Good economic news, with an asterisk

There has been some promising economic news about construction and jobs lately around the Flathead Valley.

In many corners of the Flathead Valley, home building is enjoying a resurgence this summer, with dozens of houses and townhouses being built or about to be built.

That’s certainly good news since the construction industry is a mainstay of our local economy.

And at the same time, Flathead County’s unemployment rate declined in May to 5.6 percent — the lowest number here since September 2008.

That’s an impressive number following many years of troublesome high unemployment.

May’s encouraging number, however, comes with a caveat: While the unemployment rate is low, it’s a percentage of a much smaller work force than there used to be here.

The Flathead work force has lost almost 6,700 people since its peak: from 50,867 in mid-2009 to 44,169 this year. The number of people with jobs similarly has declined by 4,507 in five years. Granted, there are fewer people out of work today — but there are fewer jobs out there, too, and overall fewer people working.

Drone-free zone makes sense 

Drones are everywhere these days, aren’t they? But there is one place you won’t see drones — Glacier National Park.

The National Park Service last week banned the use of drones in all national parks, a predictable and justifiable response to something that truly could get out of hand.

The use of drones for commercial purposes in national parks to gather aerial footage for promotion of this or that could proliferate rapidly. Drones have already popped up in Yosemite National Park to photograph the park’s famous waterfalls, they’ve been seen harassing bighorn sheep in Zion National Park, and they were used to photograph an event at Mount Rushmore.

Obviously, drones could be highly annoying to visitors seeking a wild experience in Glacier National Park, where they would probably end up being used to harass the park’s wide variety of wildlife as well. The ban is a good, proactive measure.

On the other hand, we think park superintendents should have some leeway to commission the use of drones for certain worthy purposes. A small and highly maneuverable drone, for example, might be preferable to the use of helicopters in search and rescue missions, which are common in national parks. 

This is a policy that may be worthy of some tweaking in the future.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.