Agreement reached over Montana ‘bra fence’
HELENA, Mont. – Facing a fence festooned with bras, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks decided letting it all hang out was a bit too much.
The agency recently cut about 20 bras off a barbed-wire fence near a state-managed fishing site along the Missouri River. That riled property owners Frank Cooper and Shirley Cleary, who saw a “bra fence” in New Zealand and liked it.
“We decided it would be fun to do that here in Montana,” said Cooper, who contends Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated his speech and property rights.
An accord has been reached, but not without some bumps along the way. The flap began in July when the Cooper/Cleary family held a “Beer, Brat and Bra Bust” party at the family’s Missouri River vacation cabin. Friends provided bras of various descriptions, plus little black lacy things, for the fence.
“We’re talking people 50 to 83 years old, all respectable citizens, like attorneys, social workers, retired professors,” Cooper said at his home in Helena. “We drank a little wine, ate a few brats and christened the bra fence.”
Cleary said the hope was that over time, people passing by on Missouri River float trips would further decorate the fence. But two days after the party, Fish, Wildlife and Parks removed the bras.
“We manage those sites for multiple uses and get all types of people, as well as sportsmen, from all walks of life and different ethnicities,” said Jim Kropp, enforcement chief for the agency. “We didn’t feel that this activity was appropriate for a public site.”
Cooper said a survey confirmed the fence is on his land.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener said in a letter that there was concern the bra fence would “attract many more objects than just bras and become an even greater attractive nuisance and become more offensive to more people …
“If you insist on continuing to utilize and promote this fence as a ‘bra fence,’ FWP will continue to remove items hung on the fence until we are able to construct some type of screen …”
What began as a “fun thing” grew serious, Cooper said.
Under an agreement with the state agency, Cooper now plans to have bras on the fence for a few days, then move them to a less conspicuous place until there is screening. Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the area will be enhanced, perhaps by planting some trees.