Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 85 INTERVIEW WITH RAY RASKER, Ph.D. LANDS manufacturing combined). Equally important, public lands make our communities attractive places to live and do business. ey are our com- petitive advantage to help attract and keep talent. So our public lands already have great economic value — and will continue to — if we keep them public and enjoy full access to them. What would greatly degrade these values would be privatizing federal lands, or to manage them for the narrow purposes of turning a short-term profit. at would benefit corporations but would be a great loss for the rest of us. We would lose our scenic views, opportunities to hunt and fish, to experi- ence solitude, wilderness, and the sheer joy of being in nature. We also would lose our heritage and the sense we now have for what it means to be a Montanan, to live close to the land. ENJOYMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS SOUNDS LIKE SOME- THING EVERYONE CAN SUPPORT. BUT HOW WILL SUCH "ENJOYMENT" BE AFFECTED BY INCREASED POPULATION AND ECONOMIC DEMANDS? Two things are happening at the same time: there are more people and fewer resources to manage the impacts. People have discovered Montana and are moving here, bringing with them their businesses and retirement dollars. (Retirement money is huge in Montana; twice the size of all personal income earned in farming, mining, oil and gas development and forestry combined.) is in turn stimulates the economy, resulting in more homes, new high-tech firms, and additional hospitals and clinics. is growth also pressures public lands as more and more people go to public lands to "earn that second paycheck from God." At the same time, the budgets, staff, and resources of federal land management agen- cies are shrinking. As a result, the challenges of over-crowding and conflicting uses are going to have to be solved through collaborative efforts with significant citizen participation. We simply no longer can expect federal managers to do ev- erything on their own. Mountain bikers, anglers, hikers, adventure racers, winter fat tire bikers, snowmobilers, and more are realizing that issues like trail maintenance, signage, and education need to be accomplished collaboratively or it won't get done at all. WHAT IMPACTS WILL CLIMATE CHANGE HAVE ON AC- CESS AND USE OF PUBLIC LANDS IN THE FUTURE? For the long-term, public lands and forests — if properly conserved and managed — will be a major contributor to offsetting and solving the impacts of climate change. ese public lands can store im- mense amounts of carbon and offer the best hope for sustaining the plants, animals, birds, clean air, and clean water so important to Montanans. In the short term, climate change will directly impact access and enjoyment of public lands. It's well documented, for example, that the glaciers of Glacier National Park are disappearing. In addition, threats like wildfire, flooding (or lack of water), invasive species, and other stresses will directly impact and alter how, when, and where we are able to enjoy our public lands — whether it's to hike, float, fish, graze livestock, ski, or hunt. WALLACE STEGNER ONCE SAID THAT "SOMETHING WOULD GO OUT OF US AS A PEOPLE IF WE LET OUR LAST INTACT LANDSCAPES BE BROKEN UP, DEGRADED, SACRIFICED OR LIQUIDATED." DO YOU SEE THIS AS A REAL THREAT FOR MONTANA PUBLIC LANDS OVER THE NEXT 30 YEARS? I see the degradation of Montana's land- scape as on ongoing threat that in recent years has taken on some urgency by the misguided notion that our public lands should be man- aged for profit. When some argue that federal lands should be managed by the state for profit maximization, or sold off to corporations and the wealthy, we are being told that the only way to count benefits is by the profits of corporations. But this is a weak view of the economy. Mon- tana's federal lands inherently hold tremendous economic value. Today, people decide where to live and do business in large part based on quality of life. Modern telecommunications technology, from video chats to nearby airports, put us in touch with the rest of the world. We can live in Mon- tana, have clients in San Francisco and Boston, but fly fish after work instead of simmering in traffic. at is Montana's edge. It is how we out- compete compared to a world that has degraded most of its landscapes and wants to turn back the clock (witness the scramble by many cities to reestablish green spaces). Montana is a public lands state, the envy of the nation. RAY RASKER is the Executive Director of Headwaters Economics, an indepen- dent, nonprofit research group. Our mission is to improve community development and land manage- ment decisions in the West. Topics include: wildfire; federal payments to counties; energy tax policy; the economic role of public lands; and a number of free analytical tools for helping understand the link between the economy and the environment. Our partners include rural communi- ties, state legislatures, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Manage- ment, universities, and nonprofit organizations. Ray has a Ph.D. from the College of Forestry (economics), Oregon State University; a Masters of Agriculture from Colorado State University (agricultural market- ing); and a Bachelors of Science (wildlife biology) from the University of Washington. Ray also holds an affiliate position at Montana State University. ray@headwaterseco- nomics.org, http://headwaterseco- nomics.org

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