Montana’s Backcountry Is Now Billionaire Country

If you’ve seen more “No Trespassing” signs and fewer places to fish, hike or hunt (without a gate in your face), you’re not dreaming. According to a recent article from The Nation, the rich are purchasing up other portions of Montana and upgrading our public land playground into a gated community for millionaires and billionaires.

Here’s the short version: mega-rich people are buying up land around Bozeman and elsewhere. Trails that have been travelled for decades suddenly are blocked once they move in. “Public access” becomes something old people say, and the rest of us are left wondering when Montana became a VIP-only resort.

One of the hotspots is the Crazy Mountains, which have become a messy tangle of private land parcels cutting up public land into non-accessible puzzle pieces. People who’ve hiked there their whole lives are being told to turn around. And it’s not just Bozeman; similar situations are playing out throughout the state. More than 3 million acres of federal land in Montana have become “landlocked,” meaning you can’t access it without trespassing.

Read More: Federal Court Sides with Hunters: Is Montana Next?

Montanans are accustomed to cohabiting, not closing people out. We fish the same rivers, take the same hikes, and tell the same hunting stories over beer. When strangers come in and close the door behind them, it transforms who we are.

So what can we do? Stay loud. Advocate for access-friendly policies. Get involved with other groups fighting for public land. Organizations like the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. And remind all the new neighbors that this land doesn’t only belong to them, it belongs to all of us.