Columnists| Columnists

Ecology means conserving diverse habitats, which is essential for native species to thrive. This is the right thing to do on our public lands.

Some public land users take the best, most valuable resources for private use. They seek out the next-best and the best after the best has been taken. This is the downward spiral of high grading.

For example, grazing had caused so much damage to public lands in the West that each cow needed so much arid ground that neither private landowners or the states would take ownership. The lands were therefore placed under federal protection. This was the beginning of the Bureau of Land Management.

Commercial livestock grazing continues to damage public lands, even though it is permitted. It extracts grasses, forage and water, displaces native wildlife, introduces invasive plants and disturbs the soil biome. This damage affects approximately half of the public lands that are part of grazing allotments.

The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act proposes a collaboration to find what works best for people, rather than building a scientific basis of what works for healthy forests. This act provides roads, trails and logging for sections with the best available resources, despite the fact that these sections are critical habitat for the wildlife and fragmenting the rest of the habitat.

The new Custer Gallatin Forest plan also provides recreationists with high-quality habitat. It also reduces acreage that is under protection for wildlife and wilderness qualities. There are thousands of miles of off-road and bike trails on Montana public lands. Why would you expand this recreation to roadless wildlands?

High-grading can disrupt wildlife, reduce biodiversity, introduce invasive species, and contribute to erosion, sediment runoff into rivers, and the land drying. In addition, wildlife near people is a breeding ground for zoonotic disease such as Lyme, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, COVID, and other severe acute respiratory syndromes.

High-graders rule and pieces are lost.

The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act is a better approach. This bill is the result of collaboration that uses science to determine what is best for wildlife and the land. What is good for the forests, meadows and grasslands, as well as for the riparian areas, wetlands, creeks, and rivers, is good both for wildlife and people.

Climate change will impact species in many ways, but all of them are linked. Climate change is already affecting species in different ways. It is already causing shifts in seasons, shifting stressors and shifting species. It is also presenting more extreme weather and variable weather. Conservation of native vegetation and healthy soils are cheaper than artificial methods to capture carbon. This is the premise behind 30×30, which protects 30% of the land by 2030.

Wildlife require a variety of niches in order to survive in a changing environment and to live through their life cycles.

According to a study published in Science in 2019, bird population is a great indicator of the environmental health. In fact, the number of birds has fallen to three billion, or nearly 30%, over the past 50 years. The number of western forest birds has dropped by about 50%.

Ecological forestry refers to forestry that is friendly to birds. Different species of birds require different habitats and habitats at different stages in their lives. The U.S. Forest Service adopted ecological forestry as a principle because every type of habitat is vital for healthy forests. Each niche is part of our natural heritage.

Let’s not give Montana away.

Let’s save everything.