Coming Attractions

Financial and Compliance Audit

In mid-November, the Legislative Auditor’s office will be releasing a Financial and Compliance Audit of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC). A close look at how the Trust Land Management Division of DNRC handles its finances and whether or not it is in compliance with both standard accounting practices and the statutes under which the division operates is to be included in the audit.

As we have reported previously (Focus on Montana State Lands December 2005 and December 2004), the practice of siphoning off trust land revenues for operations of the division has been and remains controversial. Moreover, questions abound as to how the division determines which trusts – or which beneficiaries – on which to spend its time and resources.

Legislative audits are not released until approved by the Legislative Audit Committee, so the audit will not be available until the November meeting. However, once approved, interested readers can access the audit report online at http://leg.state.mt.us/css/audit/auddivsn.asp

Access Road Easement and Reciprocal Access and Easement Exchange Policies

Originally on the agenda for the August Land Board meeting, the development of both an Access Road Easement Policy and a Reciprocal Access and Easement Exchange Policy for trust lands were canceled and moved to the September meeting.

The Land Board routinely grants a dozen or more rights of way (ROWs) to various entities for a host of purposes at every Land Board meeting. These ROWs vary widely from utility corridors to private access roads, and recently the Land Board had requested that the state develop a consistent policy to deal with access and easement issues. One of the Board’s stated goals is to make sure that the public acquires access to public lands – or does not lose existing access – whenever an easement or access is granted to private entities.

In the case of access where a road crosses both private ground and state trust lands, the Board has sought to create a Reciprocal Access and Easement Exchange Policy which would basically ensure that if the state grants private parties access across state lands for their purposes, the public will be granted similar rights (access exchange) across the private lands to access state lands.

The draft reciprocal access/easement exchange policy is available online at http://dnrc.mt.gov/trust/REMB/statues/ Recip_Exchange%20_procedures.pdf .

The draft Access Road Easement Policy is available online at http://dnrc.mt.gov/trust/REMB/statues/drivewaystatue.asp