Last, best place for a reason

I spent the morning in the wake of a dog hunting shaprtail grouse on my public land.

On the way back to town I listened to Aaron Flint, host of the radio show Voices of Montana, preach to the choir. He opened the show with a reference to Kerry White, who had called in the previous Friday to lament the closing of roads on public land.

White, a state legislator (R-Bozeman), is an old friend of mine. He’s also a motor-head. If he can’t ride a four-wheeler or snowmobile on my public lands he cries foul, claims he’s been shut out. He’ll hitch his wagon to any nut job that feels the same. He voiced his support last year for certified wingnut Cliven Bundy in his fight with the BLM over unpaid grazing fees, and more recently threw in with those fine folks who wanted to privatize my public lands.

He’s one of a growing number of highly evolved yahoos who have apparently lost use of their legs or simply prefer to twist a throttle instead of walk.

I wrote a column about White last winter calling him “a voice of reason.” I should have known better. He contacted me seeking a correction.

I suppose it’s how we were raised. White comes from a family that owns land in the Gallatin Valley. I come from a family that, with the help of a bank, owned a house.

I grew up where there were roads everywhere, and nearly all the land was private. I dreamed of endless tracts of roadless public land. I found that in Montana.

White grew up here, but for some reason seems to want what two-thirds of the rest of the country has in abundance: private land criss-crossed with public roadways.

White, like Aaron Flint, is extremely predictable. His response to this column will be that roadless areas exclude the old and the infirm. He’s simply looking out for the less fortunate.

The beauty of country accessible only on foot or horseback is lost on White.

I spent five days last week hunting public land in the Beartooth Mountains and I wasn’t alone. I ran into bow hunters and fishermen and even a Republican state senator from Billings whose only complaint was that he hadn’t seen any elk.

This isn’t the last, best place because it’s like everywhere else. It’s the last, best place because it isn’t.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]