HELENA, Mont. – How can Montana improve funding to protect what many feel is its most important asset – the outdoors? That's what backers of the Montana Outdoor Heritage Project are asking.

The project kicked off Thursday, inviting Montanans to chime in with ideas on how to increase dedicated funding for conservation on private and public lands, wildlife management and access to outdoor recreation. The goal is to involve at least 10,000 Montanans this summer, either through community meetings or an online survey.

Christine Whitlatch, a Billings-based volunteer for the project, says this is an invitation for a diversity of folks to get involved.

"It's really exciting to have an opportunity to solicit voices from every experience,” says Whitlatch. “Every youth category, age, ability category across the state – to talk about what's important to us, what we're concerned about, what we hope we preserve and invest in, in the years to come."

Meetings are scheduled across the state this summer and the project is asking for input through September 23. The group behind the project will release survey results and public recommendations in October. The survey is at 'MontanaHeritageProject.com.'

Dave Chadwick, executive director with the Montana Wildlife Federation, says now is the time to talk about outdoor recreation. It's a huge economic driver for the state, but the Montana Legislature dedicated less than 5% of the state budget to safeguarding it this year.

Chadwick cites a few issues driving the need to protect the Montana way of life, starting with access to public land.

"Montana has more so-called landlocked public land than any other western state – public land that isn't accessible to the public. A million and a half acres, at least,” says Chadwick. “A lot of Montanans are concerned that our state parks aren't adequately funded. We have a $22 million backlog."

Visits to Montana State Parks have increased 34% in the past decade.

Bob Walker, executive director of the Montana Trails Coalition, says there were two bipartisan successes in the Legislature this year. One increases funding for state parks and fishing access sites; the other aims to secure access to public land.

But Walker says more needs to be done.

"The two bills I just mentioned are good starts toward addressing the rising demand for parks and trails and access, but it's just not enough,” says Walker. “Montanans need to keep working together to find more solutions, and I think the Montana Outdoor Heritage Project is the right way to do it."


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Environmentalists are applauding a Bureau of Land Management decision to allow the sale of a small national public land parcel for an affordable housing development.

The sale of public lands is controversial, with Republicans and conservative groups seeing states as preferable stewards. Conversely, Democrats and conservation groups argued states cannot afford to protect public lands and would sell them to private companies.

Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, said there are public lands adjacent to metro areas in some Western states well-suited to development, which could help solve the nation's housing shortage.

"But that's the kind of stuff that happens five, 10, 20 acres at a time," Weiss explained. "Not the wholesale transfer of tens of thousands or even millions of acres to states and private parties."

For the first time ever, the BLM this week approved the sale of 20 acres of national public land near Las Vegas to the Clark County Department of Social Services for an affordable housing development. Weiss pointed out the federal "memorandum of understanding" is specific to the Nevada parcel but he believes there are others near Phoenix or Tucson that would make sense for consideration.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Gov. Joe Lombardo, R-Nev., are the most recent politicians citing the housing shortage as a need to sell off public lands to developers. In a letter to President Joe Biden, Lombardo urged approval for the transfer of 50,000 acres of public land around Las Vegas with few restrictions, which Weiss believes would create urban chaos. He contends mixing in housing is a new approach to how conservatives now talk about public lands.

"Much of the Republican Party finally recognized that calling for wholesale transfer was a political third rail in the West," Weiss observed. "No matter how conservative the state, voters everywhere across the political spectrum do not want to dispose of national public lands on that scale."

Weiss added any sale of public lands for housing should require it be affordable and not end up providing "McMansions" or "trophy homes" for billionaires.


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More than $27 million is coming to upgrade forests in the Northwest for recreation.

The investment is the latest round of funding from the Great American Outdoors Act, which was passed in 2020 and established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund. The legislation is aimed to address the backlog of maintenance needed on public lands.

Tracy Calizon, Northwest Region assistant director for recreation, trails, wilderness and heritage, for the U.S. Forest Service, said 23 projects across national forests in Oregon and Washington were chosen.

"That is for fixing campgrounds, replacing toilets, updating trailheads, signage, kiosks, roads, providing access and accessibility improvements," Calizon outlined. "At the sites that the public knows and loves across national forests of the Pacific Northwest."

There are now 76 Legacy Restoration Fund projects in the Northwest, with 18 of them completed. The U.S. Forest Service said the Great American Outdoors Act has brought $77 million in contracts to Oregon and Washington to complete the projects.

Calizon added there are many elements to maintaining the country's forests.

"It's not necessarily only the trailheads or the public facing infrastructure," Calizon explained. "It's also the infrastructure to support the whole picture and make sure that we have the staff to be able to provide these great opportunities."

The Great American Outdoors Act is working to address the country's $8.6 billion deferred maintenance backlog on public lands.


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A court is soon expected to decide a Wyoming case between hunters and landowners which could affect public land access.

When a group from Missouri went hunting near Wyoming's Elk Mountain in 2021, they navigated a checkerboard of land ownership, using a ladder to cross a privately-owned 'corner' from one public parcel to another. The landowners, who live in North Carolina, sued the hunters for trespassing in a case now before the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sam Kalen, professor of law at the University of Wyoming, said there are two major issues in this case. One involves what is known as the Unlawful Inclosures Act, a federal law preventing private landowners from obstructing access to public land.

"There's a good chance that the 10th Circuit's going to, you know, maybe adopt some sort of 'unreasonable' test," Kalen predicted. "Suggesting that landowners can't do things that result in sort of a nuisance or unreasonable interference with any access to public lands."

The other issue, Kalen noted, is trespassing, which is a matter of state law. A Wyoming federal judge ruled the hunters were not trespassing in a decision last year. More than 8 million acres of public lands in the West are "corner-locked," according to recent data.

The court's decision could affect other states in the Tenth Circuit, especially those with similar landholding patterns, including Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. An appeal of the decision would next go to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Kalen noted it likely would not be heard.

"The court doesn't take up that many public lands cases," Kalen acknowledged. "There's no conflict in the circuits, which means that the court would have to conclude that it's really serious, national significance."

Kalen added the case is unique to typical hunting encounters in Wyoming, as both parties are from out-of-state.


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