Save setbacks

If you would like to give a meaningful gift to your children and grandchildren this year, think about clean water.

Plan on attending the workshops and hearings that are being held by the county and city planning boards.

Contact your county commissioners and city council members and ask for stricter regulations on building-setbacks in riparian areas, restrictions from building on steep slopes, and regulations that will protect our shallow aquifers and ultimately our rivers and lakes from pollution.

Thousands upon thousands of new lots have been approved in the Flathead. Thousands more are lining up. The population pressures are enormous.

Don't be fooled by those who fuss that the regulations are too complicated or too restrictive. They have one short-term goal and that is to make lots of money. They will tell you that they care about clean water — they do, but only so it will sell the next project.

None of us likes more rules in our lives, but we are reaching a critical mass with cumulative impacts. A willingness to regulate ourselves would send a strong message to the companies that want to upend the Flathead headwaters for coal.

Water with 100 feet of gin-clear visibility should not be an old-timer's tale of how things used to be.

If you take pride in the quality of our natural resources, take the time to attend meetings on Dec. 20 in Whitefish or Kalispell. Speak up for the next generation.

Karen Reeves

Whitefish