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LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) - Lawyers for ''NBC Nightly News'' anchorman Tom Brokaw want a judge to require the Montana Board of Outfitters to review a decision that allows a Wyoming outfitter to guide big-game hunting trips on land next to Brokaw's Montana ranch.
''The complaint we have is safety, plain and simple,'' Clifford Edwards, a Billings attorney representing Brokaw, told District Judge Nels Swandal at a hearing Friday. ''Tom and (wife) Meredith are not anti-hunting - they are concerned for their safety.''
On Sept. 1, the Board of Outfitters granted Wyoming outfitter David Nelson's request to take up to 10 hunters onto more than 2,500 acres of private land bordering the Brokaws' West Boulder Ranch during archery season, court records said.
West Boulder Ranch caretakers Karen and Doug Campbell testified Friday that increased hunting would put them, the Brokaws and their guests in harm's way.
''I'm terrified someone will get shot,'' Karen Campbell said, adding she was ''not so sure'' outfitters knew their clients' hunting skills well enough to ensure the Brokaws' safety.
''We are not anti-hunting. We have no objection to our neighbors hunting on that property as they have in the past and I'm sure will again in the future,'' Brokaw told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his office in New York.
''And we have no objection to bow and arrow hunting,'' Brokaw said. ''Our concern has always been about an out-of-state outfitter bringing strangers onto property with which they are not familiar that is very close to our home and buildings and the use of high-powered rifles.''
Edwards said Campbell's feelings were supported by a case heard in Justice Court earlier Friday, in which a man was cited for accidentally shooting his hunting guide with a .300 caliber Magnum rifle.
Edwards said the Brokaws' land, southeast of Livingston, encompasses ''a 340-degree circle'' around some of the land on which Nelson wishes to hunt.
Edwards subsequently told The AP that Brokaw's concerns don't extend to other lands owned by a neighbor and adjacent to U.S. Forest Service property.
He said the state hunting permits are not exclusive to archery hunting, but also allow rifle hunting in areas that present a ''horribly hazardous situation for the Brokaws, permanent employees, livestock, all of this.''
An injunction against Nelson, issued last week, prevents guided hunts on the neighboring property until the review of the Board of Outfitter's decision is complete.
Wayne Johnston of Helena, executive officer for the state Board of Outfitters, told The AP the Brokaws allow bird hunting on their property with shotguns.
''The Brokaws are trying to tell their neighbors who they can and cannot allow on their property and for what reasons,'' Johnston said. ''It seems like an infringement on their neighbors' property rights.''
AP-WS-10-29-04 2206EDT