Ugly ski runs deserve scrutiny

The Flathead National Forest published a legal notice on Aug. 27 announcing that a project was approved to allow the operators of the Big Mountain Ski Resort to modify a section of terrain on the Hellfire ski run.

Where were the environmentalists? How many spotted owls, ground squirrels, mice, voles and endangered plants will be damaged or destroyed? What about the dust, the noise and the beauty?

What about the tracked bulldozer going up and down the mountain and the erosion on the cut bank? Perhaps someone should sue the Sierra Club for not suing the Forest Service.

How long will we have to look at this mess? How about forever? You and I will forever have to look upon the mountain and see these great big gashes (ski runs) in the timber.

The modification is being done to satiate the needs of the owners of Big Mountain Ski Resort. Very few of the public will have the benefit of this "improvement" on "our" forest land. The cost to ski for "we of the great unwashed" is substantial.

Interestingly enough, the size of this gouge out of the mountain is about the same size as a drilling lease on the Rocky Mountain Front. Same equipment used to prepare both. More vehicle traffic on the lease, but more people-ski traffic on the ski run.

If the game won't cross the lease roads or seismic trails, they won't cross the ski runs either.

Furthermore, if you think a member of the great unwashed is going to hunt or fish on the lands being protected on the Eastern Slope, think again. The ranchers and farmers want lots of silver to cross their sacred lands to get to the "people's" forest.

How long will we have to look at the drilling mess? After a well has finished producing, all equipment is removed, the tubing and intermediate casing is pulled, a cement plug is set over the porous zones, the surface casing is cut off three or four feet below the surface, a plate is welded on the top and covered with soil. The lease and roads are leveled, contoured and seeded. Time frame is 20 years plus or minus.

We will look at the ugly ski runs forever.

Deverl J. Peterson

Dayton