Sen. Tester's forest bill stirs dissent from ranchers

Rick Sandru fears voices like his aren't being heard in Montana's latest debate about wilderness and logging. Sandru is the president of the Ruby Valley Stock Association, a group of ranchers in western Madison County that runs thousands of cattle in the upper Ruby Valley. As proposed in Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, about half the 70,000 acres of National Forest the eight ranches lease for grazing would be designated wilderness -- just a small piece of the 600,000 new acres of wilderness proposed statewide. The bill tries to accommodate ranchers like Sandru by specifying that existing ranch operations in the Snowcrests won't be affected by the bill, but Sandru said he remains deeply skeptical about the plan. "We don't feel that that provision is strong enough," Sandru said. "These things end up in court, and they are thrown out in court." "We're not unreasonable, and we don't hate wilderness," he said. "We just feel this is a bad deal for our livelihoods."...read more