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Legislative duo disappointing

I was extremely disappointed that both Rep. Greg Hertz and his son, Rep. Adam Hertz, voted against the much needed GOP sponsored infrastructure bill, SB 367. This is not what your constituents deserve or wanted.

After passing the Senate by a 38-12 margin, the two of you ignored what 64 other House members, including all Democrats and 23 fellow Republicans worked for to help Montana communities and workers have a better chance for a job and improve infrastructure needs throughout the state.

You Greg, are developing a disconcerting track record. You refused to support the infrastructure bill in 2015, which fell one vote short of passing, and were again among a minority in our 2017 Legislature to refuse to support SB 367. Your votes in the past two legislative sessions show a disregard for a healthy, safe and productive Montana. Locally, your vote resulted in the loss of $1,225,000 needed for maintenance of the Polson Elementary School. We can only hope that the voters in the communities that missed out on needed infrastructure projects, due to your uncompromising votes, will remember your actions in the 2018 election. —Craig McClure, Polson

Protect Flathead from potential oil-train disaster

Highly flammable, explosive, and toxic Bakken crude oil is being transported along the Middle Fork Flathead River by rail every week. A derailment and oil spill in the Middle Fork could have long-term impacts on our clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, and our communities and local economy.

That’s why American Rivers designated the Middle Fork Flathead one of the top 10 most endangered rivers in the nation this year and is asking the public to encourage the Federal Rail Administration and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to develop a site-specific safety compliance agreement for the Middle Fork.

Shallow aquifers — less than 50 feet and in many places less than 5 feet below the surface — lie along and exchange water with the Middle Fork and mainstem Flathead Rivers. The rivers, aquifers, and floodplain support a network of organisms that help maintain clean water for people, fish, and wildlife.

Flathead Lake is downstream. It is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River and one of the cleanest large lakes anywhere in populated areas of the world.

Our economy, our environment, and our quality of life depend on protecting these wonderful resources.

The Flathead Lakers group, with over 1,500 members, has been working to protect clean water in Flathead Lake and its watershed since 1958. We believe stronger safety measures are needed to protect Flathead waters from an oil-train disaster. We support stronger safety standards for all oil-tank cars, slower speed limits for oil trains traveling through sensitive areas like the Middle Fork, limits on the number of oil-tank cars per train, and additional snow sheds in Glacier Park to reduce the chance of an avalanche-caused derailment. Visit our website to learn more.

Current oil demand has reduced the oil-train traffic temporarily, which makes this the perfect time to improve safety in the Middle Fork corridor.

BNSF has assured us their safety measures are adequate, but they have yet to provide the Flathead Lakers and the public with a detailed derailment and spill prevention plan for this steep, winding, avalanche-prone rail corridor.

Our Flathead waters and this special place are too valuable to ignore this threat. —Steve Rosso of Lakeside, Flathead Lakers president, and Greg McCormick of Polson, Flathead Lakers past president

Editor seems to have a problem with liberals

I’ve only lived here a short time, and for the most part I love it, from the beautiful environment to the mostly friendly people. But there’s one thing that disturbs and concerns me. The Daily Inter Lake’s editor, Frank Miele, seems to have a real block when comes to any idea or policy or political view that appears to be taken as “liberal,” almost like that’s a dirty word. His way of dealing with it is to be demeaning or sarcastic — remarkably closed! I don’t know if he has a history where a liberal person was particularly mean to him or his family, but to be so close minded, especially as an editor for a newspaper covering such a large area, doesn’t seem to be in his or the newspaper’s best interest.

In addition, to publish inflammatory, name-calling, fact skewering letters such as the one on Feb. 26 from Jim Garvey (“A Country at War”) seems to be a way to antagonize and alienate people, not bring them together. If a newspaper wants to be a positive influence in a community, it seems it should work to unite, not push people even farther apart in a depressingly polarized time. Remember, “liberal” means an attempt to be fair and open, and “conservative” means holding on to the good, human empowering things in society, not the bad, divisive things. —Paul Maurer, Whitefish

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Inter Lake proudly publishes letters from across the political spectrum. We believe that venting in a letter to the editor is one of the safety valves that makes a free society work.)

Kootenai coalition shows the way forward

I grew up the son of a logger in the timber industry. Since I was 12 years old, I would be out there working, first with a branding hammer and paint, all the way up to running the processor. During those years, I saw the two factions at war: conservation vs. harvest, and knew that neither side could afford to look beyond their own agenda for fear of losing too much ground and never being able to recover. But things are very different now.

About a year ago, the local field representative for the Montana Wilderness Association introduced me to the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition. After hearing about the coalition, and this local collaborative effort that has been going on for over a decade, I was absolutely stunned and impressed.

Their concept of forest management is so intuitive, their plan so perfectly focused on the balance between resource extraction, conservation, and recreation, all while actually acting as stewards of the land instead of only focusing on their “interest.” And that is the crux of it. Their plan is better for the health of the forest. Even if we all lived in stone houses and had never discovered paper, managing a forest in this fashion would be best for its actual health in a world where we fight fires and pour considerable resources and lives into that effort. By mimicking natural fire patterns, and utilizing terrain characteristics to create non-harvest areas which make sense based on both feasibility and erosion impact, the coalition’s plan goes further still by protecting recreation areas from both future development and future restrictions. Finally, the plan also includes expanding wilderness areas by protecting pre-established roadless areas that fit the criteria of non-harvestable areas, further giving eternal protection to wild and untouched spaces. And therein lies the brilliance of the plan.

We, as human beings acting together, are stewards of our natural spaces, much as a gardener tends to his or her fields, protecting, cultivating, harvesting and enjoying the great gifts nature has given us. The work of the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition represents an opportunity to change the paradigm from either fighting to prevent even a single tree from being harvested or clearcutting to the maximum sustainable yield to one in which we all share in both the bounty of our forests and the unfettered enjoyment thereof. In the end, that should be the goal: a community, in which we are engaged together for the betterment of all. The coalition has embraced that ideal and given us a model by which we can have a greater future. —Troy Douthit, Libby