Randy Newberg Praises Montana Republicans for Backing Public Lands

Randy Newberg has certainly been critical of Republicans in the past, but the public lands advocate and hunting show host is heaping praise on Montana's all Republican Congressional delegation.

With our nation $36-plus trillion in debt, and Joe Biden handing President Trump a $2 trillion annual deficit- some have suggested the idea of selling federal lands in order to pay down the debt.

That is a non-starter for Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT).

Randy Newberg hosts a couple of hunting shows called Fresh Tracks and On Your Own Adventures. He also runs the Hunt Talk web forum and podcast, all focused on public land hunting and conservation. He joined us on our statewide radio show, Montana Talks with Aaron Flint. 

Randy Newberg: "Congressman Zinke has always been there on the public land issue, and Senator Daines, Senator Sheehy- same thing. They've both been very good advocates on it. But there's a lot of pressures coming to try tell them- hey, come on, let's sell these things. Or let's, you know, parcel it off for supposedly low income housing or whatever else. And I just want Montanans to understand that we've got some leaders on that, and wherever we can we should be supporting their efforts on that, because there's definitely pressure in DC to maybe sell parts or pieces of this stuff. And Montanans, even with all the flaws maybe public lands have and mismanagement, Montanans definitely support the idea of having these public lands."

Newberg also praised Senator Daines and President Trump for their conservation efforts during President Trump's first term in office.

Randy Newberg: "Senator Steve Daines put together what's called the Great American Outdoors Act. It fully funded this program called the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It has been...we've been working on it for years and years. President Trump signed it, and it's one of the landmark pieces of legislation in the last 40 years when it comes to funding and permanently funding these access things."

What about housing on public lands? I brought up how outrageous it was when the Biden Administration was housing illegal aliens on public lands- National Park land to be precise. Of course, some public lands are already used for housing. For example, many Yellowstone National Park employees live inside the park on National Park land. What if we needed to build more affordable employee housing on federal lands near a town like Gardiner, Montana? Colorado has a project like that taking place on federal lands near Vail.

Randy Newberg: " I think if you looked at- where are the precise targeted places, West Yellowstone, Gardiner, Montana. You know, those are the kind of places where you do need employee housing for these national parks. They tried this in Vegas. They had the Southern Nevada Land Management Act that Harry Reid got passed, and they earmarked 66,000 acres around Vegas that can be sold. They've sold 17,000 acres of it, and only less than 100 of that 17,000 has went towards affordable housing. And the houses now built on the west side of Vegas, out on that former public land, sell for one to 4 million. So very often, you know, when the government comes up with a program like that, it doesn't end up curing the quote unquote problem that they say existed."

Check out the full conversation below: