[This article is an excerpt from the book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change.]
Montana is the fourth-largest state, with 37.5 percent in public lands, including national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national monuments, national and state forests, and public rangelands. All come with conflicting notions as to how they should be managed and for whose benefit. I will focus on two: forests and rangelands.
Montana was part and parcel of the controversy that raged through the 1980s about saving the old-growth forests, wildlife habitat, and the unsightliness of clear-cut timber harvesting. An entire edifice of righteousness on the part of conservationists formed around the movement to preserve the forests. And in their hubris, they succeeded. The lumber mills shut down, and the loggers now use their chainsaws to make wooden bears to sell to tourists.
