Special interest groups are collaborators in reducing public access

If you repeat a lie enough times, does it come true? That’s what a couple of special interest groups are hoping in Montana. Montana Wildlife Federation and the Public Land & Water Access Association (PLWA) have been feeding Montanans a line of bull for years and hoping we’ll buy it.

Case in point, the groups recently published “report” claiming Montanans are locking up private land against hunting. The assertion went largely unchallenged by the media, which in most cases did not seek to balance the information.

Had the media bothered to competently investigate the claims of these groups, Montanans could have learned about data collected by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks that completely debunks the claims made by these groups.

According to FWP’s most recent survey of landowners, 96 percent of landowners in Montana open their property to public hunting for the season. If you ask permission, you can cross most private property in this state to get access to public ground.

Less than 5 percent of landowners outfit their property, lease their property for hunting, charge an access fee or simply don’t allow hunting.

The vast majority of private property in Montana is open for access. And with two-thirds of Montana land privately owned, it’s a good thing that Montana has a tradition of landowners being generous with access.

That’s certainly not the case on public land, with many areas off limits to hunting. And in recent years, access on public land has been diminishing due to road closures by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and other government agencies.

What makes the Wildlife Federation and PLWA so incredibly hypocritical is that they’ve supported road closures on public land at the same time they’re lecturing landowners about access through private property.

Simply put, the biggest problem Montana faces on hunting access is that we’re being locked out of public land by federal agencies. And it’s being done with the encouragement of groups like the Wildlife Federation and PLWA.

Private landowners are under no obligation to provide hunting access. They’re under no obligation to provide good habitat for Montana wildlife. But they do. In fact, in many cases private landowners provide better hunting access and better habitat than that which is available on public land.

Without Montana’s farmers and ranchers, we wouldn’t have the abundance of wildlife we have today in Montana.

Montana landowners deserve thanks from sportsmen, and they get it from the vast majority of resident hunters and fishermen. But special interest groups like PLWA and the Wildlife Federation are predicated on creating animosity between sportsmen and landowners to achieve their agenda. It’s disappointing to see some in the media go along with their story without first looking at the facts.

But it’s even more disappointing to see these groups spreading discord and attacking landowners. And in the worst cases, suing individual landowners in an attempt to take their property.

Two of the first basic rules we all learned in hunter’s safety classes is that you always ask permission from landowners, and you respect private property. PLWA and the Wildlife Federation want to eliminate those basic hunting ethics. Let’s not let them ruin our Montana hunting traditions for future generations.

Chuck Denowh is the policy director of United Property Owners of Montana, an advocacy group dedicated to preserving and enhancing the property rights of all Montanans.