I couldn't imagine a better place

I found some new country to hunt last week. A large expanse of federal land, it offers limited motorized access. In the short time I spent there I saw grouse, partridge, pheasants, ducks, mule deer and antelope.

I can’t wait to return.

Upon my arrival back at the house, however, I heard Jennifer Fielder, a Republican state senator from Thompson Falls, decrying the dismal state of our federal lands on the Voices of Montana radio show.

Fielder advocates transferring federal public land to the states. Earlier this year she was named CEO of the American Lands Council, a non-profit organization with the same goal.

While I listened to Fielder rant about the poor state of our federal lands, I kept thinking about the country I’d just seen, lush with still-green grass, full of game, devoid of people.

I couldn’t imagine a better place.

But I suspect my utopia isn’t hers.

Fielder, a darling of the oil and gas industry, says federal lands in Montana need to be “actively” managed. I suspect that means more mining and logging and drilling. She blames every forest fire on federal mismanagement and claims we’re too often being locked out of our public lands.

Locked out, however, appears to mean something different to Fielder than it does to me. She considers it the closing of roads to motorized vehicles. But if I still have access on foot, horseback or skis, I hardly consider myself locked out.

Fielder’s argument for transferring federal lands to the states only holds water if you buy into her belief that if it doesn’t happen, we’re all going to hell in a handbasket.

If that sounds like just more malarkey from the woman who supported the moronic yahoos who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, you’re right

Fielder, like most Republicans these days, wants you to know how bad things are and how desperately they need to be changed. Forget cheap gas and low unemployment. Forget millions of acres of public land where thousands of Montanans hunt and fish quite contentedly. If you’re content you aren’t listening to enough conservative talk radio. The federal boogeyman is still coming to get you. It’s simply a matter of time.

Just ask Fielder.

She’s looking out for your interests even if you don’t know what they are.

Parker Heinlein is at

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