Public Comment. Volume III - Montana Legislature

The five eminent domain reform bills introduced during the 1999 legislature are very
reasonable and practical. They respect the rights of property owners who have put in whole
lifetimes of dedicated work for and on their lands. As a voting member of "the public," I want
the legislature to know that the private lands owned and cared for by farmers and ranchers have
been just as formative for the lives of many rural Montanans as have the public lands set aside in
parks, preserves and on Forest Service Land. Private lands need to be treated with the same
respect and fairness that public lands have deserved.
Farmers and ranchers know how to apply consistent and effective pressure for reform of
the eminent domain laws. Because the farmers and ranchers have been trained-up by the
seasons, they have been taught the very powefil and unique quality of tenacity. They lose
track of day and night in heroic efforts to provide food for the "public good." They plant crops
even though droughts are predicted. They care for calves when this year's bottom may very well
drop out of the cattle market. Learning that ranching and farming is a gamble against nature
ranchers have learned a love for the game and its players (certainly not the cash income) that will
keep the calves and crops coming, for the "public good."
All of these cyclical occurrences make the faith and resolve of ranchers and farmers
resilient and strong enough to withstand and overcome legislation that threatens to jeopardize
and even destroy their land, &als
and lifestyle.
I may not have followed my Grandma's advice to many a "rancher or farmer" but the fire
still burns within me to support farm and ranch families whose property rights are being
trampled by eminent domain laws as they now stand. We must have eminent domain reform that
truly promotes and preserves "our" public good.
EQC Eminent Domain Study -69-