Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 1.15.13

22 | JANUARY 15, 2014
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

OPINION

TOP 10

LETTERS
organisms and their interactions within recommendations will be in the Final
the biological community we call a forest. EIS because most specialists have
ONLINE STORIES
I have also found that some overall already completed their analysis of the
realities prevail.
alternatives for the Draft EIS. “
First, forests are always changing If “most specialists have already
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
and there is no such thing as a “stable completed their analysis of the
SUPPORT DAINES’ HR 1526
ecosystem.” The forests we see today alternatives,” one must wonder why
I would like to thank Congressman can be quite diferent in composition, then, since the collaborative has been
Steve Daines for his work on HR 1526, structure, function and future trajectory re-visited under the auspices of the
Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Skier Dies in Tree than the forests from 50, 100, 500, 1,000 Kootenai National Forest, has the Galton
Communities Act, which passed the House Well at Whiteish
Mountain Resort
or 10,000 years ago. Second, forests Stakeholders Collaborative deadline
of Representatives with strong bipartisan do not need human intervention and run up into the month of December?
support. The Boone and Crockett Club, TEDx Comes to will lourish or die-of on any location To a layperson who has been attending
along with many hunting organizations, according to multiple natural processes, bi-monthly meetings since January
have strongly supported this legislation. Whiteish
including climate variability, loods, Ms. Holder’s statement seems to mean:
Why? Because millions of acres of our drought, wildires, landslides, pests “Thanks for all your time, but our minds
National Forests are overcrowded, dying Railroading’s Big Oil and pathogens, etc. Third, forests can are already made up.”
from insect infestation, and susceptible to Boom
uncharacteristically large, hot wildires. be incredibly robust or very fragile The Galton Study area has been
Video of depending on their location and what visited since 2009 when public hearings
If you hunt and you care about improving species are involved, and this mosaic of were held and testimony taken. In January
the health of our national forests, as Snowboarder Chasing conditions can exist across an area the of 2013, the Kootenai National Forest
the Club does, then you realize that we Moose Garners size of a pool table or a mountainside.
conducted a selective e-mail solicitation
need real changes to help the Forest Citation
Finally and most importantly, to see if recipients had interest in working
Service get back in the woods performing human impacts can be as beneicial or on a collaborative efort to resolve some of
active management. Study after study An Unsung Hazard
harmful to a forest as any process we the issues identiied by the input received
has shown that improvements to forest
Xanterra Sets Up deem “natural.” My experience across the previously relative to management of
health, including the resilience of ire U.S. and Europe has shown me that lands the approximate 170,000 acres of the
prone forests, can be restored through Shop
that are managed to provide humans Kootenai in north Lincoln County.
active management.
with multiple beneits such as clean Residents who have spent hours
As Congressman Daines and the Sentencing
water, wood, recreation, wildlife and even poring over maps of roads and records of
bipartisan members of the House pointed Set in Blackfeet wilderness experiences tend to have a prior uses of the area strongly believe that
out when they passed HR 1526, we need Embezzlement Scheme
greater resilience to remain forests than the “Galton Stakeholders’ Collaborative”
aggressive forest management to improve
game populations and enhance game thoseleftupto“natural”processesalone recommendations needed to weigh
$1 Million Lottery because people will strongly invest their heavily on any decisions to be made
habitat. The Club will continue to ight for Ticket Still Unclaimed “unnatural” energy and resources into because of the fact that it has potential
access to public land to hunt and shoot, in Columbia Falls
growing and conserving forests. Forests for efecting serious economic impacts
and to enhance the habitat that supports can provide sustainable quantities of to the county and the very safety of its
important game populations like elk and Bonsai Brewing wood and other resources to human citizens. In addition, almost 43,000 acres
deer. HR 1526 will improve the quality society without any detriment to other of the study area are private land, mostly
of habitat for all wildlife species while Project Opens in natural organisms if done thoughtfully homesteaded in the early 1900s.
also creating healthy timber based jobs Whiteish
in rural communities in Montana and and well, which is why we have schools, At any rate, participants are left
Voisin Opts Out of research, professionals and certiication pondering the diferences in policy
across the country.
Olympic Qualifying protocols, and the northern Rockies can between the two forests. Could it be
William A. Demmer, president be the place that showcases this.
because the Galton failed to produce the
Boone and Crockett Club
Event
Peter Kolb desired consensus that its outcome will
MSU Extension Forestry Specialist
not be “given a lot of weight?” Would
FOREST MYTHS AND REALITIES
the consensus have been considered to
Any news article that mentions or DISPARATE POLICIES BETWEEN be more valuable had the wilderness
proposes some form of wood harvesting FORESTS
advocates not announced their “leaving LETTERS
from forests these days tends to draw A recent editorial indicates that the table” in June and boycotted the Tell us what you think. To submit a letter, please e-mail your submission
out many opinions regarding what is there may be quite a diferential between remainingmeetings?
to [email protected]. Please
good or bad for the forest. Words and Flathead and Kootenai National Gregg Johnson & Aubyn Curtiss keep your letter to 300 words or less.
concepts such as ecology, biodiversity, Forest policies regarding the work of Fortine
The Flathead Beacon reserves the right
sustainability, science, and conservation collaborative groups. Noting that the to edit letters for length, clarity and
are often used to oppose industrialism, Flathead National Forest’s team leader to prevent libel. Letters must include
greed, pollution, global warming, erosion for forest planning remarked that the CORRECTIONS
the writer’s irst and last name, phone
and environmental degradation in a consensus reached by the Whiteish number and address for veriication
purposes. Only the name and hometown
simpliied efort to convince people Range Partnership was commendable of the writer will be printed. To mail a
that only forests that exist without and that their recommendations “will letter, please send to 17 Main Street,
human interference or intervention will be given a lot of weight” relative to A Jan. 8 Beacon story, “With Olympic Kalispell, MT 59901.
remain healthy and immortal. The latest implementing forest planning rules Games Arriving, Curling Interest Spikes,” Fax letters to (406) 257-9231.
argument used to convince people of appears to difer substantially from policy incorrectly stated that the Whiteish
the wrongness of human activity is the on the Kootenai.
CORRECTIONS
“Letter of Protest or Concern” signed by No such commendations were Curling Club was the irst curling club in If a Beacon story includes a factual
Montana.
error, please tell us about it. Call
some impressionable number of scientists expressed by Ranger Betty Holder Kellyn Brown at 257-9220; or e-mail to
in order to make a political point.
upon receipt of the Galton Stakeholder A photo credit accompanying the [email protected]; or fax to
The natural history, physics and Collaboration Proposed Action Plan. In Jan. 8 Beacon story, “TEDx Comes to 257-9231.
biology of forests is an endless series of acknowledging and thanking those for Whiteish,” was incorrect. The photo FLATHEADBEACON.COM
topics to be learned about and studied. numerous hours engaged in the efort she was taken and provided by Amanda Guy For daily news, local community pages,
After working 35-plus years, most of stated: “As we discussed at the beginning Photography.
video, multimedia, story archives and
which have been spent in the ecosystems of this process your recommendations lively online conversation, visit our Web
of the Northern Rockies, I ind new will be addressed as comments to the site at latheadbeacon.com.

things to learn every day about individual
draft EIS. Any implementation of your