YOU CAN'T KEEP SOMETHING LIKE THIS SECRET

When you hear the word, Libby, what do you think?

Not good, eh?

The micropolis of far northwestern Montana makes a lot of headlines, but it seems like it’s never good news.

When I bring up the subject down at the coffee shop or taproom, most people start talking about asbestos, the corporate greed of W.R. Grace, and people gradually dying because of it…or about a remote timber town swamped in the wake of the implosion of the wood products industry, closed mills, unemployed loggers…or about red-necked, AR-15-toting, arch-conservatives hiding out in remote cabins, driving around in camo-colored Jeeps, scouring the skies for black helicopters….or an Appalachia-esque community fraught with economic despair that doesn’t welcome outsiders.

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

Anybody following the build-up to the official announcement of Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) wilderness bill, what he calls the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, probably read the stories and commentaries about refusals from Tester’s staff and the coalition of environmental groups and timber industry reps drafting the bill to release any advance details to the press. This refusal fueled a lot of skepticism, to say the least, and cast a negative shadow on what otherwise would’ve been a grand event for Montana--our newly elected senator stepping up to the bar and making an sincere attempt to end Montana’s Wilderness Drought.

Now, they’re doing it again.

COMING SOON AND ON TRACK

On August 13, 1967, exactly 42 years ago, as I start to write this column, everything changed for the grizzly and everybody managing the national parks where the bears live. It’s a well-known tragedy--two young women killed and partly consumed by two separate grizzly bears in two separate locations on the same frightful night, all so expertly chronicled by Jack Olson in Night of the Grizzlies, which might be the best selling outdoor book ever.

I was in college at the time, spending my summers working on Glacier’s trail crew. The park usually pulled us off the trails in August to fight forest fires. That’s what I was doing on that night, sitting in a fire camp on Apgar Mountain a few miles away from Trout Lake and Granite Park, the sites of the fatal maulings. All of us on the fire crew were huddled around a campfire listening to bits and pieces of broken transmissions coming over our fire radios, trying to figure out what was going on, but knowing it was bad.

THE GOOD OF THE MANY OUWEIGHS THE GOOD OF THE ONE

“The good of the one is outweighed by the good of the many.”

That’s one of my favorite quotations ever because it applies to so many issues. It comes from The Wrath of Khan, my favorite Star Trek movie (yep, still a Trekkie, even at my age), and so brilliantly offered by none other than Mr. Spock.

But what does it have to do with bears? A lot, it seems.

THE FLIP SIDE OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Last week, I was down on the mighty Yellowstone, the longest, free-flowing river in the Continental United States, drift fishing with Trout Unlimited (TU) and talking energy independence.

Unknown to many anglers, the federal government, through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is currently developing management plans for oil and gas leasing on land it manages, mostly in western states, 32 million acres right in Montana, including 906,000 acres in the Billings Resource Area where we were fishing. Three blue ribbon trout streams (Yellowstone, Stillwater and Boulder) and many key tributaries flow right through it. [more]

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act

The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, landmark legislation introduced last month by Montana Sen. Jon Tester, enjoys strong support from Montanans in nearly all walks of life, according to a new statewide poll.

The poll, conducted in late July by Boulder, Colorado-based Harstad Strategic Research (HSR), found that 7 in 10
Montanans support the new bill, which focuses on job creation, forest management, clean water protections, and issues relating to wilderness and the economy.
[more]

A LOCAL COLLABORATION, MOSTLY

Most of us have mistyped URLs, using .com instead of .net or .org instead of .gov. So, when you want to go to the website of the Montana Wood Productions Association, be sure to key in montanaforests.com. If you inadvertently type montanaforests.org, you go a promotional website for Senator Jon Tester's (D-MT) new Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009, S.1470.

Shortly after the website went up last month, I received a couple of emails claiming this was just another example of the heavy hand of the Campaign for America's Wilderness (CAW) had in crafting Tester's wilderness bill. And sure enough, it turns out the domain name was registered by David Chott, CAW online coordinator. [more]

POLITICAL ADVICE FOR THE TIMES

We're all thinking about health care reform and if Congress can really come through for us on an issue that touches us all. At the same time, I suppose you're asking what this issue is doing on the outdoor page.

The answer is, I might have found a way for our the-end-justifies-the-means Congress to pass meaningful health care reform without hurting their NRA grade. [more]

THE VIEW FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUE

Based on past commentaries and concerns with Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership draft legislation, I suspect many readers expect me to oppose Senator Tester's Forest Jobs and Restoration Act of 2009. And I might, but not now. Instead, I've decided to keep my powder dry and reserve judgment until I see how the bill fares in the legislative process and what amendments win approval.

Right now, I definitely see it as a sweet-and-sour pill for Montana, the main reason for my indecisiveness. To summarize, here are a few things I like--and don't like--about what could become Montana's first wilderness bill in 26 years. [more]

BACK ON THE BEER BEAT

I'm back on the Beer Beat today and wondering why so many eateries with a license to sell beer don't support their local brewery.

If you've been following my Microbrew Montana series, you probably noticed a common thread running through the articles. Probably every brewer I interviewed boasted about the sense of community that made their businesses tick. They all talked about getting support from local businesses and how they went to great lengths to return that local support.

But surprise, go next door or across the street to have dinner and ask for one of the local brewery's products, and you'll far-too-often hear a different story. Many owners of restaurants in Montana with craft breweries nearby often offer microbrews from Colorado or Oregon on tap, but nothing or almost nothing from their local brewer.

It doesn't happen everywhere, of course, and some local eateries prioritize local brews, but it happens way too often. I have to ask why? [more]