Cooperation is essential to timber management

I appreciated Julia Altemus’s column on the history of the Montana legislature. She’s spot on when she says that “we are wired to work together and to help each other, and even though politics can be ugly, policy is the art of the possible.”

I could not agree more. As a 27-year-old outdoor enthusiast, I was excited when over three years ago Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act was introduced. I knew that this was the future of policy making in America.

It will no longer work to have individual groups go up against each other to fight for industrial land use, wilderness, motorized recreation areas, non-motorized recreation areas and other land management practices.

There was too much red tape and litigation to make any progress in land management policy, it seemed, but I could not think of how we could continue forward with the variety of land uses that we all enjoy without angering opposing groups.

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act astounded me with its innovation and compromise. I am in favor of every type of land use — logging, hunting, wilderness, ATVs, mountain bikes, backpackers, stock parties, etc. I think it is essential that we offer opportunities for each group on Montana’s public lands.

I was proud that Montana could step forward and set an example by working together to make policies regarding land management that will benefit everyone. It is not everything that each group would like, but it is seems plenty to make everyone happy. It is the compromise of the bill that is so promising. The only way to make progress in land use policy from now on is to work together.

I am impressed that Sen. Tester set the standard with the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. I am sometimes disappointed in the partisanship that prevents action from being taken in Congress, but I think that this bill is an excellent example of working together to actually get things done. This gives me hope for the future of land management, and that Montana legislators are working together for what is best for Montanans. I’m eager to see more examples of legislation like the forest jobs bill at the local and national levels.

Allison Linville lives in Whitefish.