Representatives have not done job on wilderness bill

Will the most recent congressional legislation intended to designate new wilderness areas in Montana become law? Not a chance. Does it deserve to become law? No.

The prime co-sponsors of the bill, known as the Northern Rockies Environment Protection Act, or NREPA, are a Republican from Connecticut, Chris Shays, and a Democrat from upstate New York, Carolyn Maloney. Their bill, if passed into law, would triple the wilderness in Montana to a total of 10 million acres and add an additional 22 million acres of designated wilderness in the Western states of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.

Many folks out this way are asking why Eastern representatives have introduced a bill to finally settle Montana's 30-year question about which of our remaining wild lands should be protected as wilderness.

That's a fair question. But here's a better one: Why has it been more than a decade since a made-in-Montana bill was introduced by our own congressional delegation?

The lands in question are critically important, assuring pristine habitat for the last of the nation's great herds of animals, protecting the unspoiled headwaters and basins for the Missouri to our east and the Columbia to our west, and securing Montana's landscape as our cash register, beckoning hunters, anglers, hikers and campers. These wild lands are what make this the last best place.

It is wrong, if not downright embarrassing, that Montana and Idaho are the only states in the entire nation to not have satisfied the imperative of providing the ultimate protection of wilderness designation to the most important of our remaining wild lands.

Here in these two states of the Northern Rockies, 15 million acres of our soaring, sparkling landscape remain in jeopardy. The threats are from not only the inappropriate uses that would scar and degrade the land and waters, but are internal to us and from our abject failure, year after year, to provide the appropriate protections for these places.

Yes, these are national lands, belonging not only to us but also to all Americans. Under federal law, the fate of these lands must be decided by acts of the U.S. Congress.

However, the history of wilderness designations has been that the Congress has followed the guidance of those who represented the area, the states within which the lands under consideration were located. The Congress has, with only Alaska as the lone exception, waited until a state's senators or representatives introduced a wilderness proposal and then followed the lead of that state's delegation.

But how long shall we wait? It's been 30 years since the first Montana-made wilderness proposals were brought before the Congress. Twelve years have passed since a Montanan has even introduced a bill to protect this place. Why do we delay on this matter of such significance?

No, the Congress will not pass the NREPA bill now before them. It is flawed in many ways, including changing the formulas for how our schools are funded through timber-harvest fees, adjusting boundaries of our national parks, and the virtual confiscation of private property rights.

No, NREPA should not pass but neither should Montana continue to ignore the imperative of securing wilderness protection for the remaining wild slivers of the last best place.

Pat Williams served nine terms as a U.S. representative from Montana. After his retirement, he returned to Montana and is now teaching at the University of Montana, where he also serves as a senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West.