HB 440 had a hearing in Appropriations today.
The bill would take $1.25 million out of Habitat Montana and put into a new program that duplicates an existing program called Access Montana. Access Montana has a surplus of over $300,000 in it because the demand for easements that are exclusively used to open public lands isn't there.
Access Montana was created using the Come Home to Hunt license dollars. It's goal is the exact same as HB 440, which is to provide access easments on private property. Landowners have had the opportunity to get any easment they have wanted over the last few years and the routinely choose Conservation Easments because they make more economic sense.
HB 440 is really about stripping the funding from the program that allows FWP to purchase land and creating the optics of increasing access when in reality it won't. It's a little schizophrenic.
Call 406-444-4800 and say no to HB 440. You can also email them at: http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/63rd/legwebmessage.asp
The bill would take $1.25 million out of Habitat Montana and put into a new program that duplicates an existing program called Access Montana. Access Montana has a surplus of over $300,000 in it because the demand for easements that are exclusively used to open public lands isn't there.
Access Montana was created using the Come Home to Hunt license dollars. It's goal is the exact same as HB 440, which is to provide access easments on private property. Landowners have had the opportunity to get any easment they have wanted over the last few years and the routinely choose Conservation Easments because they make more economic sense.
HB 440 is really about stripping the funding from the program that allows FWP to purchase land and creating the optics of increasing access when in reality it won't. It's a little schizophrenic.
Call 406-444-4800 and say no to HB 440. You can also email them at: http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/63rd/legwebmessage.asp
