Sheehy champions new bipartisan Senate Stewardship Caucus

Montana’s junior Sen. Tim Sheehy is the co-chair of a new bipartisan caucus launched this week focused on protecting the nation’s public lands. 

The Senate Stewardship Caucus has six inaugural members and is co-chaired by New Mexico Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich. The caucus’ mission is to drive efforts to expand and protect access to public lands, “promote commonsense land management policies, and support economic growth in rural communities,” according to a news release from Sheehy’s office. 

“Public lands are a purely American institution, and all Americans can find common ground in working together to better manage, conserve, and steward these treasured landscapes while driving economic growth and supporting our resource and agricultural economies,” Sheehy said in a statement. “I’m proud to launch the Senate Stewardship Caucus with Senator Heinrich to safeguard the rights of Americans to hunt, fish, and recreate on our public lands and ensure we protect them for generations to come.”

The formation of the Stewardship Caucus follows a similar move in the House where earlier this year Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke launched the Public Lands Caucus, which Montana Rep. Troy Downing is a member of. All four members of Montana’s federal delegation are Republicans.  

Public lands have been a flashpoint in federal politics this year as resolutions and budget riders have included proposed sales and exchanges of public lands. 

Zinke, a former Secretary of the Interior during President Donald Trump’s first term, has positioned himself as a public lands champion. 

Sheehy drew on his professional work as CEO of Bridger Aerospace, a private aerial firefighting company, during his 2024 election against incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester to tout his own land management bona fides. He also previously served on the board of the The Property and Environment Research Center, a self-described property rights and environmental organization and focuses on what it calls “free market environmentalism.” 

The Stewardship Caucus launch event on Monday was hosted by Nature is Nonpartisan, a nonprofit organization that seeks environmental solutions that span the political rift. 

“Even when America feels more divided than ever, conservation is a place of consensus,” Nature is Nonpartisan CEO Benji Backer said in a statement. “The most durable solutions come from bipartisanship, and we look forward to supporting the important work of the Senate Stewardship Caucus.”  

Caucus co-chairman Heinrich said in his remarks that the caucus came together on an important day — Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday, and the publication day of the Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, a giant in the annals of American conservation. 

“As a young person, I had the privilege of serving as an outfitter guide in the very landscapes that Aldo Leopold wrote of in that book. It was seminal in creating what he called a ‘Land Ethic’ — the relationship that our communities have with place, with land — public and private — with streams, with wildlife,” Heinrich said. “Putting together this Stewardship Caucus is an opportunity for all of us to work on these issues together to protect and conserve the places we know and love for this generation and the next.”

The other inaugural members of the caucus include Montana’s senior Sen. Steve Daines, and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, Thom Tillis, R-North Caroline., John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, Chris Coons, D-Delaware, and Katie Britt , R-Alabama.

“America is home to the most pristine natural beauty in the world, and it’s our job to be good stewards of the land we’re blessed to live in,” Daines said. “As a lifelong outdoorsman, I’m proud to join Senator Sheehy and Senator Heinrich in founding the Senate Stewardship Caucus, so that we can protect and manage our lands for generations to come.”