Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game For the Montana folks..

What's the deal with the American prairie reserve? Good for Montana? Good for hunters? Heard a podcast with an apr rep that sounded ok, but also had some weird moments (concerning hunter access).

Merry Christmas

I want to find out as well.....I want to hear the facts, no rhetoric from either side...……..bob

I think you will find that the private landowners aren’t as taken with this philosophy as those that are promoting this concept...

Yup !

Dipshits from all over have thought about how they can steal Montana and wide open spaces for their own concept of using someone else’s property for their benefit. This isn’t new...

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/us/plan-for-preserve-aired-in-montana.html

What struck me as odd in the podcast a question was posed to the effect of "could you add into your mission statement a promise to always provide some sort of public hunting easement?" The rebuttal was to the point "no". And then subject of legal easements should be studied for years before putting them in writing due to the difficulties of changing them. Which wasn't the question. Nobody wanted the actual physical easements in place, it was a ceremonial gesture of good faith (in my opinion) that hunters would always be welcomed in some fashion.

Then the apr rep bemoaned lazy tightwad hunters that are unwilling to pay their fair share for wildlife conservation.......not really the stance I'd take if I was begging for money....

My understanding of the APR is that they buy the land. How is that “stealing” someone else’s property?

I wonder where they get the money to buy land?

I'm not from MT, however I looked into APP a bit on their own website. When I look on a map of exactly what they have and where they have it, what's apparent to me is that they can buy a few small (for that country) private pieces and lock-up/deny access to enormous pieces of public land.

The board of directors has some Bios on their website, you might have a look into them.

https://youtu.be/QUW-XemFSFo

I found it interesting that Mr Gerrity gushes about hunting with Steven Rinella, but fails to even mention it at Google......odd. it almost sounded like a big part of his life and apart of conservation, but yet he forgot all about it.

Like so many so called "conservationist" groups out there, APR has been able to paint themselves as pro hunter. They use this to avoid massive backlash against their buying of enormous chunks of land and taking it out of production. They put buffalo on the land and then when they get out, they aren't very neighborly. It's all a big hippie pipedream tied to the Big Open. They are hated in ranching communities by virtually everyone. Hollywood/ big city money is buying up Montana so it can be made into this fool's wonderland.

I know several people that have hunting big game and upland birds on APR property. No complaints.

When I look at what they've purchased, it looks to me like they could nearly close off public access to the N side of the CMR.

Can you imagine only being able to access the CMR by the Hwy on the W end or via the river with the only other option being paying $125/night to stay in one of their Yurts?

I have 0 issue with working ranches doing what they do. I have serious complaint about buying up land specifically to block access to even larger parcels of public land.

It is also odd that all the APR proponents don't own any of that land, haven't lived there, drive a Subaru Outback and yet they know what is best for that land and America. They don't address farmers and ranchers, only their Utopian idea of another wilderness and not only that but the largest in America, referencing the Serengeti in Africa and using it as a model to bring Africa to the plains of Montana.

All Gerrity said is we, us and his view of what he wants to do with Montana. He doesn't like farming and ranching taking up the land to raise beef and grain, when it could be used for a better purpose, APR.

He not only lays claim to private property but all state, BLM, and federal land within his proposed "Ecosystem." How he can propose that when he and his kind keep claiming the Republicans want to privatize federal land, and under his Model, he can change and manage much of the same property they want left alone. When you show me the ranches and farms with "For Sale" signs and the landowners with their hands out for his "buy out" money, then maybe I would be less critical...

so if a rancher buys the land, and intends to block access…...then that is different? .its all the same......bob

The vast majority of rancher's block access, and most deny hunting access to the public given the prevailing prices outfitters will pay. I'd rather have bison grazing on unbroken landscape than cows on fenced-up sections.

I'll keep an open mind about this as I don't have all the facts. However, there's a lot of popular sentiment expressed on this thread, most of which would have left us without National Parks, National Forest, or Wilderness Area's.

> I would agree both ways are very wrong,but some on this post got their own deals with the ranchers in a small way. but in the future we could all lose ? some working ranchers do block access and that`s not good either !

You are an unhappy import that wants what is best for you and don’t want to respect private property rights that have existed longer than Montana has been a state. Quit your bitching about ranchers and landowners that don’t want you on their property or go back to where you came from...

You been arrested yet for defacing public property?

Funny a criminal lecturing me...

And of course you're too ignorant to understand the irony of land seizure in Montana...