North Fork dust could be worse

Drove down from the North Fork on Friday to hand in this column and to attend the Forestry Expo on Saturday. Left the cabin shortly after 7 a.m. and was surprised to find myself at the Columbia Falls Post Office at 8:30 a.m.

The road was freshly graded from the Polebridge junction to the pavement at Canyon Creek. Biggest problem was staying at or under the 35 mph speed limit. Finally solved the problem of “speed creep” by setting the cruise control.

Of course, a freshly graded road creates one more problem besides “speed creep” — dust. While the North Fork River is running fast and dirty, I’m sure the dust is not adversely affecting water quality, but it’s a pain in the neck to motorists.

The best way to keep the road smooth and reduce dust is simple — slow down. A car traveling 20 mph raises little dust. At 40 mph, the dust is a cloud that reduces visibility to the point where accidents can and do happen.

The really obvious way to avoid a rough road and dust is to simply stay off the road. While true, we all know that staying off the road is impossible, and expecting people to drive slower when the road is better than usual is very unlikely.

Old-timers — as in homesteaders — came to town rarely. Often, it was months between trips. Today, many residents consider it a necessity to come to town at least once a week. I personally am on the road at least once every two weeks.

Even so, I suspect the road is much better and less dusty than it was in the 1950s. During the heavy logging of the 1950s, as many as 100 loads of logs came out of the North Fork every day. Each load created more dust than any number of cars and pickups.

The dust was so bad that you would often have to pull off the road when you met a truck and wait for the dust to settle before driving on. I talked with a long-time North Forker just yesterday who recalled wearing a mask over her mouth and nose and a shower cap on her head just to reduce the effects of dust.

Today’s cars are tighter, and most have air conditioning, so we can keep most of the dust out of the car, but it’s still annoying and can make the road less safe.

What can we do about it? If the past is any indicator, we will whine and snivel, argue, curse the county and the state, and beg the feds for money like we have done for the past 50 years.

As a result, the road is the best it has ever been, and it will probably continue to get better. We just have to be careful about the unintended side effects we might create. What do you think?