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CLOSING RANGE DAVE SKINNER TWO TRAIN WRECKS
GUEST COLUMN DEBO POWERS
MORE COOPERATION IN ORDER TFOR THE NORTH FORK
HE NORTH FORK OF THE FLAT- In particular, Jemi Fibre’s plans to head River has long been recog- log “Sportsman’s Ridge” are of particu- nized as an internationally spe- lar concern. This area produces 30-40
RAILROAD MATTERS HAVE always interested me. A train set led to summer railroad work, which in turn enabled me to pay cash for college, where I learned a big word:
Logistics: The “management of the flow of things between point of origin and point of consumption.”
How things “flow” around the world – on our oceans, in the sky, our rivers, high- ways, and best of all, those mighty arter- ies of steel, matters to all of us.
One issue affecting “flow” is Positive Train Control, or PTC. In a nutshell, PTC is supposed to make trains smart so they don’t bash into one another if the engi- neer is a moron.
In 2008, a head-on collision killed 25 people and hurt 135 at Chatsworth, Cal- ifornia. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the engineer of the Metrolink commuter train was texting. He sent his last text 22 seconds before the collision, blowing through a red signal and a siding switch at almost exactly the same instant he hit the send key. The NTSB report noted “text mes- saging can lead to performance decre- ments related to distraction and inat- tention.” Can?
So, Congress mandated nationwide installation of PTC by the end of 2015. That ain’t gonna happen, for several reasons.
First, PTC hadn’t been invented yet. The railroads slapped together a PTC protocol and then standardized it.
Second, the railroads needed new radio bandwidth. Getting it from the Fed- eral Communications Commission was a bureaucratic mess.
Third, when it came time to start pok- ing 22,000 trackside antennas into the ground, it was learned that Indian tribes would have to be consulted and sign off on antenna sites.
So you won’t be surprised that the final cost of PTC will be triple earlier estimates, between $10 and $14 billion (or more, depending on who you ask) with annual maintenance alone of $1 bil- lion. The Federal Railroad Administra- tion stated PTC installation could save between seven and 22 lives a year – the maintenance alone comes at a cost of over $45 million per life “saved.” And guess
what? The Department of Transporta- tion has calculated the value of saving a life at $9.1 million! Heck, for that, run me over and give the money to my family.
In its own time, PTC would make sense on some lines, especially passen- ger. But now it’s just a classic example of stupid lawmaking enacted as reaction to a crisis, causing another crisis.
Kalispell’s “rail park” proposal also rubs me wrong. First, pulling up track is a last resort to anyone interested in diverse economic development. Second, if “we” build it, will “they” come? I seri- ously doubt it.
Kalispell’s place as the Flathead’s geo- graphic center (a day’s horse-and-wagon ride from all points of the compass) saved it when Great Northern moved its main line, because back then, every single mile away from the railroad was a big deal. But today, it matters more that autos and trucks have good, safe, simple access to the transfer point.
On that basis, neither CHS nor North- west Drywall have a screaming need to move. If either did, it would make much more sense to move the extra 10 miles to Columbia Falls, even Half Moon, where road access is certainly no worse. More important, a move to Columbia Falls would put both businesses directly on BNSF’s transcontinental main line.
One could even argue that a better place for a “rail park” in a “brownfield” needing “redevelopment” would be at the old Forest Products mill site west of Meridian. The west-side bypass is a stone’s throw away, for one thing.
Finally, has anyone considered whether a rail park can support the Kalispell branch if Plum Creek closes the Evergreen mill?
Now, I understand grant money (other people’s) could be “leveraged” even though the odds of scoring the big one (the $10 million in “federal” TIGER dough) are pretty small, with 800 appli- cations against $475 million nationwide last time around.
But the hard truth is, if the Kalispell rail park idea made any kind of busi- ness or logistic sense at all, it would have been completed years ago, using private money.
cial stream, both in Canada and the United States. As such, the drainage has been managed with unusual care and attention on both sides of the interna- tional line.
But recent activity on the British Columbia side of the North Fork Valley should have all of us on alert. Especially those of us who care deeply about clean water, native trout, Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake.
Over the past decades, much of the concern over the North Fork of the Flat- head has focused on energy and coal development. And rightly so. Moun- tain-removal coal mining would have had devastating effects on the clean water that pours out of Canada, into northwestern Montana.
Thankfully, we’ve put that concern behind us via international agreements. But now we need similar, international agreements on how the North Fork of the Flathead River corridor is going to be logged, particularly north of the border.
Obviously, logging does not have nearly the impact of coal mining. Trees grow back. Timber harvest can be com- patible with keeping the North Fork healthy. But it’s compatible only if done correctly, up to modern scientific stan- dards and with full transparency.
Two companies, Canfor and Jemi Fibre, are cutting or plan to cut large swaths of forest in the BC Flathead. It’s worth noting that clearcut logging of such massive scale would simply not be allowed in the United States. In addi- tion, the United States would have much stricter guidelines – such as how heavy equipment is used and requiring buffer zones around streams.
These are not just any streams. The logging is proposed around Foisey and McClatchie Creeks. These are major tributaries of the North Fork. Not only are they the source of clean water that eventually flows into Flathead Lake, they are major spawning tributaries for bull trout migrating out of Flathead Lake.
percent of the bull trout in the North Fork. As the name implies, it is rich with wildlife.
On July 17, Sen. Jon Tester wrote Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to broach the subject of watershed management in the North Fork with the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Tester wrote, “...proposed logging in the Canadian Flathead near McLatchie and Foisey Creeks [major tributaries to the North Fork] have Montanans and federal agencies very concerned about adverse downstream impacts on water quality and wildlife ... Sedimentation from large-scale timber harvest has great potential to negatively affect” the North Fork.
Flathead Trout Unlimited raised the alarm on Canadian logging in the water- shed. I am grateful for their vigilance.
Please note that no one is saying the North Fork should be entirely off-limits to logging. There is room for sustainable timber harvest here, and we know log- ging can be light on the land and even beneficial for some wildlife species. We are simply saying that Canada and Mon- tana should be good neighbors when planning this logging.
Experts from both countries should carefully think out logging plans. Those plans should employ the latest science and the best management practices to protect the wildlife, fish and water we share. After all, those resources move freely over the international border.
The North Fork of the Flathead Valley is a truly special place. Generations of Montanans and Canadians have worked together to keep it that way. Ultimately, the citizens of each nation have the final responsibility to be good stewards, and good neighbors.
I encourage Montana’s entire Con- gressional delegation and Gov. Steve Bullock to speak clearly and respect- fully to their Canadian counterparts: Let’s work together to keep the North Fork special, before it’s too late.
“YOU WON’T BE SURPRISED THAT THE FINAL COST OF PTC WILL BE TRIPLE EARLIER ESTIMATES, BETWEEN $10 AND $14 BILLION.”
Mike (Uncommon Ground) Jopek and Dave (Closing Range) Skinner often fall on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to political and outdoor issues. Their columns alternate each week in the Flathead Beacon.
“LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO KEEP THE NORTH FORK SPECIAL, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.”
Debo Powers is president of the North Fork Preservation Association
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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