Most have likely seen the anti-Secretary Zinke ads that have been running for quite awhile focused on the National Monuments Review process he's been administering as Sec of Interior.

Some of these areas were designated National Monuments in the waning days of the POTUS Obama administration and especially two in Utah and Nevada have been controversial because of these last minute designations although both area were being effectively managed by the BLM and US Forest Service in cooperation with some tribes.

These ads have been sponsored by three orgs in Montana - Back Country Hunters and Anglers (BHA) , Montana Hunters and Anglers Action (MHA), and the Western Values Project (WVP).

The first two orgs are run by BHA executive director Land Tawney also runs Montana Hunters and Anglers (PAC) both which are running ads.

While Mr. Tawney resides in Missoula with BHA headquartered there, Montana Hunters and Anglers is run out of Billings.  Mr. Tawney also ran/runs the Montana Hunters and Anglers Leadership Fund which supported Sen Tester in his first campaign and at the same time the Libertarian Party candidate in a strategy to draw votes away from the Republican candidate which was successful since the Libertarian vote was the deciding factor in that race. In 2008, Mr. Tawney was a leader of the Sportsmen for Obama Committee.

The Western Values Project is run by WVP executive director Chris Saeger out of Whitefish.  Mr. Saeger is an ex-Coloradan and has worked as the Communications Director of the Montana Democratic party and for the Service Employees International Union in Arizona and Colorado.

If you want to know more about these orgs there's plenty of information on the net on the background of these two guys and some of their out-of-state funding sources.

While I agree with Backcountry Hunters & Anglers main issues of;

1) Preventing excessive off-road vehicle traffic on wild land.
2) Educating the public on hunting and fishing,
3) Preserving natural forests and public lands from development,

and the BHA support of federal ownership of federal public lands and opposition to the transfer ownership of these lands to states or private interests, I find that these ads by BHA, MHA and MVP to be disingenuous in their content and attacks on Sec Zinke when he's administering a review process that has been announced to have a minimal effect on the new and existing National Monuments.

While we all care for Montana, and wish for great public access to areas to hunt and fish no matter what out political leaning are. IMO one must look at what the various conservation orgs stand for, where they get their money, who's behind the scenes of that money, and whether they take a non-partisan approach to conservation. I prefer non-partisan orgs but that's an individual choice.

With the BHA, MHA and WVP ads being deceptive, and the background of their heads I personally can't trust these orgs to be non-partisan. And I also oppose any other orgs that want to open up public lands to wide-spread motorized us, and sell our public lands to the states or private ownership. Both the state, and timber companies have clearly stated that Montana federal lands should remain under federal management.

Sorry for the long-winded treatise but I can't stand these ads that are deceptively being run by BHA, MHA & WVP.

My .02

Thanks for the info!

The new "It's a sham" anti-Zinke ad (MT Hunters and Anglers Action) is from the guy who runs Back Country Hunters and Anglers.

Correction: The "It's a Sham" anti-Zinke ad is from the Western Values Project which is the Colorado guy in Whitefish who worked for Bullock before going independent and starting the WVP.

The latest pro-Tester ad (the one that says children are healthy and happy in MT because of Tester) is from the MT Hunters and Anglers Action which is from the guy who runs Back Country Hunters and Anglers.

Good info, thank you.

BCHA is not a hunting group. They are mainly a land owner and outfitter group that looks to close off public land access as much as possible.

They do this by pushing wilderness and roadless areas, which has a massive effect in that the use of the land for recreational use becomes almost nil. This helps land owners out as less pesky public is driving by your place. And it helps outfitters out because they almost alone will hold almost all control to the land.

In roadless areas, use is often <5% of even adjoining public lands.  And in some of those areas it can be upwards of 80% guided trips. As opposed to <2% guided trips in near by areas with roads.

To hell with the BCHA and Land. Who recently tried to stop a law that made sure hunting access was added to a list of activities that must be taken into consideration before land would be used other wise. Their lame ass response was basically not all land needs to be used for hunting.

They also hire extremely left leaning people who never hunted before working there. Look up their employees, do a facebook search of their names, and you'll find several of them are hardcore lefties. One of them regularly posts on other social media forums about how we need socialism. And how Montana is full of rednecks and hicks because we elected Trump. Others are full of pictures in their vagina hats.

Land is nothing but a fudd who would sell us all down the road if he got his chance.