Author Archives: Daniel

Rehberg Successfully Pressures EPA To Drop Effort to Regulate Fishing Tackle

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, released the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided not to regulate the use of lead fishing tackle.  The EPA had been giving serious consideration to expanding it’s regulatory authority to include lead sinkers.  Last year, Rehberg cosponsored legislation introduced by Congressman Paul Broun (GA-10) to prevent the EPA from taking this action in the first place.  Rehberg’s legislation would also prevent the EPA from regulating lead ammunition, something they have yet to decide against doing.

“While it appears that the EPA was finally forced to make the right decision, what’s got Montana sportsmen and women concerned is that it took them this long.  Frankly, this idea should have been laughed out of the room, and we should never have wasted scare tax dollars exploring the possibility of onerous new EPA regulations on fishing tackle.  No wonder folks are worried that soon there will not be any part of our lives that the EPA doesn’t want to regulate, control or change.  We won today, but we’re going to keep fighting until the EPA also decides against regulating ammunition.” Continue reading →

Cattle Industry Pressuring Forest Service

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The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association continues to raise concerns to the U.S. Forest Service about the detrimental impacts its proposed forest planning rule would have on federal lands ranching. Joe Guild, a rancher from Nevada and chairman of NCBA’s Federal Lands Policy Committee, says the Forest Service should walk away from the proposed forest planning rule and work with cattlemen on a plan to manage the land and its resources while sustaining a productive ranching industry.

NCBA Past President Bill Donald, a rancher in Montana, says cattlemen oppose the requirement to maintain viable populations of species of conservation concern. He said there is no scientific consensus on what level of any given population is viable or how it is to be managed.

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Lummis Expresses Disappointment in Sen. Tester’s Incomplete EAJA Legislation

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Lummis calls on Senator Tester to support a comprehensive tracking of Equal Access to Justice Act payments and claims.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) issued the following statement after Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) introduction of S.2042, legislation to track and report on tax-payer subsidies for lawsuits against the government:

“The fact that Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) payments has operated under a cloak of secrecy for the last 17 years is widely accepted to be a problem.  Users of
EAJA, including veterans, seniors and environmental organizations, collectively
agree this program should be subject to tracking and reporting requirements.  So
I find it odd that Sen. Tester would introduce a bill to track only half of EAJA
payments. Continue reading →

Help Open Up Yellowstone National Park to the Snowmobilers!

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Four open houses are scheduled this month to allow the public to review and comment on a range of draft alternatives for winter management of Yellowstone National Park.

The “no-action” alternative would eliminate all snowmobile and snowcoach travel in the park after the end of the current winter season. A second alternative looks at continuing winter operations at the present temporary limits, plus analysis of limited access for
snowmobile users without guides. Under a third alternative, park roads from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful would be plowed to allow
commercially operated, wheeled vehicles into the park. Also under consideration is a proposal to phase out snowmobiles and allow motorized entry by snowcoaches alone. This alternative includes analysis of closing the park’s East Entrance over Sylvan Pass to motorized oversnow use. Continue reading →

Tester’s FJRA nothing but more wilderness bill

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Montana’s letters and editorial pages have been flooded with praise for Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act,” or FJRA.

Well, here’s some criticism: To begin, the name is all wrong. FJRA is first, foremost and only a wilderness bill, which would immediately lock away a million acres (660,000 acres of big-W wilderness and another 300,000 or so of “recreation areas”) from all uses except primitive recreation.

In return for this million-acre lockup, FJRA’s propagandists promise a tidal wave of “Jobs and Recreation” to follow — someday, maybe, perhaps — an empty promise.

Ranchers know from bitter experience that grazing rights always go backwards after wilderness designations. Mining, in some of the most mineral rich areas of Montana? Never — forever.

Nor does wilderness do “Jobs” through “Recreation.” Never has, never will. Only 2 percent of public land recreation visitor days are “primitive recreation” based — and fully half are hunters. FJRA would write off the other 98 percent, who use wheels and motors for modern recreation, as potential customers and visitors — a terrible business model. Continue reading →

Rehberg Goes to Bat for Snowmobile Use in Gallatin National Forest

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Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, contacted Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell urging the Forest Service to quickly draft another travel plan for Gallatin National Forest that takes into account all historical data regarding motorized vehicle use. Because it was missing critical, but readily available information, the latest plan was rejected by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  The interim plan currently in effect severely restricts the use of snowmobiles in Gallatin Forest.  The snowmobile industry is responsible for more than 20 million dollars in economic activity every winter in the Gallatin Forest.

“Government bungling by the Obama Administration is costing jobs and creating lasting economic damage to the people living around Gallatin National Forest,” said Rehberg.  “These public lands are meant for public enjoyment, and as another winter passes without an adequate use plan, the public is being closed out of their land.” Continue reading →