Posted on 04/28/2003 11:27:45 AM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
(click source for full pictoral)
Flathead County, MT - In a matter that has been brewing for sometime, residents of Montana's Glacier Park area say they are being economically terrorized by federal grizzly policies. The talk has gone beyond just protesting about it. Reports are coming in that Montanans may follow the example of Klamath Falls, and take matters into their own hands.
Flathead country residents have spoken to The Sierra Times about taking direct action to removing many of the barricades in Montana, but only on a condition on anonymity. "What other choice to we have?" said one resident. "We've pleaded. We've lobbied. We are in the same position as the people in Klamath Falls - threatened with economic extinction." .
The Sierra Times has learned that a gathering has been planned for May 2 at the Rodeo Grounds outside the Blue Moon Night Club in Columbia Falls, where residents will discuss their 'options'.
It should be noted that No organization, including Montanans for Mutiple Use have endorsed any barracade removal. Nor has any official spokesman been assigned at this time.
The outrage in northwest Montana is over the Forestry Service's road closures that have been placed in affect to protect the grizzly bear, wolves and other endangered species. There are 2,104 roads in what the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) describes as a forest system. At present, according to the state of Montana, 1,910 of those 2,104 roads (91%) have been gated or rendered impassable by permanent Kelly humps made by bulldozers under federal contract.
In 1997, the Forest Service adopted the Road Management Plan (RMP) which identified forestry roads in the state and scheduled them for either maintenance or obliteration. Although a large portion of Glacier National Park lies within the boundaries of Flathead county, this is a state-wide issue.
Paul Pozin, Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana told the Sierra Times the issue of road closures is not just a Kalispell or Glacier Park issue, it's where ever the USFS makes policy. Still, how each area is affect should be measured differently. "Numbers of individuals are very effected by it", said Pozin. "A [road closure] could for example, close an outfitting business." Outfitters are small businesses that depend on outdoor recreational activity in the local area. It is these small businesses that make up the bulk of the work force in rural Montana.
Other businesses directly affected are logging, and fire suppression. In July of 2000, Western residents defied a federal order and re-opened the disputed Jarbidge Canyon Road in Elko County Nevada. Among the reasons was road access needed for fire suppression.
In the summer of 2000, fires burned over nearly 20 percent of the Bitterroot National Forest. Dry lightning storms ignited several small fires, which grew together to create the largest fire in the area in over 100 years. Over 350,000 acres burned, bringing thousands of firefighters from around the world to assist in fighting the fires. More than 1,500 people in Ravalli County were evacuated from homes. Seventy homes, 170 other structures and 94 vehicles were destroyed. On the bright side, over 1,700 threatened residences were saved.
There is more than just gating the roads. In some cases, they are demolished altogether. According to the Montanans for Multiple Use Web Site, two reasons from road demolitions are given. One is to provide security for grizzly bears; bears that visit the town of Whitefish every fall.
It is also expensive to maintain closed roads to prevent culvert failure, according to the Forestry Service. But the difference between road failure and removal is that failure occurs only once in 20 to 40 years in a drainage. Removal involves 20 to 40 culverts in one year, according to the Montanans for Mutiple use..
Montanans for Multiple Use say after these roads are destroyed the forest managers cannot access the area to fight wildfires, manage weed or insect infestations or repair erosion that results from removing the culverts.
During the removal of the culverts, heavy equipment was allowed to work in live streams. No diversion was used. Special permits were required from Montana agencies to permit the violation of Montana water quality standards. Others say state and federal environmental regulations were violated as well.
Many of the culverts ripped out of the ground are in drainages that are important bull trout spawning streams. This species, listed by the Endangered Species Act as threatened, was the center of controversy in Jarbidge, Nevada in 2000. Sediments entering the spawning streams are blamed for much of the decline of this fish as well as the threatened West Slope Cutthroat trout. In one case, 41 culverts that had drained into a Bull trout spawning stream, South Coal Creek, were removed from one road.
