Montanans in the White House

Choteau-area rancher Dusty Crary stood beside President Barack Obama this week at the White House, watching over the president’s shoulder as he unveiled the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. Denny Iverson, a rancher along the Blackfoot River and member of the Blackfoot Challenge, had a front-row seat to the event too, as one of the people from throughout the nation who provided the roadmap that laid out the path to the initiative. “It was a great honor for Montana to have someone up on the stage,” Iverson said Thursday. “It could have been any one of us with the Crown of the Continent work, but we were glad to go. It was a lot of fun.” Work on the initiative started with a meeting last June at Jim Stone’s Blackfoot River ranch, which kicked off a series of 51 “listening tours” by government officials aimed at helping them figure out better ways to preserve the landscape and get people outdoors. “It’s about practical, commonsense ideas from the American people on how our natural, cultural and historic resources can help us be a more competitive, stronger and healthier nation,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “Together, we are adapting our conservation strategies to meet the challenges of today and empowering communities to protect and preserve our working lands and natural landscapes for generations to come.” At the White House on Wednesday, Obama signed the memorandum that outlines general goals the administration hopes to pursue in the next few years. Those include encouraging outdoor recreation by Americans; forming coalitions with states, local governments and the private sector; connecting wildlife migration corridors; and encouraging sustainable use of private land. More than 100,000 people offered suggestions on the initiative...more