Big Sky Country: Nation’s Largest Gated Community

In 1997, the United States Forest Service (USFS) adopted the Road Management Plan (RMP) which identified all forest roads in the state and scheduled them for either maintenance or obliteration. Here in Flathead county, Montana, where I live, with Glacier National Park and the Flathead National Forest, the federal government claims to control 70% of the county’s 5,099 square miles.

There are 2,104 roads in what the USFS describes as a forest system. At present, according to the state of Montana, 1,910 of those 2,104 roads have been gated or rendered impassable by permanent Kelly humps made by government bulldozers, gates, or other types of ‘closers.’ We can’t even access our state lands, for which we pay taxes. The public no longer has access to 90% or so of the public lands in Flathead county.

We have talked to our local officials on these issues, but the road closures continue according to plan. Motor sports recreation here is a thing of the past except for a few now very overused places. Hunting, fishing and hiking are becoming difficult.

How are we going to fight future fires if all the roads are locked or blocked off? We can’t! Flathead National Forest Supervisor Superintendent Kathy Barbeulateos evidently does not question the road closure/obliteration agenda; she just pushes ahead -- regardless of how it affects the livelihoods or traditional recreation habits of the good people of the Flathead.

We are good stewards. We stay here for the beauty, and the way of life. Montana is special: why else would we live here? We are 49th in the nation as far as wages go.

According to the Montana RMP, road obliteration is a process that involves removing culverts, moving road bed materials, and reshaping the terrain to resemble what the experts believe it used to be. Then they replant the disturbed areas with indigenous plants. This is a very expensive process that usually seems to be disastrous for the landscape, as the new plants cannot hold back the forces of Mother Nature which erode tons of material into the fish habitats they are arguably intending to protect.

On the other hand, roads that are to be closed must be gated permanently for four years. At the three-year mark, the USFS plants trees on them. After six years, the gates are removed because by then the roads are no longer drivable anyway. The end result is an obliterated road. It is less expensive, less harmful to the environment, and the public doesn’t realize a road is being obliterated until the gates come down and it’s no longer a road.

Either way, we are being locked out of the lands we pay to maintain through our taxes.

In the Flathead, we have grizzly bear habitat, wildlife corridors, and such. The Endangered Species Act, bears, wolves, lynx, and other hammers are being used to ‘save Gaia’ by locking the public, which supports these lands, out of them.

Our resource-dependent communities in northwest Montana are dying. These towns sprung out of the ground with mining, logging, ranching, cattle grazing, and farming. With the money earned from these industries we fed our families and supported local businesses. We funded everything from schools to county roads with money made from this bountiful land. Now we are all going broke. We can’t fund a school bus for the high school football team or new text books for the elementary school kids.

But we should be grateful here in Flathead. There are seven plaques in the Park that say UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Biolife Reserve.

(By Mike Aastrom | 22 March 2003 | 11:00AM)