River access questions will remain

Inter Lake editorial

By withdrawing his application for a boat-storage facility on the Flathead River, Pete Rice avoided a personal battle with neighbors over access to the river by boaters, but as he rightly points out, the issue is not going away.

Rice saw the writing on the wall, and it said "lawsuit." Even though he thought his project was a reasonable one that would serve the interests of average county residents who wish to enjoy boating activities, Rice said he did not want to be the "next Bucky Wolford." Wolford, of course, is the mall developer who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees defending his project in court.

Clearly, neighbors didn't like the project, which would have included three boat ramps, but Rice was correct on the facts. The permit he sought could not be rejected on the basis of boat use in the Flathead River. Moreover, there are no restrictions on how many boats can be launched from nearby access points at Sportsman Bridge or Ranchettes Road.

Rice accurately summed up the confrontation when he said, "The larger question is, 'What's the future of boat traffic on the river?' Does the public have any right to access the river?"

Those questions will now have to wait for another day, but surely they will have to be answered.

Republican presidential contender John McCain needs to do more homework before spouting off about pork-barrel spending. He needs to find bona-fide examples of wasteful spending, instead of picking on ground-breaking, highly defensible scientific research that was carried out with efficiency despite incredible logistical difficulties.

We're talking, of course, about the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear population study led by U.S. Geological Survey researcher Kate Kendall. The field work was carried out in 2004, involving more than 200 people collecting 2,560 bear hair samples from sites across a sprawling 7.8 million acres, including Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

McCain has been cracking wise in stump speeches and campaign ads, mocking the DNA sampling as being for some "Wild Kingdom" family tree research or to determine forensic evidence of some crime.

Actually, the only crime here seems to be McCain mugging for the camera. The DNA study is aimed at generating the first-ever population estimate for the region's grizzly bears, setting the stage for determining whether the population is growing, stable or shrinking. Without that knowledge, land and wildlife managers have little idea of whether conservation efforts have been effective or not.

The project has had strong support from top wildlife researchers, land managers and Montana's political leadership, including former Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. McCain should look into that: Burns is now his Montana campaign manager.