The second action that makes American Prairie Reserve (APR) not popular among local communities is their current land acquisition and their future plans to amass 3.5 million acres in order to create the largest park in the Northern Great Plains. This is 26.6% of the total 13,143,680 acres of the 5-county region where the APR plans to operate. What does this mean for the people who already live in this region, within the bounds of this planned park?
The APR currently owns 400,000 acres of private land. According to their website, this land supports 8 families and returns $1.9M to the local economy. Contrast that to 400,000 acres of privately owned land in Phillips County that supports 124 families and returns $9.6M to the local economy. Can the local counties, businesses, schools, and families afford for APR to achieve their ultimate land ownership vision? It is time for the Montana Legislature to stop this by limiting the number of acres that can be owned by non-profit organizations.
Furthermore, the APR's claim that they are opening up land for public access is inflated to say the least. When you examine the map of the APR "project area" 3M acres of the APR vision or 86% of the total APR vision of 3.5M acres, are already accessible public lands (BLM, CMR NWR). What gives APR the right to claim ownership of the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument and the Charles M Russell National Wildlife Refuge?
Is it because they believe that they have a "better" idea or a "higher" use of the land, than a working landscape? APR is openly playing on the ignorance of US citizens and potential donors about public land accessibility and uses.
We must remember that in Montana, agriculture is our leading industry. I'm not saying that there is not a place in Montana for tourism, because there is, but I wholeheartedly believe that tourism cannot replace our ag economy.
For example, the ranchers that are still there and not affected by the APR, cannot all open dude ranches and glamping operations, or that market will get flooded as well. Again, my challenge to everyone in Montana is to realize how much revenue the ag industry brings to the state coffers of Montana as compared to the tourist industry, which has no real tax mechanism to capture these dollars.
A question was posed to me, what would happen to Central and Eastern Montana if the APR was stopped, and quit buying up all these acres? What does that change?
There are still wealthy landowners that are not traditional ranchers that will buy these properties. In my opinion, a certain percentage of these inflated land values would drop to a more realistic point. However, even if land prices stay inflated, and these lands are bought by private individuals with enough money to purchase these ranches for hunting or recreation, chances are, that ranch will be leased back to a local family, and cattle will continue to be raised in the area with all the economic benefits.
Moreover, these ranches often change hands again within less than 20 years, making them available for new agriculture operations in the future. The non-profit status of the APR makes it doubtful that these properties will ever enter the market again in the future, which means they are permanently removed from agriculture. Yes, the APR is leasing to cattle producers....for now; but, this is temporary while they build their bison herds to the point that would not allow this land to be grazed by cattle in the future.
It boils down to a simple matter of economics for rural Montana Communities. I recently attended a CMR Community Working Group meeting where I listened to what Mark Haggerty of Headwaters Economics had to say about rural communities dying. He had some good points, but in all reality, rural Montana has always struggled. We understand hardship, and know what it is like to fight the weather, the markets, and infringements from local, state, and federal governments and encroaching special interest groups. But in my opinion, that does not mean that rural Montana is dying off.
In conclusion, the simplest way that I can explain the difference between ag dollars and tourism dollars to people, is to describe what one piece of machinery sold at the local equipment dealer means to the community. When a farmer or rancher purchases a combine and a new header at the estimated price tag of $480,000, that money turns over 7 times in that local community.
That equals $3.3Million. So, my question is how many tourists have to visit Winifred, Winnett, and Big Sandy to replace $3.3Million? And that is just one piece of machinery! If you don't like my economic analysis, then provide me with real numbers based on research. At least you now understand the concerns of citizens living in these areas, and we can start to have a factual conversation about the impacts of the APR. I will leave you with these thoughts of mine to ponder, agree with, disagree with, but at least there will be 2 sides to the story and you will have something to think about from top to bottom as I see what is transpiring in our Montana agriculture lifestyle.
