Anti-Montanore group disbands

A citizens group that formed to oppose the Montanore Mine will disband at the end of this month, according to a press release from the group’s co-founder.

Lynne Haley, a resident of Lincoln County who co-founded Alternative One with her husband, Sam Haley Rose, noted that the group has “fulfilled its mission of informing the public” about the environmental impacts of the Montanore Mine project. Rose actually referred to the proposed mine as “environmentally disastrous.”

Alternative One’s website, alternativeone.org, was scheduled to shut down April 30. For the past two years, it was administered by Haley.

“Alternative One helped to expose the environmental impacts that such a project would have on the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness and the Kootenai National Forest,” Haley stated in the press release, noting that it “helped give a voice to the many Lincoln County residents who oppose the project.”

For all its negativity on the Montanore Mine project, Environmental Permitting Officer Eric Klepfer said the group really had minimal impact.

“There really hasn’t been anything really accomplished by Alternative One,” Klepfer said. “We’re proceeding with the permitting process. Much of their concerns really had no credence. I almost feel like I don’t want to comment because their claims had no rationale. We’re proceeding with the process with the U.S. Forest Service.”

Alvin Benitz, with the Montanore Positive Action Committee — a group supporting the mine and the permitting process — agreed that Alternative One had little impact, except one.

“I think they may have energized our group,” Benitz said. “But I really don’t think they hurt the project. It’s moving along.”

On its website, Alternative One claims it interpreted “the dense language of documents such as the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and informed the public about little-known facts regarding Montanore’s parent company, MMI.”

Sam Haley Rose, who in stepping to the forefront to oppose the project, revealed his checkered past that included several aliases and check-forging schemes.

Last April, while out on bond, Sam Haley Rose was captured by a bondsman in Boise, Idaho, as he tried to meet an online date at the Cheesecake Factory. 

Rose was subsequently released. But he failed to abide by the terms of his probation and is once again wanted by the Flathead County authorities.

In the interim, Haley dropped Rose from her name.

Lynne Haley said local reaction to the establishment and subsequent publicity garnered by Alternative One was swift and unequivocal. Haley alleges mining proponents launched a physical attack against the group’s founders, smashing their car windows and repeatedly plowing their vehicles in with snow. 

The arrest of Haley’s ex-husband for a 2007 warrant culminated the campaign to discredit the founders of the environmental organization, Haley wrote. The cases against Sam Haley Rose predate the couple’s outspoken stance on Montanore, or at least their public opposition.

A recent summary judgment in Lincoln County suggests that Mines Management, Inc., illegally seized strategic claims owned by Libby Creek Ventures. 

Said Haley, “Alternative One has completed its important function of exposing the environmentally disastrous Montanore Mine plan.”

Haley plans to establish a new website, mywildmontana.com.