Pat Williams pitches restoration to create jobs for Montanans

Thursday, October 26 2006 @ 05:14 PM MDT Contributed by: Admin Views: 75 by Nicholas R. Schwaderer In Montana, it’s hard to earn a buck. So lately, when the topic of the environment comes up, many locals get touchy in fear of the vital timber industry being threatened. After the Wildwest Forum in Missoula last Tuesday, some fears were eased on this issue by presenting ways to ally Montana laborers and environmentalists in restoring the wilderness. Jon Tester, President of the Montana Senate and current Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, made a surprise appearance for about five minutes at the beginning of the presentation. Later it was explained that Tester had shared discussions and interests with the panelists in having the ecological restoration program become a new economy for Montana. He had to hit the road early however for other engagements. The panelists: Former Rep. Pat Williams, Assistant Professor for the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Montana Dan Spencer, and Marnie Criley with the Wildlands CPR each gave 15 minute presentations and at the very end there was an hour question-and-answer period. Spencer opened things up for the evening by defining Ecological Restoration as an economy. He described that the goal was to restore damaged Montana ecology to use it as a business perk and help our personal economy; this would require undoing past degradation and damage to nature. Spencer explained that what needed to happen is a “paradigm shift” for how humans relate to nature. “Montana’s native flora and fauna is the key stakeholder we have to acknowledge,” Spencer said. The official meaning of ecological restoration as defined- “Intentional human interference to return an environment to sustainable health.” Spencer had explained that the restoration needed to be done ethically, with the most care taken to only do good for nature without continuing to do harm. With the definition set, Marnie Criley focused the discussion to a more specific restoration that would be the main topic for the night: roads. “Our national forests have 440,000 miles of roads—more than any other state,” Criley said. She pointed out that roads were expensive to maintain, with there being a $10 billion backlog. She said that they were damaging to the environment, causing erosion and other detriments to nature. Though this was an environmental forum, the focus for the rest of the night tended to be on money and cost. Criley’s proposed solution was road removal. The focus would especially be on western Montana roads. Methods of decommissioning roads included everything from simply putting up a gate to attempting to completely restore the roads by filling them in with an excavator to match the slope of the mountain. They would also try to recreate the streams as natural as possible, down to the grade; and put down a local native vegetation bed to help the forest floor regrow. The cost for such an operation depends on the landscape- and can cause anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000 per mile. There would be 33 jobs per million dollars spent, and instead of a crew moving across the state, the workers would be from the local community. “Because it involves heavy equipment, local contractors are usually hired for this work,” Criley said. Though the wages aren’t sure, the average wage in one area was $19 per hour. Criley then explained a county in California that has been doing this since the 80’s in the Redwood National Park, and now this has become the leading local industry. The major problem: Funding. The panelists noted that Montana does not currently have the economy to support restoration, but suggested several tax opportunities (including sales tax and recreation vehicle tax) to fund this project- including water bonds, which were used in California. “We need to assess and plan for a state or county level bond initiative,” Criley said. Pat Williams tried to get the ball rolling on action, comparing the current situation to baseball. “If you’ve watched these players… the good players envision the ball as it heads toward them… that’s what we have to do with restoration,” he said. He also mentioned that Montana needs to start considering restoration as its own blue-collar industry, and that the people need to get behind it. He said that if the politicians back it, the people will follow. “Ambivalence creates inaction—inaction loses support,” Williams stated. He concluded in stating that he wanted Montana residents to understand the Ecology Restoration Economy in the same way as they understand mining and timber, as an industry that creates jobs. ###

Trackback

Trackback URL for this entry: http://www.clarkforkchronicle.com/trackback.php/20061026171400955

Pat Williams pitches restoration to create jobs for Montanans | 0 comments | Create New Account

Newest First Oldest First Flat Nested No Comments Threaded

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.