Why wilderness

Recently I was in attendance as the Kootenai National Forest unveiled its proposed Forest Plan Starting Option. When someone in the audience asked the question, "What good is wilderness?" I just rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. But after the meeting, the question stayed with me, and I've been thinking about an answer ever since.

Wilderness is a valuable natural resource. When Europeans first came to this continent, it was wilderness from sea to shining sea. Our cities have been built on the wilderness. Our industries have flourished from converting the raw materials of the wilderness into goods and services. Our people have been fed and clothed from food and fiber of the wilderness plowed for agriculture. In the lower 48 states, nearly 98 percent of all the wilderness that existed is gone. Today, only 3 1/2 percent of Montana wilderness is protected.

It's funny, some people seem to be under the misconception that wilderness is created. We are not creating wilderness, we are depleting it. I believe that the current highest and best use of this dwindling wilderness resource is protection.

I believe wilderness designation benefits communities that are nearby. This opinion is supported by a study called "Prosperity in the 21st Century West," published in 2004 by the Sonoran Institute. It's worth your read.

Wilderness provides communities with high quality water and a buffer from wildfire. Wilderness does not close roads, since none exist in it to begin with. Wilderness does not lock up our forests, since wilderness forests haven't been opened up to begin with.

Wilderness provides opportunities for quiet recreation, horseback riding, hiking, backpacking, camping, hunting, fishing, floating, mushroom and berry picking, wildlife viewing, skiing and snowshoeing to name a few forms of traditional recreation that predate the internal combustion engine.

Wilderness provides a place where a person can hone their outdoor skills, can test themselves and learn to become an integrated part of the landscape around them. Wilderness is a laboratory for observation of the natural world — the work of water, wind and fire, plant succession, the cycle of spawning fish and the migration of animals proceed without the interference of man.

The proposed Winton Weydemeyer Wilderness provides a glimpse of what the land was like when the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery passed through it. Almost all the species of animals that flourished at that time are still present today. Wilderness provides a place of solitude for reflection on the grandeur of God's creation.

The little left in our United States deserves our respect, gratitude and protection. Not only for us, or our children, or future generations, but for the past. A past that can never again be entirely seen but only glimpsed in the few wilderness lands remaining.

If you are interested in protection of Montana's wilderness, call the Montana Wilderness Association in Kalispell at 755-6304.

Edwin Fields

Whitefish

Supporting ATP

Our town is lucky to have such a wonderful group of talented singers and actors who are gracing our stage this summer with My Fair Lady.

Kudos to them all — Betsi, Dan, Luke and all the others, and the two pianists.

Let us continue to give our support to the Alpine Theater Group.

Carol Breidenbach

Whitefish

Tidal wave of help

I meant to write this letter quite a while ago. Right after the horrific tsunami in December 2004 that took so many thousands of lives and left so much destruction behind, our sixth graders at Central School, with Tim McGunagle and Jessica Nelson at the helm, began to develop a plan to help the tsunami victims.

The inspiration that drove these children was amazing. It was quite astonishing to see how our children/students swung into action. Before we could react, our son was asking all family members for clothes that were in good shape but didn't fit, threw in some of his brand new clothes, went through the house for any items, of any type, to take to the garage sale.

When that part was done, he and a friend made one of the many signs that were displayed for the sale. He was so dedicated to this project that he requested to give up his whole Saturday for this cause instead of playing Airsoft. Parents made cookies, businesses donated items, and it was a total community project led by sixth graders and the above mentioned teachers.

The response from all parents, families, everyone in the community was quite amazing. Other grades and groups also collected money, clothing and goods for these victims. There were so many items donated to the garage sale that it took a couple of trucks to take the leftover items to places like the Salvation Army Thrift Store, etc. This project also helped our homeless, poor and disadvantaged.

These children, teachers, parent, etc, showed how much compassion and caring there is left in this world, where a lot of the time you only see the negatives and can become quite discouraged. I encourage everyone out there to look around you and see what a caring and giving community we live in and proudly smile on the children that are within our schools.

Good job Mr. McGunagle and Ms. Nelson and all of you sixth graders. You can hold your heads up high.

Jeni Frank

Whitefish