Board asked to approve and implement a "Sustained Yield"

The state Land Board wisely decided this week that there is no need to rush the people's business.

The board was asked to approve and implement a "Sustained Yield" study less than three weeks after it was released to the public. The study was intended to support a legislative fiat that the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation should immediately increase its sustained yield on school trust lands from 42 million board feet per year to 50 million board feet.

Chances are that the plan will be approved in any case, but the Inter Lake and other interested parties objected that the undue haste being adopted on the measure was a bad signal.

Comments on the study were accepted only within a narrow 10-day window and there were no public hearings on the policy changes. It seemed prudent to take more time than that to make sure the policy is the right one.

On Monday, the board's three Democrats pulled back on the reins. We wish it had been a bipartisan vote, but Secretary of State Bob Brown and Lt. Gov. Karl Ohs insisted they knew enough to approve the plan right away. They may be right, but the public did not know enough yet to be confident in their decision.

Waiting till the new deadline for comments passes on Oct. 4 will not cause any hardship and will not stall any timber sales, so clearly this was the right decision.

It's just a single line on a National Weather Service report, but it speaks volumes about the change in the weather this year.

The precipitation total for the Flathead Valley is 12.93 inches so far this year. That's slightly above the long-term average of 12.91 inches.

The significance of those numbers is that it's been a long, long time since precipitation added up to normal around here.

Years of drought have meant that Flathead gauges have registered far below normal precipitation. For instance, a year ago the total precipitation was 8.87 inches as of Sept. 23.

So in spite of the fact that we have had to endure a dreary, cold, rainy September, remember that the rainfall has its benefits.

This year's precipitation turnaround doesn't end the drought, but it's a good start.