Appreciate travel plan
To the editor,
We would like to express our deep appreciation to the Forest Service and the leaders of the Blackfeet Tribe for having the wisdom and forethought to put in place a protective travel plan for the Lewis and Clark Badger-Two Medicine area.
We are among 90 percent of Montanans who, during the 2002 'scoping period" to evaluate the need for restriction of motorized vehicles, strongly supported a plan to eliminate this destruction. Our homeland is on the Blackfeet reservation and the eastern Rocky Mountain front. We truly appreciate the opportunities that the wilderness provides for us and feel the long-term preservation of this backcountry and its resident wildlife is extremely important.
A systematic deterioration of this wilderness in which we base our hunting camp has occurred, witnessed by members of our family who cover approximately 100,000 acres on horseback and afoot from mid-September to November and have consistently hunted in this area for the past 20 years. Recently, we have seen new vehicle trails, campsites and permanent human impact. The elk herds that were beginning to flourish are now plagued by the noise that continues to reach deeper into this wilderness. Our eldest harvested her first elk in this country; we were beginning to doubt that the forest would be intact for our youngest two, now 16 months old, to have that same experience.
We are thankful that some legal boundaries have finally been established to remind people that we are visitors into the backcountry.
The Gordon Nation Family
Badger Creek
Plan supports habitat
To the editor,
I commend the Forest Service for its travel plan for the Badger-Two Medicine area. I appreciate the emphasis on non-motorized use that supports wildlife habitat and spiritual values of the area that are important to Native Americans and many other citizens.
I own an off-road motorcycle that I enjoy riding on trails to access more remote areas on foot. The plan seems to accommodate this type of use with suitable corridors but without a network of backcountry motorized trails that would interfere with the peace and quiet that many Montanans enjoy in truly wild areas.
John Larson
Kalispell