It's time to ramp up the volume! The gloves are off!

As I told you last night, I just returned from Great Falls. I went to the Great Rockies Sport Show to help man the MOGA booth. Our purpose there was to oppose I-161. Well, folks... we need to get our message out. I'm going to share some of my observations with you as a small business owner and a family man. I have a vested interest in this fight, and I cannot afford to lose this battle.

I actually spoke with Kurt Kephart. I started to get upset to the point that I had to just walk away. Kurt Kephart looked me right in the face and said "I don't really have a problem with you guys over in the wilderness on public land..." To which I replied "Don't you understand that you are NOT going to put the big, private land outfitters out of business, but this could put me under?" His reply? "Yes, I understand this could be hard on some of you." In other words, he apparently doesn't care if I go out of business, as long as he advances his agenda.

Kurt Kephart and his followers make no effort to disguise their intentions. They fully intend to cripple the outfitting industry, and Kurt cannot and WILL NOT imply that I-161 will do anything to improve landowner/hunter relations, or increase public access on private ground. There are many industry experts that feel this could actually widen that gap. They sell the petitions with partial truths, with assumptions, with distortions of the truth that encourage people to sign a petition that they normally would not consider signing. What if Kurts' banner said:
"Let's hurt Montana small family business because we can't shoot deer on private land!"
How many people would sign that?

Before I left Kurt's booth (I actually walked right over to his table to talk to him) I challenged him to defend his position to a man standing at the table. This was a Montana citizen considering whether or not to sign the petition. I asked Kurt to "Tell this man what good it will do HIM and the state of Montana if he signs that petition." That's it right there, folks. What GOOD will come of this? Because we know that it's going to cause a lot of hurt.
I actually said to him "This is your ten seconds of fame in front of me. Convince that man right there." Well, Kurt could not or would not answer that question. He literally just sat there, and the guy walked off. We wouldn't want the truth to get in the way now, would we?
Kurt intends to hurt me and my family, and I can't just sit by and let it happen. And he doesn't have the guts to admit that in front of my face. What the hell did I ever do to him? I never hurt his family, never damaged his future, and when he lost access to a place he used to hunt on, I'm sure that in did not imperil his family, business or future. That's what he's trying to do to me.

So, where do we go from here? I am going to ask everyone that ever met our family, that ever enjoyed the Bob Marshall or the Blackfoot Valley with us, or that's just a family friend, to get involved.

• Go to the new web site http://stop161.org/index.php Read through it and act now.
• Talk to your fellow hunters and friends, and make sure they understand what's going on. There is a LOT of misinformation being spread about I-161.
• Write letters- the web site has write-in links to all the major newspapers in Montana. Comment on blog sites and forums.
• We are going to need your help financially. We've spent a lot of money already to fight this, and it will cost a lot more. If this makes the November ballot, it could cost hundreds of thousands to fight.
• If you see a petition out there, don't sign it, and encourage others not to. Talk to them about why they think they should sign in support of I-161.

At the Great Falls show, Kurt's booth had a huge banner that said (and I may be wrong on the exact wording) something about 'Preserve your Montana hunting heritage (or tradition)'. Either way, you get the point- it's an emotional ploy. Hurting the Montana outfitter, hurting small business, hurting tourism... with no guarantee, no real intention of a positive outcome, is NOT a good way to do business in Montana. I-161 is not written to do anything GOOD for Montana. It's laser focused to hurt Montana citizens because of the anger and frustration of a few.

Please get involved. Call me, write me, write to MOGA... and stay in the loop.

That's all I have for now,

Greg