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It is summertime in Montana. Drive down the road, and you will see Montanans pulling their campers to their favorite campsites, hauling their mountain bikes to their favorite trails, or dragging their boats in search of fish. In the fall, they are likely to be adorned with hunter’s orange in pursuit of Montana’s ample wild game. All of these pursuits rely on public lands and Montanans’ ability to access those lands.

Unfortunately, there are two ways to privatize our public lands – you can sell them, or you can block established, legal public access to those lands. In either case, the public is left on the outside. Lands the public cannot access are, for all practical purposes, private lands, even if the public does derive some income from those lands.

Recently, the U.S. Forest Service removed District Ranger Alex Sienkiewicz from his position in the Yellowstone Ranger District pending an internal investigation into his efforts to defend historical Forest Service trails and easements along the Crazy Mountains. Sienkiewicz is a Montanan who is raising his family in Livingston. He is an important part of our community. In addition to being an assault on the public’s right to legally access its lands, this re-assignment threatens the Sienkiewicz’s family’s well-being and instills fear in our public employees who work for all of the public.