PLWA has a storied history, made up of individuals who believe that access to public lands and waters is fundamental to the identity of Montana.

It was “… during a public meeting called by an ad hoc group of public land users in 1984 when Gene Hawkes, a former Gallatin National Forest Supervisor, threw his $25 on a table at the Bozeman Public Library and said, ‘Here’s my start-up dues. Let’s organize a public land access group.’ After more people threw their $25 on the table that night, nine of us from Bozeman, Three Forks, and Livingston signed on as Founders and first Board of Directors of the Public Land Access Association. PLAAI* was incorporated as a Montana Corporation on April 18, 1985 by the Secretary of State.”

- Excerpt of Our Vanishing Roads by Perry Nelson, one of the 9 Founders of PLAII

In 1990 Grace Lichtenstein wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times Magazine about the increasing number of public lands access issues, especially in Montana. Don’t Fence Me Out detailed threats to public access already occurring over thirty years ago. PLWA Executive Director at the time Gene Hawkes and former President Ron Stevens showed Lichtenstein what public land ownership in Montana was all about.

"It was a warm summer morning, and he and Gene Hawkes were about to show me how one landowner tried to block the public’s entrance to a chunk of Montana that they believe everyone should be able to enjoy. Along a trail between a rocky ridge and granite-faced mountains, we paused to take in the view….

“See this?” Hawkes said, sweeping his arm at the landscape. “This is your ranch.”

“All Montanans are ranchers,” Stevens chimed in. “Their ranch is the Big Sky ranch, and it includes 8.1 million acres of BLM land, 10.2 million acres of National Forest and 5.2 million acres of state school-trust land. Our brand is the Flying R, which stands for freedom to recreate.”

That sentiment - that desire to keep access to Montana's public lands and waters open to all who wish to travel them is central to PLWA's purpose, leadership, and base of support.

Sometimes we educate; sometimes we litigate. But we never give up.

*PLAII later became PLWA

Read our PLWA Programs brochure here.

Read our booklet PLWA Who We Are here.

Read our Best in the West stream access booklet here.