Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 7.20.16

LIKE I WAS SAYING 30 AMERICAN RURAL 30 DRAWING BOARD 31 Viewpoints
LETTERS
How Do We Revive the Middle Class?
Our neighbors in Columbia Falls received devastating news about the closure of plants that will cost the val- ley 200 jobs. We can point the blame in a lot of di erent places, or we can use our resolve to nd solutions to return Flat- head County and Montana to economic prosperity for all. When I grew up in the Flathead, three out of four families were supported by the timber industry. That was the late ‘60s and early ‘70s; timber and the aluminum plant were the main- stays of our economy. It was a very sta- ble time when the middle class thrived. Indeed, if not for low dexterity in my n- gers I would have followed the tradition of my forefathers and my brother and would’ve been part of the blue-collar middle class. The middle class I knew and was raised in seemed to disappear after I left to go into the Marine Corps in 1975. I remember speaking to classes at Flathead High School in the late 1980s and early ‘90s and found that the tim- ber industry I knew had disappeared. Instead of three out of four families sup- ported by the timber industry it was one out of four; today it’s probably one out of 25. The net e ect this change has had on our middle class is dramatic: the middle class is shrinking under unsustainable tax burdens and social burdens. We are left with a “haves and have-nots” social strata because the middle class always shoulders the burdens of the tax system and society. How do we revive the mid- dle class?
1. Make Montana a more business friendly state. We need to make it easy for investors to invest in our commu- nity, creating middle-class jobs that pay enough to raise a family, put kids through college and have a piece of the American dream.
2. Change state and federal regula- tions to emphasize the impact of small businesses. Today, small business own- ers have to spend more time on regu- lations than they do creating jobs and working with their employees. The pen- dulum has swung so far that small busi- nesses cannot survive anymore, which is why you see big companies buying out smaller ones and sacri cing middle class jobs.
3. Montana is the Treasure State and its treasures should be responsibly used to create jobs. Natural resources are plentiful; there is no reason that we don’t have enough logs to create many good-paying jobs in Flathead County. We need to work with our government entities both state and federal in open- ing up these lands for timber sales.
4. We must demand free access to
our public lands. The gates that stop the working class from recreating in our public lands need to come down. These lands belong to the public and we should have access to them. The millions and millions of acres that are virtually cut o from the middle class need to be liberated.
5. Reward stewardship rather than obstructionism. Most of us in North- west Montana are very much concerned about conservation. But when fringe elements control the conversation and exploit our laws the middle class su ers.
I had the privilege of engaging our community in conversation focused on jobs and the middle class recently during my campaign for the Montana Senate. I pledged to stay involved in these issues and to work with other like-minded people in addressing the diminishing middle class. Please join me in encour- aging our legislators to pay attention to this crisis and act by proposing realistic solutions to save our middle class.
Don “K” Kaltschmidt White sh
Support Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project
According to political opportunists and anti-public land advocates, good land management is a thing of the past – and collaboration has vanished, too. Yet successes exist if you look past the polit- ical rhetoric and boondoggle proposals advanced by those whose real e ort is to take the “public” out of public lands. One of those successes is the Black- foot-Clearwater Stewardship Project.
The Blackfoot-Clearwater region is the backyard of western Montana. The public lands surrounding Ovando and Seeley Lake are where countless Mon- tanans go to hunt elk, deer and black bear or sh for native trout. Families have been spending time on these tim- bered ridges and creek bottoms for gen- erations. Thousands of Montana kids have learned to hunt big game in the wild country of Lolo National Forest and to sh for trout in the waterways of the North Fork of the Blackfoot, Mon- ture Creek and the Clearwater River.
The Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers also provide irrigation water for ranch- ers and farmers and sustain native cut- throat and bull trout sheries. The riv- ers’ headwaters are located high in the mountains and present some of the best shing in Montana for anglers hearty enough to reach them. Just last month, thousands of Montanans and tourists ocked to Seeley Lake and Ovando to hit the salmon y hatch, one of Montana’s rst chances to sling big bugs at willing trout. Irrigators have collaborated for
years with groups like Trout Unlimited to improve sh habitat and water condi- tions so that traditional family agricul- ture and native sh both have plenty of room to exist and thrive.
Collaboration is another tradition in the Blackfoot and Clearwater valleys. For more than 10 years, the people who live, work and play here have been work- ing together to end con ict with large carnivores, increase access to public lands and ensure a bright future for the inhabitants of these spectacular valleys – people and wildlife alike.
To this end, the Blackfoot-Clear- water Stewardship Project is a land- scape-driven, locally grown, widely supported tool for sound public lands management. It includes provisions that would permanently conserve important big-game habitat, ensuring that this sec- tion of Montana’s backyard remains a destination for locals to ll their freez- ers each fall. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers supports the BCSP for all these reasons. Yet our support is grounded in the fact that the BCSP is the product of diverse interests, including timber, conservation, out tters, local business, snowmobilers and ranchers, all of whom put aside their di erences and forged something that bene ts everyone.
A new University of Montana poll shows that 74 percent of Montanans support the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stew- ardship Project. By joining recreational and timber interests with conservation interests – and designating 84,000 acres of public lands as wilderness – the BCSP is a proposal that all Montanans can cel- ebrate. It’s time for our Montana dele- gation to nish the good work that was started on the ground in Seeley Lake and Ovando and introduce a BCSP bill in Washington, D.C.
Montanans are tired of gridlock and petty squabbles derailing locally crafted proposals that respect the multiple uses of our shared public lands. The time is now to introduce the Blackfoot-Clear- water Stewardship Project and work together toward its passage in 2016. Our sh, wildlife and outdoor heritage all depend on prompt and decisive action.
Ryan Busse, board chair Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Kalispell
CORRECTION
In a story published in the July 13 issue of the Flathead Beacon titled “The Canyon’s Mountain Man Dies” Reggie Dunkin’s name was misspelled. It also should have noted that Dunkin died on July 10.
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LETTERS
Tell us what you think. To submit a letter, please e-mail your submission to editor@ atheadbeacon.com. Please keep your letter to 300 words or less. The Flathead Beacon reserves the right to edit letters for length, clarity and to prevent libel. Letters must include the writer’s rst and last name, phone number and address for veri cation purposes. Only the name and hometown of the writer will be printed. To mail a letter, please send to 17 Main Street, Kalispell, MT 59901.
Fax letters to (406) 257-9231.
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JULY 20, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM