Bad ideas for the North Fork

It seems like once a week someone comes up with a bad idea for the North Fork of the Flathead.

Our friends in Canada propose coal mines in the headwaters (the latest scuttle is that a company is now doing test drilling for gold in Howell Creek, a main tributary of the river).

Down in our neck of the woods the annual (no, weekly) debate is on whether to pave the road and how rough the road is and blah, blah, blah.

Lemme just say this: Folks down here haven't even seen a rough road until they've driven the roads in the Canadian Flathead. They are rough with a capital "R." Rough enough to jar the fillings right out of Larry Wilson and Bob Grimaldi's teeth.

But the latest and truly bad idea for the North Fork comes from the fine folks at Triple-X helicopter, who propose heli-skiing up on Coal and Winona ridges just outside of Glacier National Park.

Anyone who has lived here for any amount of time knows that the best time in the North Fork is winter. The snow makes the road bearable, even pleasant and it's fantastically, wonderfully, quiet. It's a nice break from the roar of summer traffic.

(Although last winter I must admit some yahoo in a helicopter buzzed right over me as I walked in Big Prairie in Glacier. He dropped down low enough so that I could almost see the pilot. I saluted him with the appropriate finger.)

Now Triple X wants to buzz their helicopters up the North Fork to take people heli-skiing on a permanent basis — conveniently asking the state because if they asked the feds, the answer would be a resounding "no."

You'd have to be extremely naive to think that Triple X won't swing that little yellow helicopter of theirs right over Glacier for a look-see. We already listen to helicopters and Harleys ad nauseam in Glacier running over Logan Pass all summer long. But winter is, and should remain, a time of peace and quiet in the Park.

Triple-X touts their business on the radio as "extreme!"

It's extreme all right. Their North Fork plan is an extreme-ly bad idea.

You can weigh in on the matter yourself by commenting to Nicole Stickney, Stillwater State Forest, P.O. Box 164, Olney, MT 59927.

Chris Peterson is the photographer for the Hungry Horse News.