The Passing of a Montana Conservation & Public Access Warrior
Tony Schoonen - shown above with his beloved "River Rat" cap. Photo courtesy of Roy Morris.
Tony Schoonen, an Army veteran and
30 year educator & principal, who currently resided in Butte,
Montana, was a passionate conservation and public access advocate. His
passing away last night is a tremendous loss to Montana.
Tony was a good friend of mine, a
kindred rabble rouser. As I researched access years ago, I kept seeing
Tony's name and contacted him. He taught me a great deal about Montana's
public access and how they waged war on privatization. Much of the
public land and water access that we enjoy today, Tony was right there,
fighting for it: from OpEds in the papers, river protests on the Ruby
River, legislative sessions, State Land Board meetings and FWP
Commission meetings - rallying the Butte contingent for battle.
Tony was a member and past
president of one of Montana's premier hunting & angling
organizations, the Skyline Sportsmen Association and local leader of the
George Grant Chapter of Montana Trout Unlimited. He had also been
President of the Montana Wildlife Federation.
On March 31, 1980, Jack Atcheson Sr., Tony Schoonen, and Jack Jones formed and filed the Montana Coalition for Access on State Public Lands,
Inc., funding their work out of their own pockets. The name would later
be changed to Montana Coalition For Appropriate Management of State
Lands, Inc. This Coalition led the charge for our state lands public access.
Inspired by the State Lands Coalition, another coalition
was formed, on April 14, 1980 – the Montana Coalition for Stream
Access, Inc., which Tony was a member of. It was decided to first pursue
Stream Access, which then became law in 1985.
In 1985, the Public Land Access
Association (PLAAI) was
created to carry the banner, later embracing stream access, becoming
Public Land/Water Access Association (PLWA). Tony became a PLWA Board of
Director in 1997, elected as Treasurer, a position he held through
2007. He remained on the Board, in 2008 until his recent passing.
In 2016, Tony was inducted into the Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame.
Recently, Schoonen became active in the battle for our public access in the Crazy Mountains, becoming a part of our Coalition lawsuit.
While this is not a complete list
of all the many conservation organizations Tony was involved in or the
positions he held, nor exhaustive of the many awards or acknowledgements
he received, it is representative of his passionate energy and
leadership. His booming activist voice, outspoken opinions and
rabble-rousing will be sorely missed.
Thank you,
Kathryn QannaYahu
406-579-7748
www.EMWH.org
Helena, MT
