Valley Journal
Valley Journal

This Week’s e-Edition

Current Events

Latest Headlines

What's New?

Send us your news items.

NOTE: All submissions are subject to our Submission Guidelines.

Announcement Forms

Use these forms to send us announcements.

Birth Announcement
Obituary

Montana Water Protection Act is a bad bill

Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local. You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.



Subscribe now to stay in the know!

Already a subscriber? Login now

Senators Daines and Tester are co-sponsoring draft legislation in the US Senate entitled the “Montana Water Rights Protection Act” ostensibly to approve the Flathead Irrigation Water Compact Agreement approved by the Montana Legislature. However, the bill goes far beyond this agreement. 

As “concessions” to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, they receive $1.9 billion (that’s $425,000 per tribal member), 36,000 acres of public land and the National Bison Range. 

The NBR was established by Congress at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 to preserve bison from extinction and was purchased from CSKT as grazing land at the going rate of $1.56/acre ($807,000 in today’s currency). The original bison herd of 40 animals was purchased with private funds by the American Bison Society. Since then, millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on infrastructure and other big game animals, transforming the NBR into a world-class game park, often called the “crown jewel” of the National Wildlife Refuge system. Its current assets are valued at $25 million, its commercial value is far higher, and like our National Parks, the value to future generations cannot be expressed in monetary terms.  

In 1972, CSKT received the current equivalent of $129 million as compensation for reservation land taken for governmental purposes, including townships, schools and the NBR. Like 40 percent of land on the Flathead Reservation that is non-tribal owned, the NBR is owned by the Federal Government for all Americans. 

Giving a National Wildlife Refuge to a sovereign nation would set a terrible and inappropriate precedent and would not be ignored by other Indian tribes in the country. It should not be done without the public’s permission. 

The NBR has absolutely nothing to do with water rights and should not be used as a “bargaining chip” with CSKT. Control of the NBR by the CSKT would also mean the loss of a decade of management expertise by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a very complex ecosystem.

It is doubtful that the senators have either the right or authority to give away federal lands. Anyone who is opposed to federal land giveaways should be opposed to this bill.  Simply said, it is a bad bill from several perspectives and should be withdrawn, renegotiated and re-written. 

Save the National Bison Range. Call Daines at 202-224-2651 or write to 320 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510; and call Tester at 202-224-2644 or write to 311 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. Express your opposition to this federal land give-away.

Philip L Barney, president, and Wayne Schiele, vice president, formed Protect Public Lands, LLC, and own property near Polson. 

Sponsored by: