By BOB EKEY

Billings Gazette
Saturday, December 06, 2008

Decades ago, a cigarette company ran an advertising campaign in which actors sported a black eye and declared the slogan "I'd rather fight than switch," as a symbol of their brand loyalty.

From a conservation perspective in Montana, a lot of folks now are saying they'd rather switch than fight - switch tactics away from yesterday's entrenched battles toward new collaboration. Replacing the old winner-takes-all approach with working solutions out on the ground actually takes more effort, but the results are more enduring.

By LARRY ANDERSON and STAN NICHOLSON
Missoulian
Dec. 1, 2008

Like most Montanans, we come from different backgrounds and don’t always see eye-to-eye on all the issues. Despite our differences, we have come to know and respect each other over the past two years as neighbors high up on the Double Arrow Ranch in Seeley Lake.

By Helena IR Staff

A diverse group of sportsmen, conservationists, loggers and ranchers is encouraging the state's congressional delegation to sponsor an ambitious grass-roots management plan for the Blackfoot and Clearwater drainages.

Considering that the plan appears to have something for almost everyone, it would be difficult for them to refuse.

By Bob Ekey
The Wilderness Society

Managing our national forests is often so contentious in Montana that it is not just an issue – it is a battle or war. How many of us describe forest issues as the “timber wars”?

Even Jack Ward Thomas, the former chief of the U.S. Forest Service, once described the situation as the war being over, but the environmentalists are still going around the battlefield bayoneting the wounded, while the industry holdouts are doing a ghost dance hoping that the old days will return.