Whoa. The National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act (HR 1505), introduced April 13, 2011 and co-sponsored by our own House Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) will give Congress unprecedented access to Federal Lands in the name of Homeland Security along our shared borders and coastlines. Short and sweet, HR 1505 blocks any interference by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture and gives the Department of Homeland Security “immediate access to any public land managed by the Federal Government…for purposes of conducting in activities that assist in securing the border (including access to maintain and construct roads, construct a fence, use vehicles to patrol, and set up monitoring equipment).” It goes on to list 36 previously enacted laws it could waive if deemed necessary including the Endangered Species Act, the Farmland Protection Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the Fish and Wildlife Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, and a whole host of others designed to protect ourselves and our shared lands. Public lands falling “within one hundred miles of the international land and maritime borders of the United States” could be commandeered by the Federal Government at a moment’s notice, no vote, no warnings. For Montana this includes Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, Native American Tribal Lands and acres and acres of National Forest and B.L.M. Land.

Really, Mr. Rehberg? In a state that values open space, free spirits and rugged individualism, it is hard to see the benefits of so much big government power. It takes only a brief look at our southern border to see that all the money, troops, patrols and fences don’t equate to security. And at the cost of the land itself we seek to protect, these extreme measures seem hardly worth our liberties, our land and our integrity. Not only is this an insult to Canada, our partner and ally, but an insult to the American people and their sensibilities. What is it we are really trying to protect? Do our means do justice to our ends? “Freedom, not safety is the highest good,” so wrote the late Edward Abbey, author, patriot and champion of the American West. And what else, in such a vast nation both in size and spirit, exemplifies our freedom, the wilderness of human existence and emotion than the wilderness itself? Every time these lands are lost, whether by Native Americans or contemporary Americans to the powers that be, we, the people, become lost. Because without such a place to be lost, no one may ever quite be found.
Look it up! You can go to thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.1505: to read the bill in its entirety. Contact Denny Rehberg and tell him what you think! Billings District Office 1201 Grand Avenue, Suite #1 Billings, MT 59102 ph: (406) 256-1019 fax: (406) 256-4934 or call 1-800-232-2626.