LETTER: Don't turn away those who can help during wildfires

It is a shame that our national forests and national parks get closed after the department heads allow fires to burn and then aren’t reopened when they should be.

The fire that burned the Meadow Creek trailhead could have been contained and put out before it got out of hand.

After it burned up a very popular trailhead into the Bob Marshall Wilderness and several outfitters’ gear and a few vehicles, the Forest Service still wouldn’t let the public back in there to clean and clear the trails. It is absurd that those in charge can make decisions to keep others from serving the public or even allowing those most affected to speed up the recovery process.

To make matters worse, there isn’t even any water for the stock at the trailhead. It is amazing to think that our government will spend thousands wrapping old buildings so they might not burn, but won’t invest in a well that could have saved the trailhead AND countless hours hauling water for the benefit of the private and outfitted public.

What makes our country great is when we have the privilege to compete to serve others. When the government can deny that privilege, I think they are forgetting who they are supposed to serve. Many of them get paid overtime for keeping the public out of our national forests due to fires, while those who actually serve the public get turned away.  

Kind of ironic don’t you think? —Kirk Gentry, Columbia Falls