Montana Jones

Wilderness

What is up with the call for wilderness these days?

Business People Call for More Wilderness in Northwest Montana

I am having a lot of trouble with what Wilderness entails. I understand that a wilderness designation places special rules on what can and can't be done in a piece of land. But what exactly? And I am at least a little suspicious of the business people in the above article. Could they really be trying to preserve their McMansions by having the government lock down "their backyard"?

I have read the wilderness act itself, and find little guidance there about how wilderness has been practically managed. Here is my summary of the restrictions listed therein.

Except for measures necessary to meet minimum requirements for administration of the area, including emergencies, health and safety.

• No commercial enterprise
• No permanent road
• No temporary road
• No motor vehicles
• No motorized equipment
• No motorboats
• No landing of aircraft
• No mechanical transport
• No structure or installation

There are some exceptions listed in the act pertaining to aircraft and motorboat use established prior to 1964. There is also a big section pertaining to mining and mineral rights in effect up through 1983.

Don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of the wild outdoors. I know that places like the Bob Marshal Wilderness have benefited from the wilderness designation. I know that our state has benefited from the wilderness areas we enjoy. But as a visitor to wild areas I also know a little human intervention solves problems.

• Establishing campsites and trails outside of wildlife migration routes reduces human/animal conflict.
• Maintaining trails with modern chainsaws and equipment is less expensive and results in better-maintained and safer trails.
• Shelter cabins can save lives.
• Signs, trail markers and cairns aid in navigation and help localize and reduce human impact.

In other words, Wilderness areas and wilderness recreation do not mix very well. Perhaps they were not meant to. I think it is important that tracts of land are preserved from recreational interests as well as from commercial interests; a wilderness designation does that. But we should be careful about which pieces of land get padlocked up from all human interactions. Preserving wild lands for recreation and human use is also important. I think case by case evaluations would be a better choice than a blanket "Wilderness Good" proclamation.

And what about Glacier National Park?

The park Superintendent wants Glacier to be a wilderness area. I am suspicious of this too. Park management is already required to manage areas eligible for wilderness status as though it is wilderness. The superintendent says that the wilderness designation will just make these management policies permanent.

But casting wilderness into law will also overlay another set of potentially conflicting laws and rules on the existing management. What happens when the Park Service Organic Act conflicts with the requirements of a wilderness area? What happens when the rules for preserving historic structures conflict with the rules for managing wilderness areas?

The Wilderness Act is also hostile to wilderness recreation, as we have seen above. The National Park Service mission includes both preservation and providing for enjoyment. Making a National Park a wilderness does a service to one part of that mission, but a disservice to the other.

The National Park Service Wilderness Management Policies do call for assessments and studies before the change can be made. Unfortunately, the same policies make no mention of public comment or input.

The policies also call for public education programs and states:

Education is among the most effective tools for dealing with wilderness use and management problems and should generally be applied before more restrictive management tools.

I think the best thing that can happen right now is education, debate and discussion. There are far too many questions unanswered at this time for me to think that slapping "wilderness" all over the map is a good idea. So for any of you congress people or lawmakers out there, please keep right on doing what you have been doing. Nothing! Make no votes for new wilderness until the debate has reached the public and we better understand what we are doing to the future of our lands.

Labels: bureaucracy, education, Glacier National Park, law, National Park Service, news, opinion, preservation, recreation, wilderness, Wilderness Act

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:26 PM 2 comments

Choose irony

Anyone else see the irony in the Snyder Drug conflagration?

greatfallstribune.com
greaterfalls.com

Snyder drug is using a pro choice argument to support their limiting the choices of others. Counts as ironic don't you think?

My understanding is that the law allows Snyder Drug to make the choice that they have. It makes an interesting thought exercise to ponder what if licensed pharmacies were required to sell all legal medications. In that scenario the pro-choice groups would be limiting Snyder Drugs choices. That would be even more ironic.

The saving graces here are the choices available to everyone in the community. Currently everyone is free to choose their own morals. As it should be. Patients now get to choose other pharmacies and those pharmacies are allowed to choose their own product line. Everyone still has their freedom. The danger is on the slippery slope. It is within the realm of possibility that every pharmacy in town could choose to not sell oral contraceptives. I think this is unlikely, but it is possible and it would create a serious issue whereby the morals and choices of all would be controlled by a few. But defending against this particular slippery slope involves removing freedom of choice from the pharmacy. An equally dangerous slippery slope in the other direction. Let's not go there either, okay.

I think the status quo is about right on this issue. All parties still have all their choices available to them. Snyder Drug has publicly come out as part of the anti-women crowd and their customer demographic will change accordingly. The pro choice group has done the appropriate red flag waving and noise making about the dangerous slippery slope in the community. We all have had an interesting issue to take sides on and enjoy bickering over. And I got a chuckle about some irony.

Labels: choice, Great Falls, irony, issue, links, morality, news, oral contraceptives, slippery slope, Snyder Drug

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:52 PM 0 comments

Thanks for calling

Me:

And hey, I just want to say thanks for the call.

He:

Oh yeah, no problem. I just want to know what news service your brother pays attention to. He is all the way out there on the east coast, as far east as you can go without getting your feet wet, and he sees this tiny little news blurb about a plane crash in Montana and then he is all over the phone checking up on you.

Me:

It's reassuring.

