Montana's House of Representatives just made it apparent that sticking with the party lines is vastly more important than providing habitat to one of Montana's iconic wild animals in a time when it's livelihood is being challenged more than ever. If you haven't heard, House Bill 403 just took a big black sharpie through $849,000 for the Upland Game Bird Program; $10.6 million for Habitat Montana; $345,000 for fishing access site acquisition; and $460,000 for bighorn sheep habitat.
Why is this 460K so important? Well, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep is having a pretty rough time these days, especially in Montana. It's all in the news...just google, bing, tweet, yahoo or whatever you feel like "bighorn sheep pneumonia" and it's easy to see why they need as much help as possible and they need it NOW. Just recently, the Gardiner/Cinnabar herd just north of Yellowstone Park lost 40% of its herd, with more deaths expected in the near future. It's happening all over the state and the sheep need help because what we have been doing obviously isn't working.
The sponsor of House Bill 403, Rep. Dave Hagstrom, R-Billings, said the reasoning behind the decision was that the GOP doesn't want Montana FWP "buying more land" although the bill actually states the money is for "acquisition, land leasing, easement purchases, or development agreements." Essentially money that could be vital in helping distance disease carrying domestic sheep from our wild sheep is now gone unless our Senators strike this bill down. The less chance of interaction between domestic and wild sheep, the less chance of huge die offs like they currently are going through. And a great way to decrease these interactions is by...guess what?!? "Acquisition, land leasing, easement purchases, or development agreements" of bighorn sheep habitat!
Wildlife conservation should not be a political issue divided by party lines...it's all encompassing. Both sides enjoy what Montana has to provide us and the health and livelihood of our public land and native animals should not fall on one side or another of the political divide. I won't give up on Montana's bighorns and other wildlife in our state like our representatives just did and neither should you. Contact your local state Senator's and demand them to vote against Montana House Bill 403.
_Comancho T
Thanks to LUDA Photography for the photos
