Our opinion: Don't appeal Boulder Fuel Reduction Project

Antipathy has become such an integral part of our local environmental debate that sometimes it seems as if all common ground has been erased.

But if there's any place where environmentalists and industry advocates should be able to find common ground, it's in the proposed Main Boulder Fuels Reduction Project.

Under this plan, the Gallatin National Forest proposes to sell some 4.5 million board feet of timber as part of a project of which the primary goal is to provide an escape route from this potentially dangerous area.

Anyone who has driven the length of this road should be able to appreciate the need for some sort of action. The dirt road winds more than 20 miles up through densely forested national forest land, much of the time under the shade of coniferous trees leaning out from both sides of the road.

And, it's a one-way trip. The only way to drive out is via the same road on which you came in.

All would agree that it's very beautiful area. Trailheads into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness are found regularly along the road. But also dotting the roadside are a half dozen Forest Service campgrounds, vacation cabins and several church camps.

Forest officials estimate that as many as 3,000 people recreate in this area on any given summer day. And that level of activity brings with it the considerable risk of wildfire.

It doesn't take much imagination to appreciate the extent of the tragedy that could occur under these circumstances. A raging, wind-driven forest fire could quickly close off to road at any number of narrow points, trapping recreationists until enough equipment is mustered to reopen it.

Environmental groups appealed the fuel reduction plan, arguing it will harm wildlife habitat and threaten water quality. Regional Forest Service officials in Missoula found fault with how one aspect of wildlife habitat was addressed in the initial plan, but Gallatin Forest officials have addressed that problem and reissued the proposal.

And yet the Missoula-based Alliance of a Wild Rockies has stated its intentions of appealing the proposal again.

This is one time the appeals should be laid aside. In some cases, fuel reduction has become a euphemism for timber sale, plain and simple. But this is not the case in the Boulder River. This project deserves to be carried through so the trip up the Boulder does never becomes a truly one-way trip for unfortunate recreationists.

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