He:

He knew before anybody here got the news. I mean hell, all the local new places take the weekend off. Can't get local news on a weekend. But he got a little blurb out east. He tried calling you and couldn't reach you and then he tried your mom and dad but they were off doing that thing in Missoula. He finally got to me but I didn't have any info for him.

Me:

Yeah, I was out at the field. Can't get cell phone coverage out there.

He:

With the local news being worthless I tried calling around. You, and your mom. Finally got your mom and all that did was worry her. Made my day when you answered the second time I tried you.

Me:

I had just switched the phone back on. You rang it only ten seconds later.

He:

Well, we are all glad you are okay.

Me:

My phone just lit up when I switched on. You, mom, dad, MM, some friends. It's nice to know that I would be missed if I actually went missing. So thanks for calling.

Labels: conversation, family, friends, local news, news, phone, worry

Posted by: Montana Jones / 11:00 PM 2 comments

Valenti

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/26/valenti.obit/

When I laid eyes on the headline "Jack Valenti Dead" the very first thought to flicker through my mind was "Good Riddance". Funny how the brain works. I immediately arrested that thought and replaced it with "do not speak ill of the dead". But it is telling how the moment showed my true opinion.

Jack Valenti was the head of the Motion Picture Association of America for a long time. Jack is the man responsible for movie ratings. G, PG, PG-13, R and so forth. To his credit it replaced the previous version known as the Hays code which was basically movie censorship. Even though the new system is still not perfect it is an improvement that gave filmmakers more opportunity to make provocative films.

So Jack Valenti has had an impact on American culture and touched most of our lives. Arguably in a positive way. What has truly raised my ire about the man is his reaction and fight against the 21st century. When home video recording technology was introduced Jack feared the demise of the motion picture industry. He is famous for testifying to congress "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Pretty strong stuff, arrogant, demeaning to women and as completely wrong as could possibly be.

Jack continued to fight against new technology for the rest of his life. He was a champion of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, advocate of anti-copying technology, and fighting against the power of the internet. When you start up a DVD movie that you legally purchased, yet you cannot skip past the FBI warning, an anti-copying warning and an advertisement accusing you of being a thief. Jack Valenti is responsible for that. Arrogant, demeaning, and completely wrong.

That is why I hated the man. Because he hated me. He battled against the new internet technologies that I was making my living with. He hated the idea that I wanted to share and participate in my own culture. He misunderstood the value of digital data and called people thieves even after taking their money. He foolishly fought to stop the tides of change.

So my first reaction to his passing was "good riddance". It may be wrong to speak ill of the dead, it may be that he did good works in his day, but our future is brighter without him in it.

Labels: death, Jack Valenti, movies, MPAA, news, obituary, opinion, ratings

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:20 AM 0 comments

Voting is a waste of time

Why should we even bother casting a vote if the initiative we vote for is altered after the fact?

Labels: links, missoulian.com, news, politics, voting

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:32 AM 0 comments

Antiques

Who would like to join me in some good old fashioned outrage? Check out this story about an antiques dealer in Whitefish:

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2007/02/09/news/news01.txt
http://whitefishpilot.com/articles/2007/02/08/news/news01.txt

The gist of it is that an antiques dealer was raided for having antique gambling equipment. I guess that the Montana Department of Justice's Gambling Investigation Division doesn't have anything better to do or any more pressing crimes to solve. So this is what passes for law enforcement and protecting the citizens; confiscating old furniture that no longer has use as a gaming device, harassing a small business owner, interfering in the livelihoods of the citizenry. I would like the Gambling Investigation Division to do some explaining and justify their existence in some way.

Noteworthy from the Interlake story was this particular bit.

Ron Turner phoned his son-in-law, Clint Walker, for advice. Walker called the Whitefish police to ask that officers check up on the state agents to make sure they were genuine and not con artists.

Two Whitefish officers showed up at the Cowboy Cabin, asking the agents to verify their identities.

One agent got mad and yelled at the police officers, who remained calm, Turner said. Whitefish Assistant police Chief Mike Ferda verified that one state agent was rude and "went a little over the top to our officers."

After checking the state agents' identities, the Whitefish officers backed off.

It strikes me that asking the state agents to confirm they are who they say they are is reasonable. And correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a law enforcement officer required to produce identification as such any time it is requested in the course of his duties? For these agents to get belligerent to the local police is about as unprofessional an act as misidentifying antiques as gambling devices.

Labels: antique, asinine, crime, Department of Justice, gambling, harrasment, law enforcement, links, news, small business

Posted by: Montana Jones / 10:03 AM 0 comments

In the Email

From: D_
Subject: Women Propose Marriage and Men can't refuse

To me this seems like a good way to go. Let's promote change in this society.

>
> To have refused, explained the old man remembering the day half a
> century ago, would have dishonored his family -- and in any case,
> why would he want to choose his own wife?
>
> "Love comes first into the heart of the woman," explained Nananghe.
> "Once it's in the woman, only then can it jump into the man."
>
> "The choice of a woman is much more stable," explains Okrane.
> "Rarely were there divorces before. Now, with men choosing, divorce
> has become common."
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/01/guinea.marriage.ap/index.html
>

From: M_
Subject: Re: Women Propose Marriage and Men can't refuse

You sure do wrestle with some interesting demons...

Labels: banter, email, inbox, links, marriage, men, news, women

Posted by: Montana Jones / 5:32 PM 1 comments