers of
the Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association? Or that the Sierra
Club would find an ally in Montanans for Multiple Use? How is it
possible that these traditional opponents were also joined by the
Montana Wood Products Association, the Montana State Parks
Foundation, Citizens for Balanced Use, the Montana Logging
Association and the governor’s office?
The answer is
simple. None of us would ever consent to pay a fee every time we
wanted to enter our home or fire up the barbecue in our own back
yard. Yet, under the provisions of the RAT, public-land managers
can and will start charging us every time we camp at the little
river pullout on Bureau of Land Management land we’ve used for
decades, or launch our canoe from a federal site, or have a family
picnic in the national forest. These lands are our heritage as
American citizens, and if the feds think they can charge us to use
something we already own, the 49-1 vote by which the measure
cleared the Senate should inform them that they are terribly
mistaken.
Nor are recreation fees the only thing driving
Westerners to take a stand against the federal government. A
resolution from Democrat Jim Elliott targeted the USA Patriot Act
and explicitly requests Montana’s attorney general to “permanently
dispose” of any intelligence information held by the state “to
which there is not attached a reasonable suspicion of criminal
activity.” In other words, tell the federal government that their
covert mining of personal information on Montana citizens will not
be tolerated here. Nor will racial profiling, the “use of state
resources for the enforcement of federal immigration matters,” or
the collection of information about “the political, religious, or
social views, associations, or activities of any individual group,
association, organization, corporation, business, or partnership”
unless the information “directly relates to an investigation of
criminal activities.” That resolution zipped out of the Senate on a
40-10 vote.
Then there is Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s request
to bring Montana’s National Guard troops and helicopters home from
Iraq to fight what is feared will be a huge wildfire threat this
summer. The generals in D.C. are alarmed that a governor would make
such a request, and have already tried to arrange a meeting to
mumble soothing reassurances to Schweitzer.
But when
Schweitzer told them he wanted to go to Iraq to visit our troops,
they told him he needed State Department clearance to do so. Now
get that straight: Schweitzer is the commander in chief of the
Montana National Guard, but he is being told he needs clearance
from some D.C. bureaucrat to go talk with his own troops, let alone
bring them home.
Montana is not alone in this battle.
Governors, legislatures and local governments across the West are
rising to oppose the draconian measures emanating from a federal
government that seems to have forgotten we are a union of states —
not a dictatorship.
Yes, it is true that closed meetings
proliferate like never before as a cowed populace and press are
humbled by the federal fist. But as Hal Harper, the governor’s
chief policy adviser, said during the House hearing on the anti-fee
resolution: “If you want to incite revolution in this state, start
charging hunters and anglers and campers a fee to access their own
public lands.”
Harper is right — and in fact, the
Western revolution has already begun.
George
Ochenski is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). He is a lobbyist
and writer in Helena, Montana.
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