Missoulians rally in support of public lands
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Supporting public lands and federal employees can be a walk in the park. But on Sunday, it was a long walk with hundreds of other people chanting “Keep our lands, keep our roots, we need stewards, not just suits.”
The line of cars entering McCormick Park on Sunday morning was a preview of the line of marchers who would later fill the river trail headed to Beartracks Bridge. Speakers for the Missoula public lands rally were scheduled to start around 11 a.m. at McCormick Park, but more and more attendees kept arriving. After another 15 minutes, Mikela Nolin, one of the event coordinators, called the sign-toting crowd of around 800 over to a small platform to officially start the rally.
Nolin said about 60 unaffiliated individuals came together to organize the event because they were “enraged following the recent defunding of public lands and illegal mass firings of federal stewards on Feb. 14.”
“Our goals in bringing you together today are to ground ourselves in our community, to remind each other of our unwavering solidarity and to support you all in turning the disappointment, sadness and rage into action,” Nolin said. “Despite the tragedy of recent and ongoing actions by the current administration, we cannot allow ourselves to succumb to hopelessness. Look around you - everyone here shares something vital with you.”
Silas Phillips asked people to raise their hands if they’d ever worked as a public land steward, professionally or personally. Hundreds of hands went up. That’s not surprising since Missoula is surrounded by public land, much of it belonging to the Lolo and Bitterroot national forests, and Missoula is home to the U.S. Forest Service Region 1 offices. In addition, along the Blackfoot River east of Missoula, more former timber company land has been transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
So many Missoulians have held federal land jobs and more would like to. But the recent changes enacted by the Trump administration have affected the futures of public land hopefuls, like Adin Kloetzel, a young packer from Philipsburg. Kloetzel was disappointed to learn he was fired from his job with the Forest Service after five years.
“It is so sad to watch all my friends who have given their whole lives to this and dedicated themselves, their blood, their sweat, their tears and worked tirelessly to make not very much money to keep these places accessible for the public and for people to make their livelihoods in the woods,” Kloetzel said.
Tracy Stone-Manning, former BLM director and Wilderness Society director as of two weeks ago, praised all the people who are or have been federal land employees and said they call it “public service” for a reason. Most sign up for those jobs, not for the money, but for their passion for the land and the desire to share it with visitors. Stone-Manning asked the crowd to think about their favorite place on public land and then how they would feel if it was sold to private interests.
“This is not about government efficiency so let’s unpack what it’s about. As they gut our land management agencies, they’re going to say, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t manage these public lands. We have to sell them off.’ My friends, this is what this is about: This is about them trying to sell your public lands,” Stone-Manning said. “Get in touch with your elected representatives. I know, right now, it feels like it won’t make a difference. I promise you, it will make a difference.”
Missoula state representative Marilyn Marler said it’s not just the Trump administration or Congressmen who say federal public land is mismanaged. Certain state legislators echo the same talking point and insist that all federal land should be transferred to the states.
“If there’s talk about transferring land to the state, that’s just a short step from transferring it to private people. And I’m sorry to say just last week, we saw a bill pass out of the House of Representatives that explicitly made it easier to get state land transferred to private. And that’s a pretty scary prospect,” Marler said. “Please don’t get discouraged. Write the federal delegation but also call and write to the governor. Governor Gianforte needs to hear that we’re not on board with this.”
Bill Hodge, formerly the state director of the Wilderness Society Montana, reminded the crowd that although the current situation seems bad, the public lands ideal has faced recurrent threats but it still persists. The fight for public lands is never-ending. The people in the crowd shouldn’t let the darkness get them down. Instead, they should call their Congressional delegation and protest any transfer, Hodge said.
Hodge started the chant: “Whose lands?” “Our lands.” The crowd took it up, and that was one of the slogans they yelled as they headed toward Beartracks Bridge. Once there, they filled the sidewalk from one end of the bridge to the other, cheering honking cars that went by.
“We will not stop fighting until we hand the fight to the next generation,” Hodge said. “We have been here before. We will win the day, but we will have to hand that fight to the next generation. That’s just the way it is. There are people who see private plunder when we see public lands.”
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.