Public Lands: Will These Days Be The Good Old Days?

Dear Editor,

Privatizing of our public lands is being promoted by politicians. A two minute computer search of Montana's Republican Platform, Page 12, and a two minute computer search of Montana's Democratic Platform, Page 8, will clearly reveal their public land philosophies. The purpose of this article is to explain to Montanans who use public lands, ranchers in this instance, what could happen if the public land they run cows on were privatized.

Recently, while waiting in a doctor's office I picked up a realtor publication that had a ranch for sale in southeastern Montana. A large ranch that will run 900 to 1,000 cows in great cattle country. The asking price was slightly over nine million dollars, which is a typical price these days for such a ranch. Also listed was information that indicated that the ranch had 37,000 plus contiguous acres, of which 20,000 acres are deeded. These numbers indicate that approximately 46 percent (17/37) of the ranch is probably BLM land.

Ranchers who lease public land for grazing know that the fee BLM charges per cow/calf unit month (AUM) is a good deal. If that land were privatized what would your cost be per AUM month? A quick way to find out is to ask your neighbor what he would charge per AUM to run your cows on his private land. It would also be educational to ask Ted Turner what he would charge per AUM to run cows on his private land. Another way is to check the established current rate for private land grazing, which was $23.40 per AUM in March 2019, according to the Congressional Research Service.

What would the value of that choice southeastern Montana ranch be if the BLM portions were sold to the highest bidder? The contiguous acreage would be broken up resulting in checkerboard ownerships. How much would the remaining land sell for? Who could afford to buy it? Could a cattle operation pay for it? Most important, what will that ranch look like in 100 years? None of us will be here in 100 years, but our descendants will be here. What do we want to leave for our descendants? Will they lament what happened in the Good Old Days?

How we vote will determine what we leave for them. A quick look at both political party platforms will indicate their intentions.

Sincerely,

Harold Johns

Butte, Mont.