Many private landowners nurture public wildlife As sports men and women gear up for the hunting season, they are also being bombarded with information about how they should vote. At the top of the list is gun rights, but they should not forget public access and habitat protection when flipping the switch in the polling booth. Whether it is trout streams or habitat for big game and "watchable wildlife," private landowners provide a plethora of public benefits, sometimes at substantial costs to themselves. For example, a study from Montana State University estimates that on private land in Montana big game animals consume forage worth more than $31 million — forage that would otherwise go to feed the landowner's livestock. For this, sports people can thank the private landowner who literally provides a free lunch. But is it enough to depend on the benevolence of the private landowner? The great conservationist Aldo Leopold thought not. He is known for trying to inculcate a "land ethic" in the private landowner, but he knew this was not enough. As he put it, "Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest." Unfortunately, many Montana sports men and women resist providing such rewards....