Growing up in the West, we always heard about “multiple use” for our national forests. When I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, that meant hiking, backpacking, wildlife viewing, hunting, grazing and fishing.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, however, we saw more national forest wildlands converted into single uses: roads, clearcuts, same-species tree plantations, scars from off-road vehicles, open-pit mines and toxic mine waste dumps. The Forest Service is now overwhelmed by over 380,000 miles of roads, eight times the entire Interstate highways system.

Let’s look at the national forests around Spokane. A full 81 percent of the Colville National Forest is developed, 16 percent is unprotected roadless, and about 3 percent is protected wilderness. In the Panhandle National Forest, two-thirds of the forest is developed, while one-third is unprotected roadless wildlands.

With so much of our national forests developed, Northern Rockies residents now want to retain our dwindling public wildlands. In that light, I am a strong supporter of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), which protects 24 million acres of national forest roadless areas in Montana, Idaho, northwestern Wyoming, Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington.

NREPA has its opponents. Montana’s far-right Rep. Denny Rehberg, for example, got a lot of ink with his recent tirade against the bill (H.R. 980) and his mean-spirited attack upon New York’s Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is sponsoring the act along with 90 other members of Congress.

Rehberg claims “96 percent of us who live in these areas oppose this bill.”

In reality, 78 percent of Rehberg’s own Montanans supported protecting remaining wildlands, by favoring the “Roadless Conservation Rule.” This rule received more participation than any other proposed federal regulation in history. Over 600 hearings were held throughout the country, gathering comments from more than 1.6 million Americans. In total, 95 percent supported full protection for their roadless wildlands.

Rehberg maintains NREPA “federalizes” these wildlands and that “bills like NREPA create more federally controlled land.” Apparently, Rehberg does not know basic American history: His fellow Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, “federalized” these lands in 1907, over 100 years ago.

Rehberg evokes the most passion with his stirring defense of gun rights. “There’s a new concern looming in the minds of the folks around Montana and the country,” he warns. “There aren’t many things folks in the Northern Rockies care more about than their Second Amendment rights. Bills like NREPA create more federally controlled land, but they don’t guarantee Second Amendment rights on that land.”

Huh? Rehberg is a land developer and spokesman for big oil. Were he a hunter, he would know that, since roadless wildlands provide the best habitat, they are preferred for big game hunting. With guns!

Despite opponents’ shrill protestations: Private land is not affected by NREPA; grazing and existing mining claims are not changed; gun rights are not taken away; and sustainable logging outside roadless areas will continue.

We’re not talking about already-developed national forestlands. These are federally inventoried roadless areas, for God’s sake! They have been wild for millennia. Their remaining so will not bring about apocalypse.

Is there no concept of a public lands legacy? Won’t future generations need these wildlands for psychological, spiritual, scientific, economic, educational, biological, ecological and societal well-being?

The biggest lie perpetuated by NREPA opponents is that the bill is “top-down” management, forced upon us locals by “outsiders,” like Rep. Maloney.

First, these National Forest wildlands belong to all Americans, not just anti-wilderness zealots.

More importantly, opponents are dead wrong about NREPA’s origins. After consulting with conservation organizations, wildlife biologists and others, I wrote the first two drafts of what was to become NREPA in 1986 and 1987. Born and raised in Helena, I am hardly an “outsider.”

NREPA is a homespun vision for the Northern Rockies. Over the years, it has been refined by political leaders, economists, scientists, business owners, sportsmen, sportswomen and dedicated residents who fully recognized the need for, and the benefits of, protecting our beloved Northern Rockies ecosystem – the only place in the lower 48 states where all native species and wildlife still remain.

Twenty-three years is long enough to wait: NREPA’s time is now!