Montana Legacy Project is a dream come true
I am writing to enthusiastically endorse the Montana Legacy Project, which will protect from residential development over 300,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. wildlands in western Montana.
For our family, the project cuts very close to home, indeed. For over 30 years, access to the patchwork of Plum Creek and national forest lands in the Lolo Creek Basin has been a vital part of our family life. Our son caught his first trout in Lolo Creek. Last August, we spent a special day picking huckleberries with our 4-year-old grandson on a ridge in the higher reaches of the drainage. And every autumn, as the larches work their magic, we hunt, seeking our food from the land.
So it was with a sense of a dream coming true that I watched the news of the Montana Legacy Project break, for it will conserve thousands of acres of wildlands in the upper Lolo Creek drainage, keeping the land for wildlife, preserving traditional hunting and gathering access, and helping local economies by allowing for continued timber harvests.
I know it is fashionable to talk about “win-win” solutions. I can’t see how it gets any better than this.
Mike Kantor, Lolo
Rey out of line with comments on Tim Love
Enough is enough!
In the latest installment of the ongoing saga of Plum Creek Timber Co. road use agreements on national forest lands, Agricultural Undersecretary Mark Rey takes yet one more gratuitous potshot at Tim Love, ranger for the Seeley Lake District of the Lolo National Forest.
This is at least the second time that he has, in a most condescending manner, taken Love to task for the letter he wrote stating that the road easement in question was “authorized specifically for timber management and logging,” not for all lawful purposes, as the undersecretary contends.
Those of us who work with Tim on a regular basis know full well that he is a forester, and a fine one at that, and not an attorney. However, we also know that a ranger of his experience and standing would not write such a letter without vetting it through the legal channels of the Forest Service.
Judging from the deafening silence of Forest Service officials, I think it is safe to assume that they are under some form of gag order from the undersecretary to not comment publicly on this issue.
Is it simply arrogance that drives a high-ranking political appointee to publicly deride a valued career public servant, or is it a desire to deflect examination of a potentially untenable position?
Land M. Lindbergh, Greenough
Day at the fair is no reason to allow rudeness to rule
Why do people become more inconsiderate when the Western Montana Fair comes to town?
It is not that hard to find a garbage can in Missoula. There are several in public areas, and so what if you had to take it with you in your vehicle until you could find a garbage can in which to dump your garbage (fast food is the main culprit)?
People used to carry litter bags in their vehicles for just such a purpose. It is not rocket science. Tonight, for example, there was a bag of garbage sitting in the street right next to a park. The garbage can was only about 3 feet away. This morning, over by Russell School, there were the contents of a case of beer strewn across the parking lot.
Since the fair has started there has been a large increase in the amount of trash in the area of the fairgrounds.
To sum things up: put litter in its proper place.
Michelle Parrott, Missoula
Burgess somehow keeps empathy in face of betrayal
This morning I once again listened to the voice of Phil Burgess (guest column, August 5) and I pictured he and I sitting side by side at the coffee bar at Butterfly Herbs, 1981, our exchange fueled by his storehouse of empathy and wisdom.
The foundation of our half-dozen conversations over two years was not war but politics.
This morning I listened to Burgess and I wonder whether my cynicism is the security wall I’ve built around my disgust with world politics.
All politicians everywhere have betrayed us because they won’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
All governments are criminal networks, each with its own style.
Lesson of Vietnam No. 5: Never fight an imperial war with conscripts. Always use volunteers, mercenaries and the specialists we call Black Ops.
Greg Leichner, Missoula
Child pornography sentence was a joke
Recently, in the Public Records section of the Missoulian, a felony sentence was handed down in regards to possession of child pornography.
The sentence was 30 days in jail (What a travesty of justice!) and a lifetime of supervised release.
I know jails and prisons are crowded; however, I believe that 30 days is insufficient time for a crime of this magnitude. What if it were your child who was the victim of pornography?
I question the wisdom - or lack thereof - of the judge who did the sentencing.
Karen Altrichter, Missoula
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