Many residents believe justification for their outrage against gates and Kelly bumps are found within Montana law. The state's statute 2-1-202 shows that:
"The state and its inhabitants and citizens reserve the right to fish and hunt and the right of access, ingress, and egress to and through the ceded territory to all persons owning or controlling livestock for the purpose of watering the livestock."
It goes on to say that Jurisdiction does not vest until the United States, through the proper officers, files an accurate map or plat and description by metes and bounds of the lands in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county in which the lands are situated.
As the increased closing of roads clearly has an impact on the local economies, the effect on one of the primary industries - logging, is in dispute. Chuck Keegan, Director of Forest Industry at the University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic Research said the 'gating' of a road doesn't not necessarily cut off logging access. "The Forest service or logging interest may gate their own properties to grant limited access. In some cases, it makes timber harvesting more efficient. It doesn't not prevent forest harvesting from a given area."
Still, Keegan has criticized Forest Service policies for hurting economies in Montana, as well as other western states. "The forest service has a process that makes it nearly impossible to manage environmental concerns and do business at the same time. In fact, in some cases, "timber harvesting" could actually help the forest," Keegan said. Keegan and others believe the primary impact is on recreational forest users. Many believe the environmental movement has just gone too far.
Scott Daumiller from Kalispell, MT remembers picking huckleberries with his dad on Peter's Ridge 30 years ago. Before it was closed to Kalispell it was a popular berrying and snowmobiling site. Although there are no roads on Peter's Ridge it is not within a wilderness area. Daumiller remembers the trail as "no larger than an average game trail." But he says it now resembles a war zone. "Hundreds of trees were dropped across the trail. One was 30 inches across the stump. Every few yards, huge trenches were dug."
The trail to Peter's Ridge was never an official Forestry service trail although it has been used for many years. Part of it was an old logging road that is no longer used by vehicles. Snowmobilers liked to go up there in the winter for the valley views. Even though snowmobiles traveling on top of 1 to 6 feet of snow do no damage to the environment, local environmental radicals from the Swan View Coalition wanted it shut down, ostensibly because a couple motorbikes had used it during summer. They sued and Federal District Judge Malloy gave them permission to close the trail. Under Forestry Service supervision environmentalist machinery dug and sawed it's way up the trail. Closing it to ATVs, horsemen and even making it very difficult for hikers.
Scott thinks that the destruction at Peter's Ridge is proof of the insincerity of radical environmentalists. “If timber companies did this, the greenies would call it ‘raping the forest.’ When they do it it's ‘saving the environment.’"
The Flathead Snowmobile Association. has submitted a petition signed by over 1000 citizens to reopen Peter's Ridge, according to Montanans for Multiple Use.
Stay Tuned to The Sierra Times as this situation unfolds.
On The Web:
Montanans for Multiple Use
http://www.mtmultipleuse.org/
U.S. Forest Service
http://www.fs.fed.us/
The misuse of "affect" and "effect" is a pet peeve of mine. This should be a first priority of the editors!
It's time to organize another Jarbidge Rebellion. I'm ready to load my shovel in the van and head for Big Sky Country.
Oxy-maroon....there are no "local" Flourists...
That would be a good place to start.
Hunters can obtain a key to the gate which they can keep during hunting season to allow them to pass thru the park to the game lands.
Maybe this would work in MT?
One of the related and chilling sights I’ve seen was in Portland, OR a couple of years ago. The USFS or USDA or Some Such Bunch of F!!*ks was having some kind of swine fest at a motel near where I was staying. There must have been 50+, maybe more, Jeep vehicles painted in full jackboot hue. “USFS Law Enforcement” they said. The very concept of greenie, federal pigs with guns is just the kind of thing that keeps me going to the firing range.
These road-less laws are not quite, but loosely, the moral equivalent of the Berlin wall. These people – federal pigs and their UN/USFEDGOV handlers – may be evil, but they are not dumb. One of the "Art of War" like obvious objectives these scum need to accomplish in the long run is the ability to hinder the people from “running to the hills.”
These laws are not to help Ursus arctos horribilis survive. Far from it. They are to help Federalus Swinus thrive.
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