Audubon at the 2009 Montana Legislature
The 2009 Montana Legislature ended in late-April. With Montana’s legislature convening for only 90 days every other year, each day brought new challenges for Audubon’s priorities and environmental protection legislation. Here is a brief synopsis of what occurred.
In terms of Montana Audubon’s priority bills, we mostly have bad news:
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The Big Sky Rivers Act (HB 445) which proposed to protect 10 “Big Sky Rivers” from having houses built too close to their banks died in the House Local Government Committee on a tie vote;
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Our legislation to change the definition of nongame wildlife (HB 443)—so that MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) has clear authority to manage such species as hawks, owls, bats, and prairie dogs—passed the House 53 – 47, but was gutted in the Senate;
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Our wind farm study bill (HB 584), which would have set up an 18-month study to develop state guidelines for wind farms that were willing to “go the extra mile” to minimize their impact on wildlife and wildlife habitat passed the House 82 – 18, but failed in the Senate on a tie vote (25 – 25); and
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Legislation to establish an Energy Efficiency Standard for Utilities (HB 641), which would save ratepayers money on their utility bills, decrease the demand for utility services, and decrease global warming pollution died in the House Energy Committee on a tie vote.
In addition to our priority bills, Montana Audubon worked on a variety of issues, including bills that address global warming and our use of energy; environmental permitting; wildlife and wildlife habitat, which includes policy issues and funding for programs; land use planning issues that can impact wildlife and wildlife habitat; and issues impacting water quality and quantity.
Through this work, we also had a few victories:
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Protecting Bird Feeding. We attached an amendment to a bill that would have prohibited the feeding of deer to ensure that bird feeding would still be permitted in the state (SB 202).
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Defeating anti-wildlife legislation. We played a leadership role to defeat legislation that would: 1) require FWP to reimburse livestock owners from brucellosis tests required of livestock (SB 228), and 2) assert that the state of Montana could ignore the Endangered Species Act and manage wolves however they see fit (SB 183).
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Protecting current environmental laws. We played a leadership role to defeat legislation aimed at weakening the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) (e.g., HB 566, SB 417, and SB 440) and the federal Clean Water Act (SJR 7).
Other conservation victories of the 2009 Montana Legislature involved bills we testified in support of to protect recreational access to bridges (HB 190) and aid with the purchase of more than 100,000 acres of land currently owned by Plum Creek Timber Company (e.g. HB 402 and HB 674).
During the legislature, over 1,300 bills were introduced, and of those, Montana Audubon monitored over 300 bills. Janet Ellis and her outstanding legislative assistant Casey Perkins testified on 70 bills, supporting 39 pieces of legislation, ranging from funding the nongame wildlife program at FWP to creating a weatherization account for low income households (which will help combat global warming). We also testified in opposition to 28 bills that aim to undermine public input in environmental decision-making, hamper state agencies in the fulfillment of their duties to protect wildlife and the environment, or otherwise repeal sound environmental protections. We provided information, but remained neutral, on 3 bills.
For details on all 2009 conservation bills we worked on, click HERE >>
For information on how your legislators voted on Audubon's issues during the 2009 Montana Legislature, click HERE > >.
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