“Where would Ravalli County come up with that kind of cash?” Bull said.

***

But State Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, urged the commission to support any move to force the federal government to turn management over to the state.

Ballance said the voice of Montana’s relatively small population is drowned out by more populous regions on making management decisions on federal lands.

Theresa Manzella, a candidate for state representative from Darby, echoed Ballance’s views, saying Montana has lagged economically following a downturn in timber and ranching industries.

Manzella said the state does a better job of managing its timberlands than the federal government. Manzella said she was very concerned about the way fire is being managed on national forest lands.

Doug Soren said his family moved to the Bitterroot in 1928 in part to escape the Depression. They came here, he said, because they knew that everything they needed – hunting, fishing and fuel – could be found on the federal lands that were open to everyone.

“If a person was willing to work for it, they could get what they needed to get by,” he said.