Echoes in the Rotunda: Defending Our Public Lands & Wild Future
Photo by Donny O’Neill
Eight years ago, at the Montana Rally for Public Lands 2017, I stood at a podium set up in the State Capitol Rotunda and felt the energy of one thousand fellow anglers, hunters, skiers, hikers, river rafters, and others in the outdoor state filling the hall as I spoke in a tone far more impassioned than I’d planned. The packed statehouse represented stakeholders speaking out against legislation that would have disposed of more than three million acres of public lands in ten western states.
I leaned into the microphone and said, “If little girls are not allowed to get the dirt of public lands under their fingernails, then we risk losing those wild Montana women who make history! If we can ensure girls’ connection to public lands, we will ensure our lifeblood.”
I remembered looking into the fervent crowd and seeing several young girls on their parents’ shoulders, holding signs that said Keep Public Lands in Public Hands. This message, echoed at the time by millions of outdoor enthusiasts across the nation, hit its mark in Washington, and Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz withdrew his Excess Federal Lands Act.
Earlier this spring, I found myself back in that handsome Capitol Rotunda as emcee of the Montana Rally for Public Lands 2025, again surrounded by a one-thousand-strong league of earnest outdoor enthusiasts united by a real-time assault on our common ground. Driven by the purposeful stomping, cheering, and chanting, I fist-pumped and hollered back into the rumble, “Yes! Come on! Make this place shake!”
As I spoke, I recognized a few folks who, back in 2017, had young girls on their shoulders. Now those girls are pre-teens and seeing them return to stand next to their parents at the rally struck my heart. My voice cracked through the microphone and I paused as I choked up, witnessing the next generation of wild Montana women ready to make history.
While the room held an air of inspiration and communion, I noticed something else…an emotion I can only describe as an aggregate of pain, dread, anger, sadness, and urgency. As the crowd loudly applauded in gratitude to the many illegally-fired federal public lands workers in attendance, I remember thinking, Whoa, it’s different this time.
Indeed, the emboldened efforts to transfer, sell, and privatize public lands have multiplied, and thus aggravates the peril of connected ecosystems that help combat the climate crisis.
The 117th Congress’s Select Committee on the Climate Crisis reported that America’s public lands can sequester carbon and make ecosystems and communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Throughout our lifetimes, our outdoor playgrounds have been hard at work as efficient, natural carbon sinks, grabbing and holding carbon in soils, plants and roots.
A report by the 2023 Joint Economic Committee reminds us that public lands provide substantial health and economic benefits at the local, state and national levels, and that counties with more public lands outperform when it comes to job growth, economic opportunity and community health. However, climate change threatens these benefits while impacting the recreational fortuities that harbor our wellbeing. This risk, the report cites, underscores how conserving and protecting public lands will benefit Americans’ finances, health and future.
The public lands champions who spoke at the rally this year kept the rotunda vibrating between the pin-drop hush of attentiveness and the thundering ruckus befitting of a successful assembly.
When the rally ended, people stuck around, calling and emailing their elected leadership in an effort to kill a bill that would strip millions of dollars from Montana’s state parks, public trails, and non-game wildlife habitat conservation and a bill to support a Utah lawsuit challenging the existence of public lands across the country.
As I left the Capitol building, I saw a dad asking his teenage daughter for help using his phone to find legislative information. The girl rolled her eyes at him and grinned at me. I smiled back and tried to say hello, but my voice cracked again, so I put on my sunglasses and stepped into the Montana sunshine.
—Hilary Hutcheson, angler, POW Board member and Montana Community Member
Author: Hilary Hutcheson
Hilary Hutcheson is the outfitter at Montana’s largest and longest-running river operation, Glacier Raft Company and Glacier Anglers in West Glacier, Montana. She also owns and operates her fly shop, Lary’s Fly & Supply in Columbia Falls, Montana, her hometown. She serves on the national boards of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, AFFTA Fisheries […]
