New policy to give consultants more power in state land exchange

Laura Lundquist

(Missoula Current) On Monday, State Auditor James Brown will ask the Montana Land Board to approve changes to the land exchange policy that would allow third-party consultants, paid for by an interested landowner, to broker land exchanges where private land is traded for state trust land.

But public land watchdogs are raising questions about the reliability and fairness of any third party that is being paid to construct such trades.

“The only people who can avail themselves of this process are those who have the ability to hire those kinds of consultants. If I have enough money, I can insert someone whose only interest is mine. The people who can’t pay get a different process,” said Helena hunter Andrew Posewitz. “When the government stops protecting the citizen’s right to public land, it then becomes a tool of the rich. That’s what’s happening here.”

In an April 17 column in the Bozeman Chronicle, Brown, who sits on the Land Board, wrote that the process would streamline the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation process of trading state trust land parcels that are landlocked within private property for privately owned sections that are more publicly accessible.

“Unlocking the true potential of these lands requires an approach that keeps pace with modern land management realities. This means revisiting a longstanding bottleneck: The Land Board’s slow, cumbersome process for land exchanges. Currently, promoting a beneficial exchange is an arduous task,” Brown wrote in April.

Not all state land is state-trust land. State trust land was created in the late 19th century when Congress granted two sections out of 36 in every township in western states so they could raise money for education. So the money from state trust land leases - grazing, logging, mining - goes toward Montana schools. But it’s more difficult to lease landlocked sections that have no access, so some sections raise no money. If anyone leases the land, it’s often the owner of the surrounding private land who has little or no competition for the lease.

The issue is significant. One look at the DNRC’s State Trust Land Public Access Map shows all the inaccessible trust land sections highlighted in red, the majority of which are in the southeast portion of the state, although not all red sections are inaccessible due to being landlocked. Still, Brown boasted in January that state trust lands generated $80.8 million for education in fiscal year 2025.

So land exchanges can benefit the state by opening up land, and several exchanges have occurred under Montana’s existing land exchange policy, which was last revised in 2004. But Brown said the existing process can take too long and be “burdened by high costs to the state and land owners alike.” After receiving an application, the new policy would limit DNRC staff to 90 days in which to do its due diligence and to write a report for the Land Board.

“My newly drafted policy expedites and streamlines the exchange process, thereby making state land management more efficient and profitable while preserving public input and transparency,” Brown said.

Some sportsmen question the claims of transparency and whether such a change in policy is justified. They point to a recent land exchange in the Crazy Mountains that was brokered by a third party, the Yellowstone Club. The deal, called the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange, moved nearly 4,000 acres of Forest Service land into private ownership in exchange for more than 6,000 acres of private land. However, it was more land of lesser quality. Most of what the public got was high-elevation ridges while they gave up lower productive valleys along with two popular hiking trails.

“Who has bought a house where you haven’t had your realtor negotiating with the other party’s realtor to look out for you? If there are two clients, how can you assure the public, whose land we’re talking about, gets a fair deal? If you look at recent deals, like the Crazy exchange, the public did not come out on the good end of that one” said Helena hunter Jeff Herbert.

Several hunters are concerned that Brown’s proposal is being pushed by another organization, the Montana Conservation Society, which attracted attention during the 2025 Legislature when its lobbyists sponsored or supported bills that enabled large landowners at the expense of resident hunters.

According to its website, the Montana Conservation Society, which registered with the Secretary of State in September 2022, is “focused on finding lasting, equitable solutions for wildlife management issues on private and public lands, while restoring the strong bonds between landowners, outfitters and hunters.” But the leadership of the Montana Conservation Society is composed of rich landowners, including state senator Wylie Galt, and members of Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, many of whom sell hunts on private ranches.

While Mark Taylor isn’t listed on the Secretary of State filings, he was one of the Montana Conservation Society’s lobbyists, along with representing Montana Outfitters and Guides Association. He also works for the Yellowstone Club, and he has his own anti-public-hunter history. In 2021, Taylor lobbied Fish, Wildlife & Parks to get eight bull elk permits for the Wilkes Brothers to hunt on their ranch near Lewistown.

Meanwhile, the Wilkes Brothers, one of Montana’s largest landowners, have tried to block public access to the Durfee Hills on federal land locked within their ranch and to public roads in the area. Taylor's family owns a 1,500-acre livestock operation - Taylor Land and Livestock Company - also near Lewistown.

In early 2025, Erik Nylund, Montana Sportsmen Alliance board member, acquired a four-page document that Ben Lamb, Montana Conservation Society policy director, wrote in December 2024 detailing issues and likely bills the Society would support or oppose. Some bills favored by the Society, such as Block Management funding, were also favored by other hunter groups. But other issues, such as shunting state money toward the Society’s programs, caused concern for resident sportsmen.

Number One on Lamb’s list of desired bills was a land exchange package that would allow non-profits - conservation organizations - and landowners to develop a land exchange together in order to “help reduce the conflict involved in land exchanges (especially those exchanges that include landlocked public lands).”

According to the document, “Currently, little to no opposition exists within the broader agriculture, outfitters and conservation organization. We expect there to be questions related to how to implement the program from DNRC, but we also are seeing support from the Governor’s office relative to this request.”

That bill never appeared during the 2025 Legislature. But now, the same change is being proposed to the five Republicans elected to various state positions that make up the Land Board.

At the same time, the Montana Conservation Society is already brokering land trades. The organization was recently involved in designing a land exchange in the Sapphire Mountains east of Florence, where the MPG Ranch would acquire more than 1,800 acres of state trust land locked within the ranch in exchange for more than 8,000 acres that MPG would buy from Montana Checkerboard LLC.

DNRC is still considering the trade and has taken initial public comment. Some sportsmen say the state trust land is of better quality than the land DNRC would be getting.

Requests for comment sent to Ben Lamb weren’t returned by press time.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.