{"id":21580,"date":"2018-02-23T22:50:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T05:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21580"},"modified":"2018-02-23T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T05:50:09","slug":"opinion-pearl-jam-talk-to-tester-about-public-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/02\/opinion-pearl-jam-talk-to-tester-about-public-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Pearl Jam, talk to Tester about public lands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Salmon\"<\/a>

U.S. Forest Service<\/p>

Big Salmon Lake, Bob Marshall Wilderness.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental influence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer books. \u2026 To avoid this catastrophe demands immediate action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Robert “Bob” Marshall, co-founder, The Wilderness Society<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Seattle-based rock band Pearl Jam is set to embark on a tour later this summer, which will include seven stadium shows across the United States, with a stopover in Missoula. The band\u2019s gig in my home state will in part serve as a fundraiser for the re-election campaign of Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long admired Pearl Jam\u2019s activism. The band\u2019s\u00a0Vitalogy Foundation<\/a>\u00a0was set up to help small nonprofit groups around the country, and they\u2019ve followed through, donating millions of dollars over the years.<\/p>\n

Eddie Vedder was an early advocate of the freeing the\u00a0West Memphis Three;\u00a0<\/a>he\u2019s also outspoken about various\u00a0environmental issues<\/a>, and much more.<\/p>\n

Jeff Ament, who grew up in Tester\u2019s hometown of Big Sandy, has built\u00a0over a dozen skate parks<\/a>\u00a0in underserved rural areas of Montana and South Dakota, including parks in Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge. Ament also serves as an advisor to\u00a0The Buffalo Field Campaign<\/a>, one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

Stone Gossard<\/a>\u00a0supports outfits fighting for the recovery of wild salmon. He works on Seattle homelessness issues, arts campaigns and more.<\/p>\n

Mike McCready pours money into on organizations working on foster care and raises awareness and backs\u00a0research on Crohn\u2019s disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matt Cameron supports\u00a0antiwar causes<\/a>\u00a0and groups\u00a0fighting mass incarceration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No doubt Pearl Jam walks the walk. That\u2019s why I hope they\u2019ll help put pressure on Sen. Tester to\u00a0stop playing politics<\/a>\u00a0with Montana\u2019s public lands.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Despite the rhetoric that Tester\u2019s\u00a0Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project<\/a>\u00a0would protect 80,000 acres of Montana wilderness \u2014 where there are roads there\u2019s no wilderness, and Tester\u2019s bill would cut the roadless acres in the Monture area of the\u00a0Bob Marshall Wilderness<\/a>\u00a0in half.<\/p>\n

Tester\u2019s monstrous bill would set up two recreational playpens in the center of Monture, a 3,800-acre\u00a0mountain biking area and\u00a0another 3,000 acres for snowmobiles.\u00a0 Currently, neither activity is allowed in this roadless area. If passed, Tester\u2019s bill would change all of that.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it was road development across the West that sparked the modern-day environmental movement. The great Bob Marshall was one of the first to speak out\u00a0against roads in wilderness areas<\/a>. Now, Tester wants to allow roads in Bob Marshall\u2019s namesake wilderness preserve.<\/p>\n

The glory of \u201cThe Bob\u201d is that engines and mountain biking are not allowed. Want to enter the nearly 1,600-square-mile wilderness area? Grab your hiking boots, backpack (and bear spray) and get going. If you’re lucky, hit the trail with your pony. You can\u2019t drive in The Bob. You can\u2019t bike in and you certainly can\u2019t slide your way in on a gas-guzzling snowmobile. As the saying goes, the speed of wilderness shouldn\u2019t exceed 3 miles an hour. No question that allowing motorized transportation and mountain biking in this pristine area of the Monture would negatively impact its wildlife and serenity.<\/p>\n

The Monture area of The Bob is a haven for elk, endangered lynx, bull trout, cutthroat, gray wolves, moose, grizzlies and more. For those of us who care about the recovery of the grizzly bear, Monture is a vital place, as it sits smack dab in the middle of the primary conservation area for the mighty bear in the\u00a0Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem<\/a>. Allowing snowmobiles and mountain bikes in grizzly territory would negatively impact any recovery efforts. Interactions with mountain bikes and grizzlies far exceed those of grizzlies and hikers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s their land, let\u2019s keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Tester\u2019s bill wouldn’t just allow The Bob to be impacted by bikes and snowmobiles, it would also allow most logging in the Lolo National Forest to skirt public oversight. Any tree cutting under 3,000 acres would not have to adhere to a full environmental review, nor would the public have any right to protest these sales. That means if Montanans and others have a problem with a proposed logging of 2,999 acres of public forest in Lolo, we couldn’t stop it from happening for environmental reasons. No matter what.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Tester doesn\u2019t seem to understand that we need more forest, not less. He doesn\u2019t seem to get that we need more environmental regulations, not fewer.<\/p>\n

Tester\u2019s bill isn\u2019t a reasonable compromise as it\u2019s being sold by proponents. It\u2019s a racket, full of loopholes and sellouts. If Tester really gave a shit about Montana and its wilderness, he\u2019d instead be working hard to support the\u00a0Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act<\/a>. He\u2019d start listening to the folks at the\u00a0Alliance for the Wild Rockies<\/a>. It\u2019s the greatest hope grizzly bears have if they are to survive the impacts of climate change, and it\u2019s the only legislative chance that will keep Montana\u00a0\u201cThe Last Best Place.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

So Pearl Jam, can you help us pressure Sen. Tester to abandon the fatally flawed Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project? Your fundraiser ought to be contingent upon it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s protect The Bob Marshall Wilderness, not chisel away at it, and let\u2019s ensure that we always have a say in what happens on our precious public lands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Joshua Frank, a native of Billings,\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0managing editor of CounterPunch<\/a>. His most recent book is “Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion,”<\/a> co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair and published by AK Press. He can be reached at\u00a0joshua@counterpunch.org<\/a>. You can troll\u00a0him on Twitter\u00a0@joshua__frank<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental influence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer books. \u2026 To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":21581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[6793,6792,3084,6691],"class_list":["post-21580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-blackfoot-clearwater-stewardship-project","tag-bob-marshall","tag-jon-tester","tag-pearl-jam","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21580"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21586,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21580\/revisions\/21586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}