Holiday season is time to give thanks: Let's be grateful for our wilderness

Letter to the Editor,

During the holiday season we give thanks for those things that make our lives better. Often, these are the simple things that bring us comfort or joy, uplift us and make us better people or bring us together as family and as community.

Among the blessings that I count and give thanks for are wild places. From youth through adulthood, I’ve cherished hiking and paddling in untouched back country and along wilderness trails. These experiences have tested, challenged and shaped me. They’ve given me strength and a better understanding of what’s truly important in life.

In the wilderness we are grateful for a warm campfire, a dry tent and the sounds of nature and views that can only be had by getting outside and away from our frenzied lives. We can’t buy these things in a store. We are fortunate to find such wilderness experiences close by, in places like the Scotchman Peaks.

We live here because we share a love of the land, of mountains, of lakes, of rivers and of natural places where we can work and play. Our natural resources provide commodities which are a part of a diverse and vibrant economy. They also provide stunning views, recreational opportunities and experiences which provide a quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Our outstanding natural setting helps to attract and keep a wide range of other business activity too.

To build a strong community, we must find a balance in managing our public lands. Our specific outdoor interests may vary and we want to preserve opportunities for all of them. We want to find a balance where we can hike and explore, hunt, fish, pick berries, ride a mountain bike or an ATV or a snow machine, or simply snowshoe to a quiet place in solitude.

The Idaho Panhandle and Kootenai National Forests have spent more than 10 years revising their land management plans, basing revisions on the best available science, extensive collaboration and public input during hundreds of public meetings and several formal comment periods.

The agency faced, and made, difficult decisions.  There are so many decisions and so many points of view that likely no one would agree with everything in these plans. But they are balanced, allocating some lands for timber production and other commodities, some for various recreational uses, some for wildlife management and some for back country and wilderness designation. We need this balance; it will build a stronger community.  

I am thankful that we have a growing community consensus supporting wilderness preservation for the Scotchman Peaks, recognizing the best value of this area is to let it continue to remain as is it is now, as a legacy for our children. These plans reflect that.

I am thankful that our community leaders, from Forest Service planners to business leaders to elected officials who recognize and support a balanced approach to land management and who recognize the value in preserving the Scotchman Peaks as wilderness.

I hope you will give your thanks, too, and support our community leaders who work hard to keep our community and economy strong and work hard to keep some of our special places intact for the next generation.

Let’s all give thanks for the wild.

— Phil Hough, Friends of Scotchman Peaks

— Mollie Kieran, Montana Wilderness Association