1. What is your view of the 2004 Attorney General Opinion regarding access to streams from county road bridges ?
I believe that the public should have access to streams along the public right s of way beside bridges. I understand that private land owners may wish to run fences across these rights of way and attach them to bridges for reasons of cost, convernience, security of livestock, etc. and to the extent that these concerns are valid, the public should be able to strike some compromise with respect to them. Specifically, assuming that typically there are four points of access at each bridge crossing (on either side of the road and either side of the stream), if safe public access to the steam can be assured via, say, two rights of way (presumably one on each side of the stream), lanowners should be permitted to fence across the remaining two.
2. In your opinion are public property rights important - often as important as private property rights?
Yes. And I believe that there is an odd asymetry in discussions of the impact of public policies on private property rights; specifically, there is lots of discussion about the reduction in private property values resulting from public policies (consider, for example, the whole notion of "regulatory takings"), but very little discussion of how these policies enhance private property values. But it is well known that private porperty values are increased when the property in question enjoys public fire protection, access to high quality public schools, higher environmental quality assured through public action, the presence of publicly managed wildlife, etc.
3. Do you believe the state should be allowed to acquire water rights sufficient to allow major streams to function as natural aquatic systems?
Yes. I have never been able to understand opposition to allowing the state to acquire such rights particularly if their current holders can chose to sell or not voluntarily. Such acquisitions can only have the effect of raising the value of water rights. I regard the the purchase of water rights for public purposes as roughly eguivalent in intent and effect to the purchase of conservation easements.
4. Are you familiar with and do you support the Public Trust Doctrine?
Yes.
5. Should we consider the sale of water in Montana’s rivers to be moved out of state?
I don't think it is sound public policy not to even consider certain courses of action, but I would anticipate that if we did consider a sale of Montana water we would conclude that it was a pretty bad idea.
6. Should the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks remain the sole decision maker for the allocation of licenses and permits that determine who may legally hunt and harvest Montana wildlife ?
I am not sure what this question is getting at, but I believe that wildlife is a public resource which cannot be privatized and put under private management because of the fact that it moves onto and off of private land at will.
7. What should be done to reduce elk populations that exceed optimum numbers as defined in current management plans?
I don't know; I suspect there may be some aspect of the issue that this questions in intended to address that I am unfamiliar with. But it would appear that if populations exceed the optimum numbers defined in current management plans, there's something wrong with the plans; they're failing to achieve what they themselves define as optimum population numbers and evidently they should be improved.
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