Last week, folks on the East Coast got a small taste of something all too common in Montana: smoke from wildfires. In this case, the wind blew smoke from fires in Canada down and covered New York City and Washington, D.C.This came as a shock to these East Coasters but to those of us from Montana, it’s all too common every single summer. Unfortunately, fringe environmental groups and leftist judges refuse to give up in their quest to stop forest treatment projects that are needed to prevent the catastrophic fires we see year after year.One of the ways we can put a stop to this madness is by fixing the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ Cottonwood decision. This ruling created confusion, and mounds of paperwork for those managing our forests.Fortunately there is a fix and on May 17, 2023, my bipartisan 9th Circuit Cottonwood fix legislation passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I’m thankful for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who unanimously supported my bill, and it is past time to get this done in the full Senate and signed into law. We’ve got to cut the red tape. We’ve got to combat the fringe litigation. We’ve got to solve this problem. I’m focused on fixing our laws to give more power to local and state leaders to properly manage our forests.
Montana Proud,
Senator Steve Daines
