Protect and manage federal BLM land

Conserve public land

I read with interest Karl Puckett’s Sept. 14 story, “Sportsmen seek protections for BLM backcountry,” about the Bureau of Land Management’s new efforts to protect Montana’s undeveloped backcountry lands.

It’s welcome news at a time when many pressures are coming to bear on the kind of hunting opportunities that most of us have grown up with and have taken for granted.

As resident sportsmen, we’re witnessing what has been long the norm in more crowded states — loss of access to private lands, less public opportunity and less wildlife.

We’re living in a fast-changing world and a challenging economy. We Montanans are fortunate to have the lands managed by the BLM. They are some of the last best opportunities for people of average means to get out and hunt, fish and camp on a Montana-sized scale and Montana-sized budget.

The BLM should be commended for managing these lands so wildlife, public access, hunting and camping are still there to be enjoyed by all of us.

We didn’t appreciate what we had until some politicians proposed disposing of valuable public land. The focus needs to be on conserving this land for what makes them so unique and so valuable — real, undeveloped backcountry, the opportunity to hunt and hike in solitude, a wealth of wildlife and room to roam. We all need to strongly support the BLM for conserving the best of what we have. They aren’t making any more of it.

— Greg Munther,

Missoula