A feel-good aspect of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's budget proposal involves a picture heart-warming enough to make everybody but a PETA member smile -- the image of a grandfather and his grandkids fishing Montana's blue-ribbon streams together ... for free.

Waiving fishing licenses for people over 62 and for children up to age 15 for a year, however, is a minor part of the governor's plan to spend $15 million over the next two years to buy new park land and fishing access sites.

Not surprisingly, fishing and conservation groups were quick to praise the idea. But in truth, the proposal is a good one even for a Montanan who wouldn't touch a slimy trout with a 10-foot fishing pole.

In the first place, as the governor noted, land in this state -- especially land along trout steams -- isn't getting any cheaper. As more and more wealthy Americans look to high-quality living in Montana and elsewhere in the West, prices will only rise.

Now that the state enjoys a projected budget surplus, it makes sense to buy up recreation land and make it available to the public before prices get completely out of hand.

Secondly, parks and access are a key to Montana's economic future. As the population of the United States continues to grow, scenic and relatively pristine states like ours will become all the more popular with tourists.

It will, that is, as long as there are enough places to camp and enough ways to get down to the water.

Don't think of the governor's proposal as some sort of splurge. Think of it as an investment.