Daines, Gianforte owe us a fair deal on public lands

Over the years we inhaled plenty of Montana wilderness trail dust. We’re a couple of long-in-the-tooth recreational horse and mule packers who enjoy wandering in our Montana public lands. We have a few bones to pick with Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte. Mainly, we don’t approve of their land grab of the people’s Wilderness Study Areas, or WSAs.

Sen. Daines’ bill S2206 is titled, “The Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act.” Sounds benign right? It ain’t. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This bill was introduced to remove the wilderness protection on 449,500 acre...