OPINION: Reject East Crazy Mountains land swap proposal
Just like Holland Lake, the U.S. Forest Service is at it again — trying to pull a fast one on the public by putting forward a significant proposal that would negatively impact our public lands, public access and public opportunities. All the while private interests would get exactly what they want.
The USFS recently put forth the proposed “East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange.” The proposal is complex and convoluted, intertwining what should be a simple land exchange in the Yellowstone Club’s Big Sky-area property with a very complex land exchange in the east Crazy Mountains, more than 100 miles away.
Turns out, the Custer-Gallatin National Forest refused to entertain a land exchange involving the Yellowstone Club property unless the Yellowstone Club used the weight of its money to “solve public access” in the Crazies. Now we have two very different, otherwise unrelated land exchanges, and the public must choose to reject both or accept both with no alternatives offered. This is the epitome of poor leadership at the USFS’s Region 1 office.
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