Strengthening the Red-State Conservation Coalition

The Billings Gazette last week had a short piece about how Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) has been using his office to strengthen hunting/fishing access laws in Montana. I call this the Red-State Conservation Coalition - it is a way to bridge a gap between environmentalists (who demographically lean left) and outdoorsmen (who demographically lean a little right) - and unify them to fight for a common agenda.

Schweitzer has a lot to be proud of - he coaxed the Montana legislature into strengthening the state's conservation laws. For instance, he signed a bill "which made permanent the state's Habitat Montana program" - a program that "uses about $4 million a year to work with landowners to conserve game habitat on private land, including purchasing conservation easements."

He also signed a bill that "made permanent the state's Block Management program" which "pays landowners to allow public hunters on their land." And he signed a bill that "preserved the state's Fishing Access Enhancement Program" which "pays landowners for letting public anglers access state waters through private lands."

Finally, he signed a bill that "clarifies that counties cannot abandon a roadway or bridge that allows access to public land or waters unless they replace it with another access site that's just as good." The goal is to make sure hunters/anglers still can get to the places they recreate.

The best part of the story came when the Gazette noted that Schweitzer had held a press conference about the issue "dressed in fishing waders" just before he "planned on going fly fishing on the Missouri River near Helena after work."

This is the kind of progressive populism we need to see more of from Democrats. For more on this subject, see my earlier piece "Green + Red = Blue" in In These Times magazine. Also click here to watch an ad (in Quicktime format only) Schweitzer put on the air all over Montana during his campaign in which he talked specifically about these important conservation/outdoors issues - he is living up to his campaign promises.

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