Letters to the editor Dec. 21
Flybrary project
Congratulations to Eagle Scout Ryland Armstrong and to the Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited for building and installing six “flybraries” at access spots around the Flathead Valley. What a wonderful idea!
Last summer I was sorting through dozens of flies that I owned and realized that I would never use most of them again. So, I put a photo of the flies on a flyfishing website and said that I was thinking about giving them away.
I was amazed by the response. About 20 people responded saying they would like some of my flies. So, I wound up mailing a bunch of them off to different fly fishers. A few weeks later, I received a photo from a young man with a beautiful trout that he had caught on a fly that I sent him.
But mailing flies is a hassle. Much better to drop a few in a “flybrary” and maybe pick one of two up before heading to the water.
— Charles Zucker, Columbia Falls
Water compact
We have been abandoned — abandoned by our elected officials but particularly Sen. Steve Daines who has, unfortunately, cast his support to a separate, foreign, sovereign nation, the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes, leaving behind the citizens of Montana. By fully backing the CSKT water compact, he has literally sold water rights property owners down the river.
Daines used to be a true representative of Western Montana until he was turned to the liberal, politically correct notion of promoting the separatist movement of Native American tribes and particularly those of the CSKT via the water compact. Convinced by monied interests of the viability of CSKT water rights claims, he, with his compatriot, Sen. Jon Tester, rammed this travesty through the Senate condemning Western Montana citizens to be subjugated to the whims of a separate nation over which we have no control.
The water compact is a sham, inherently unfair, illegal and at its basest level, racist. People, the problem with the water levels in Flathead Lake is not the end of our problems with CSKT, it is just the beginning. From here our conflicts will get worse with more lawsuits, more uncertainty, division and acrimony.
What is so galling is the compact is being implemented even before it has been approved by the Water Court Judge Brown. After hearing the complaints and legal positions of the 400 or 500 objectors, it is his duty to either approve or disapprove the compact in its entirely. The trial is slated to begin in January 2025.
Our elected officials should be demanding any implementation of the compact be delayed until judgment is rendered, but all of them, including Daines, remain silent. Hopefully, Judge Brown will recognize the illegality of the compact and render it invalid therefore negating any implementation at all.
Daines made a mistake (Tester is hopeless) and he should admit it, change his opinion and support the rights of Montana citizens not the foreign government of the CSKT.
But political correctness is a virulent disease which is hard to overcome. The result? We are orphans, abandoned by the very people we trusted to protect and be advocates for us. And, by the way it looks, we may be orphans for a long, long time.
— Mark Agather, Kalispell