Montana Businesses Support the Smith River
We are a diverse group of business owners and leaders who care about sustaining Montana’s great outdoors for future generations. Today, we see an urgent need to protect the renowned Smith River and its adjacent public lands from the impacts of potential, perhaps imminent, industrial-scale mining on those public lands.
Missoula, Montana
Bozeman, Montana
Helena, Montana
We are pro-business and pro-property rights. Together, our local businesses employ thousands of hardworking Montanans, supporting families and communities across the state. We also recognize that the Smith River embodies many values vital to our way of life: fish and fishing, wildlife and hunting, cultural heritage, agriculture and ranching, and outdoor recreation to name a few.
Montana’s outdoor economy generates over $3 billion annually. Our environment, clean water, and wild landscapes are essential to our livelihoods and our bottom line. Outdoor recreation has become one of Montana’s top and fastest-growing economic sectors. The public lands within the Smith River watershed are critical to supporting this river’s legacy as a premier trout fishing and recreation destination – a trip of a lifetime for many Montanans and visitors from around the world.
Whether it's guiding folks down the river, selling waders and gear to visitors, renting out hotel rooms, or shuttling vehicles, Montana’s Smith River is an economic asset. This is real money changing hands, a real economic driver. A 2015 report by Southwick and Associates estimated that, for sportfishing alone (and not considering the numerous other reasons that people float the Smith), southwest Montana derives over $7 million in economic activity annually for sportfishing on the Smith River, and a potential ripple or multiplier effect of over $11 million as businesses and individuals benefit from the increased economic activity.
The Southwick report also noted that the recreation economy surrounding the Smith River generates over $3 million in salaries and wages, and provides over 70 jobs to hardworking Montanans. These Montanans contribute close to $1 million in state and local tax revenue, which provides additional funding for critical government services that would otherwise likely be borne by property taxes.
Given the economic and recreational importance of the public lands within the Smith River watershed and the risks posed by industrial-scale mining, we strongly support the federal public lands in the Smith’s drainage being declared off-limits to any new mineral claims. Mining these areas is simply not worth the risk to our economic prosperity, way of life, and environmental quality.