The chapter has added a number of new chapter leaders to accommodate the growth we are seeing from last year. With this new blood in the chapter, we have greatly increased our capacity to be more engaged in policy and have started planning more events and volunteer opportunities moving forward in 2019.             With the state legislation in full swing, most of our attention has been towards commenting and activating our members to voice our opinion on bills focused on public lands and our ...

By Patrick Reilly - July 30th, 2019 - Originally published in the Missoulian Montana conservation groups are describing the Bureau of Land Management’s new acting director as a threat to public lands. On Monday, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order naming William Perry Pendley, a lawyer with a long history of opposition to public lands, acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley had recently been named the Bureau’s Deputy Director for Policy and Programs; this ...

The Trump administration just designated William Perry Pendley, a career advocate for the sale of public lands in the West, as acting director for the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley is the former president and founder of the pro-development law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation. He has written several books advocating the privatization of public lands and has ties to a number of notorious anti-public land groups, including the American Lands Council. In 2016 he wrote a National ...

By Tristan Scott - July 29, 2019 - Originally published in the Flathead Beacon A coalition of conservation and sportsmen groups on July 29 denounced the hiring of William Perry Pendley as the new acting co-director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), saying his support for selling off millions of acres of public lands puts him at odds with the agency’s core mission, which is to administer public lands. Pendley also has a deep connection to Northwest Montana — not as a resident, but ...

By Nicky Ouellet - July 26, 2019 - Originally published on MTPR.org Montana’s working lands, wildlife, state parks and trails face tens of millions of dollars in unmet funding needs, according to a new report commissioned by a Montana coalition that’s advocating for more public funding for recreational public lands. The report, commissioned by the Montana Outdoor Heritage Project and compiled by Headwaters Economics, argues available funding isn’t keeping up with Montanans’ growing demand ...