MegaFlorestais leaders have received exciting news from Montana:
- The United States government has returned the 18,000-acre territory of the National Bison Range to the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), over 100 years after the Range was removed from their reservation without their permission in the early 1900s.
- In addition, the CSKT have secured a $1.9 billion water rights settlement putting an end to a longstanding tribal claims over water rights in Montana that stemmed from the 1855 Treaty of Hellgate. This is the largest amount ever awarded in a tribal water rights case in the United States.
This is dear to our hearts in the MegaFlorestais network, as the CSKT hosted us on numerous occasions during our Rethinking Forest Regulations meetings and other study tours. We learned extensively from their experience in land management and their negotiations for tenure reform, and are thrilled to see that they have achieved these victories.
The MegaFlorestais delegation with their CSKT hosts in Montana at the 2015 Rethinking Regulations workshop.
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