|
Home | Coalition | News | Draft Proposal |Contact A
New Day in Lincoln County:
and they are the rope.
Debates over the
Kootenai National Forest have been high-octane brawls, leaving
resentment, anger, frustration and loss in the wreckage. But a new plan
— supported by an unlikely mix of timber workers, ATV and
snowmobile enthusiasts and conservationists — aims to break the
gridlock and end the trench warfare that has served no one.
That new idea is the
Lincoln County Coalition. This is its story.
“For 30 years now,
we’ve been fighting in Lincoln County. What has it gained us?
Nothing,” said Wayne Hirst, downtown Libby businessman. “It’s
gotten us nowhere. All the mills are gone. It’s worse than any of us
could have imagined. No one imagined Libby with zero mills, no one.”
Rugged and densely
forested, Lincoln County is 3,600 square miles, three times larger than
the state of Rhode Island, with only 19,000 people.
Seventy-five percent of
that land is the Kootenai National Forest, managed by laws from in
Washington D.C. and often enforced by judges and litigants hundreds, if
not thousands, of miles away. Another 10 percent of the county is
corporate timberland — logged, swapped or sold from distant
boardrooms.
Northwestern Montana is
the most productive forestland in the Rockies, yet mill after mill has
shut down over the last decade. Those mills supported families and small
businesses. Likewise, local conservationists, who would like to protect
special areas, are frustrated, as no new wilderness areas have been
created on the Kootenai since 1964. They, too, feel jerked around by
decisions made far away.
Meanwhile, there is a
new kind of change. Lincoln County has been “discovered” by retirees
and moneyed outsiders, building seasonal or retirement homes. Property
values have rocketed. Some of the richest wildlife habitat is sliced
into subdivisions and favorite hunting spots and fishing streams are
blocked forever behind “no trespassing” signs.
Yet amid all this
turmoil, there is progress.
The Lincoln County
Coalition draws together wilderness advocates, snowmobile and
ATV-riders, outfitters, economic boosters and local loggers and mills.
These diverse folks put differences aside and try to find paths
to move the Forest Service and the community ahead. The Lincoln County
Coalition is advancing a draft legislative package — The Lincoln
County Community Development Project
which all sides promise to finish and champion in Congress.
Although still in draft form, Lincoln County Community
Development Project package would:
• Create jobs
in the woods, by way of light-on-the-land logging that leaves the
forest healthier and protects communities from wildfire.
• Preserve
recreational access, by way
of routes and trails for folks who enjoy snowmobiles and ATVs.
• Protecting special
areas, for example protecting Roderick Mountain, up the Yaak, as a
wilderness area.
A demonstration project
in the 3 Rivers District – The Three Rivers Challenge-- will show how
this legislative package will translate on the ground.
“Challenge” is an accurate word, because influencing Congress
is a challenging task. The people of Lincoln County are just 19,000
folks in a nation of 300 million. But Lincoln County is not alone. Many
communities are torn between local values and international forces.
Although perhaps not as acute as Lincoln County, rural communities
throughout the West struggle with similar challenges.
Perhaps lessons from
the Lincoln County Coalition and the Three Rivers Challenge that will
echo beyond the cedar stands of the Bull River and the alpine ridgelines
of the Yaak. Elements of the Lincoln County Community Development Project
• Jobs in the
Woods
• Forest Health
• Motorized
Recreation
• Protecting
Special Places
• Preserving traditional access
|
