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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
‘The B Volume XXXV, Number 7
Summer finale!
Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
FS meets with objectors to Gold Butterfly project
By Michael Howell
Above, just like with the Pied Piper, people of all ages feel compelled to follow the Donaldson Brothers Candy Truck at the end of the Fair Parade, gathering up a seemingly endless supply of candy. The entry won Best of Show, while the RC Band (left), consisting of students from up and down the valley co-directed by Shawn Thacker & Nancy Brown, won a Special Award
Not much appeared to get resolved at a meeting between U.S. Forest Service officials and official “Objectors” to the Bitterroot National Forest’s Gold Butterfly Project last week. Time was the primary limiting factor. There were 19 official objectors and most had representatives present to discuss their issues and present some idea of potential resolution, but they only had five minutes each to speak. Several of the objectors noted from the outset that due to the magnitude and complexity of the project they had more than one issue of concern but were being limited to barely enough time to address a single issue. They claimed it defeated the process if the aim was to come to some sort of resolution on all the issues. The five-minute time restriction was strictly enforced. The Gold Butterfly Project proposes harvest and thinning, slash piling, and prescribed burning on approximately 10,500 acres of National Forest System lands between Burnt Fork and St. Clair Creek on the east side of the Bitterroot Valley. Proposed treatments include commercial timber harvest, non-commercial thinning, and prescribed burning to improve forest health. The project includes
road improvements, construction, decommissioning, and storage of routes. Most of the roads proposed for decommissioning are already closed to motorized use. Deputy Regional Forester Keith Lannom noted that the meeting was not a debate. “Today we want to focus on resolutions.” He said it was a chance for dialogue to see if there was an opportunity for resolution. First to speak was Larry Campbell who said, “I don’t believe I’m seeing genuine collaboration.” He stated that the public record showed that the overwhelming number of comments were against logging in Old Growth areas and that the public wanted no new roads to be built. He said discussions at the Bitterroot Restoration Committee showed the same sentiment as did the discussions at the Alternative Workshops, but that those comments were all ignored. Concerning the road building issue, he said that he had requested an analysis of the impact of the new road building on the quantity and timing of flows in the streams but no analysis was done. His idea for a resolution would be to go back into the NEPA process and disclose these impacts. He See OBJECTORS, page 8
Darby celebrates Sacajawea By Michael Howell
There’s no question about it. The South Valley Civic Group has put Darby on the map. The town shines like a precious gem on the latest map of the Lewis and Clark Trail on display at the second annual celebration of Sacajawea’s passage through the Darby area in 1807 with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The celebration was held last week in the Sacajawea Rest Park in the heart of downtown Darby where a life-size bronze statue of Sacajawea carrying her infant
Photos by Pat Easley, Ara Masar and Victoria Howell.
406 RODEO - Mini Buckers
Fri -6:30 . Sat 10:30am . Sun 2:30pm
son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau greets visitors as they enter the little pocket park. Now, park visitors will also be greeted by over a dozen paintings, done by Darby High School advanced art students in Sean Byers’ class. The paintings, done on steel canvases, were made for outdoor display and have been permanently mounted at the park. The paintings depict animals, people and landscapes that may have been seen in the Darby area over the last 15,000 years. Some of the animals depicted did roam the area at one
time but have been extinct for thousands of years, like the saber tooth tiger, the wooly mammoth, and a large kind of buffalo twice the size of any modern buffalo. Then, there are the species that once thrived here and became extinct in North America but managed to survive elsewhere in the world, like the horse and the camel. “If there is a horse being ridden by a person in one of these pictures, then we know it depicts an event in the last few See DARBY, page 9
You Are Here: Ted Hall, Local author and expert on the Lewis and Clark Trail, points to the shining gem on the latest map showing the route that the Lewis and Clark Expedition followed on its journey to the Pacific. The gem on the map represents Darby and the accompanying note states “You are here.” Michael Howell photo.
Broncs, Bulls & Barrels Saturday 6:00pm