Last year, the Wilks brothers opened access across their property to allow the public access to the Upper Missouri River Breaks Monument.  It was a good-faith effort as part of a land exchange they were proposing to the BLM.  Their proposal was a generous one—they were offering more acreage to the BLM, and property that had better public access (the public land they proposed to exchange for is only accessible by aircraft). BLM has refused to negotiate this land exchange amid opposition from environmental groups.  So in response, in an oped appearing today in the Great Falls Tribune, Farris Wilks has announced they will no longer allow access through their property to the Upper Missouri River Breaks.  Mr. Wilks writes: While we will close our gates in the coming days, we continue to stand...

Under a new proposal from the National Park Service, Yellowstone Park bison that have been exposed to brucellosis could be transferred to testing facilities at locations across Montana.  The first proposed location is on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. To be clear, these are animals that have not been ruled brucellosis free.  The proposal is to quarantine and test the animals for the disease for a period of time, after which they would be released as wild, free-roaming bison on the Reservation. Rule 1 in preventing a disease’s proliferation is to isolate the disease to one area.  It makes no sense to transfer brucellosis-exposed bison to other parts of Montana. UPOM has strongly objected to this proposal for the obvious dangers it presents to Montana’s agriculture economy. ...