Many places Montanans hunt, fish, hike and camp are being closed-off to the public. We have identified the top-five endangered access points for public land and water that our families risk losing forever.
Loss of public access to these special places is only the tip of the iceberg. Unless we prioritize solving this problem, our kids will have fewer options to hunt, fish, hike and play than we did.
ABOUT THE REPORT
Montana is special. We enjoy over 27 million acres of public lands, including mountains, forests, foothills, prairies and rivers and streams. These are the places we take our kids to hunt, fish, hike, backpack, watch wildlife, and ride ATVs and snowmobiles.
Public access to public land is important for Montanans who consistently hunt, fish, hike and camp on public lands at a higher rate than other states. Our public lands are also a major driver of Montana’s $7.1 billion outdoor economy.
But Montana’s heralded access to the outdoors is endangered. Montana has nearly 2 million acres of public land that is already inaccessible to the public, the largest among Western states. And unfortunately, this problem is only getting worse.
Our new report, Losing Ground: Montana’s Endangered Access, highlights the top-five places in the state where public access has either been recently lost or is currently threatened. We selected areas that are popular places to recreate, are spread throughout the state geographically, and have generated significant local controversy.
The report offers only a handful of high-profile examples where Montana families are fighting to restore public access but there are many others throughout the state. The issue is real and it is growing.
We’ve seen this happen before. Other states failed to act and have permanently lost places to hunt, fish, camp and hike. We cannot let this happen in Montana.
Sign today – add your name to the growing list of Montanans and insist our elected leaders protect and maintain public access to public land. It’s time to prioritize better budgets and better tools to keep our lands and waters open for our kids.
Take the Montanans for Public Access Pledge. Tell our leaders we cannot lose any more ground.
