Commentary

Just like clockwork, Montana’s junior senator, Steve Daines and representative Matt Rosendale, have repeated the timber industry propaganda on forest management at their recent Western Caucus roundtable in Bozeman. Montanans, however, not only deserve better, they deserve the truth.

Rep. Rosendale, like Sen, Daines and Gov. Greg Gianforte, has once again attempted to demonize conservation groups by facetiously claiming they get rich by suing the Forest Service.

As one of the organizations that frequently takes the Forest Service to court to make it follow the law like the rest of us, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies files lawsuits under the Equal Access to Justice Act. But it’s not to get rich, it’s to ensure that the Forest Service doesn’t merely serve the for-profit interests of the timber industry. It’s to make the agency use the best available science and to ensure that we have sustainable fish and wildlife habitat on our public lands.

The First Amendment not only guarantees freedom of speech, it also gives citizens the right to sue the federal government for very good reasons. If someone throws a brick through a window, the police enforce the law. But when the federal government breaks the law, citizens are often the only “enforcers” and they have to hire attorneys to represent them in court. The Equal Access to Justice Act ensures “payment of reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses to parties who prevail against the United States in a civil action.”

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