FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 22, 2020

MCV Congratulates CSKT on Successful Passage of Bison Range Management Transfer, Water Compact

Conservation Organization Long Supported Bipartisan Legislation

(BOZEMAN, Mont.) — Montana Conservation Voters released the following statement from Deputy Director Whitney Tawney in response to today’s enactment of Congress’s pandemic relief package and funding bill, which includes language of the bipartisan Montana Water Rights Settlement Act. The law, now on President Trump’s desk, transfers management of the National Bison Range from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), and ratifies the Tribes’s water compact already approved by the Montana Legislature.

“We celebrate this historic victory with the leaders and people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and with Senators Daines and Tester, who stood up for Montana to ensure passage of this important legislation. It is the product of government-to-government collaboration, resulting in a fair and equitable solution for sovereign tribal governments and their lands, for Montana’s shared public lands, for bison and other wildlife, and for the precious resource of water.”

MCV has long supported the ratification of the CSKT’s water compact and the transfer of management of the National Bison Range. The organization sent a letter of support to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in June, and another letter in November to Senate and House leaders, urging its passage.

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