SigMT

SiG MT 63 Aer the dra feasibility study was released for a 45-day public review in July, the board created an online comment form on its website to solicit feedback from the community. Notices were sent out to over 400 residents, news releases were published by five Montana newspapers, announcements were issued via radio stations in Great Falls, and copies of the feasibility study were made available in Fort Benton and Cascade County libraries, state offices, city and county commission offices, congressional offices, and at the four national landmark locations contained within the proposed NHA. In mid-July, the Montanans Opposing Big Sky Country National Heritage Area group began circulating a petition of dissention. e opposition petition amassed 1,500 signatures in just two weeks – a figure that has more than doubled since that time. "If one of the key advantages of the NHA is citizen voice and resident voice, and only 1.7 percent of the residents have said yes…and we have twice as many in a much, much, much shorter timeframe that have said, resoundingly, no – how is that 'citizen voice?'" Janet asked. It is a question she said the NHA still hasn't responded to. "I'm not here to tell you what to think or how to make a decision," Janet said. "I'm here to share some information in terms of what I've found as I've been looking into these national heritage areas." "My husband's family has been stewarding that land since the 1800s, and that somebody may be able to come in and interfere with that stewardship is something that causes alarm," she added. "If it is a resident-voiced, grassroots effort, we need to be a part of the conversation." e farming and ranching communities have been abuzz regarding the proposal in recent months. According to apiarist Rae Grulkowski, who also raises poultry alongside her husband near Stocke, a slew of organizations and government entities developed resolutions in opposition of the BSCNHA this past fall. ey include the Chouteau, Hill, Liberty, Blaine, and Cascade County Farm Bureaus, the City of Belt, the Town of Cascade, the United Stockgrowers of America Ranchers-Calemen Legal Fund, Hilltop Huerite Colony, the Chouteau County Trailblazers, the Eden Community Hall, and the Great Falls Association of Realtors. e Montana Farm Bureau Federation followed suit, as have the Commissioners Offices in both Chouteau and Cascade Counties. Other groups who have signed on with resolutions of non-support include the Montana Stockgrowers Association, the Foothills Livestock Association, the Montana Grain Growers Association, the Home Builders Association of Great Falls, and the Montana Wool Growers Association. e Commissioners of Phillips County and Fergus County have steadfastly opposed the BSCNHA since April of 2016. "One of the concerns that the Cascade Conservation District has is this: We cannot trace any significant effort to inform and directly engage the private landowners – those that live and work out in the country, on the land that would be impacted," the Cascade Conservation District Board of Supervisors said in a recent press release. e board has formally voiced its opposition to the NHA, but also noted that they do not "doubt the good intentions" of those involved in the proposed designation. "In fact, their objectives are honorable in that the potential for economic development and growth is at the heart of this effort," the board noted. "But we submit that perhaps more energy should be dedicated to aracting and robustly engaging the people that live here on the land." Rae Grulkowski and Ron Carpenter. A rainbow cuts through the gray of a stormy summer sky.

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