Changing landscape

The changing landscape of the West is both our strength and our weakness — especially now that those changes or fragmentation of the land uses is happening at a more rapid pace.

On one hand it is our economic strength and has been since the first explorers in the early 1800s — Lewis and Clark, David Thompson, Lt. Zebulon Pike, Maj. Stephen Long, Maj. John C. Fremont, Maj. John Wesley Powell and host of others, including fur trappers, miners, farmers, shopkeepers, land speculators and developers — began opening access to the region.

Colorado College's recent State of the Rockies talks about changes in land use such as nearly a quarter of West's ranches have been put to other uses during the past 30 years and another 24 million acres of ranch land are expected to disappear in the next 14 years. The report continues by noting that farm output as a percentage of gross domestic product dropped from 11 percent in 1945 to 2.2 percent in 2004. In that same time period, farm employment has dropped from 6.5 percent to .65 percent. And farm prices are stagnant enough that 93 percent of farmers and ranchers must earn off-the-farm income to make it all work.

Where am I going with this?

We're seeing similar trends locally as the big land-holding timber companies begin converting forest lands to what some call recreational development, which is essentially residential development.

The Colorado College report says the biggest instigator of change throughout the West is growing population and development. The conversion of timberlands to residential development seems akin to the Front Range of Colorado where farmlands are being gobbled up by housing developments, and far ahead of that construction march, the farmers are selling their irrigation and groundwater rights to quench the thirst of that expanding population. Thus changing the character of entire regions, no less the environment as well as the economies of the West.

It's happening here, and it's not only changing our environment, but it is clashing with our ever-changing culture.

How?

On Wednesday, the Lincoln County Commissioners will be discussing a proposal for a gated community development on Granite Creek. It was only a matter of time since these types of developments are extremely attractive to many people and exist throughout the western United States. This particular developer has already asked the county to consider abandoning Granite Creek Road — a county road — that runs through his newly acquired property. He is willing to finance the construction of a new road around his property that would access the Granite Lake Trail, called by the Forest Service as one of the most popular trails in the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness.

That road would be to the south and probably result in area road closures because of the density issue for big game animals and grizzly bears. There is also the issue of how long that access road would remain open to the public since it would be Forest Service and not county.

Nobody has all the answers to any of this yet. The county has had preliminary discussions and no meetings with the developer. The Forest Service is probably not much farther along.

Of course, another problem in the West identified by the Colorado College Report Card is our inability to deal with many of the regional problems because we can't get along with one another. We would much rather focus on our differences than build strength together from what we have in common.

The Granite Creek issue is going to be interesting, along with public reaction. The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the courthouse. — Roger Morris