|
Does a trout know who owns the body of water it
lives in? This is not a Buddhist riddle. The answer is: Of course
not. All a trout, elk or black-footed ferret cares about is
whether the water or land can sustain them. Some of us have
forgotten that unadorned fact.
Motivated by laudable concerns over social
change, some Westerners have moved into class warfare instead of
asking a simpler and more basic question: “How is the land being
treated?” A good place to answer that question is Mitchell
Slough in
Montana
’s rapidly growing
Bitterroot
Valley
.
Mitchell “
Slough
” is a 100-year-old ditch that diverts water from the
Bitterroot River
and moves it to downstream ranches. Over the years, the ditch
became a low-quality "naturalized" stream fed by some
springs. When I first saw it in the early 1970s, it was 40 feet
wide and 10 inches deep, with its bed encased in mud. Few willows
provided cover, so most of the trout that ventured up the channel
were nailed by osprey and eaten.
Years later, the singer Huey Lewis, businessman Ken Siebel and
other denizens of the “super-rich” -- a Western code word
implying “evil-doers” -- bought ranches along Mitchell Slough.
They donated conservation easements and spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars in an effort to restore aquatic habitat. They
hired Dave Odell, a fishing guide and stream restorer, who’d
helped secure in-stream flow for a dying
Bitterroot River
, to do the work. Odell got the mud out of the channel, created
meanders, cabled logs and planted riparian vegetation along the
banks. He also built nesting islands for geese and created
spawning beds for trout.
Afterward, the ranchers closed the restored ditch-stream, which
aroused the ire of a group called the Bitterroot River Protective
Association. To gain public access, it promptly sued Lewis, Siebel
and two dozen mostly unknown neighbors along Mitchell Slough. The
group lost, but is now appealing the case to the Montana Supreme
Court.
What do they claim? Despite more than 90 miles of the
Bitterroot River
and scores of tributary streams open to fishing, despite an
excellent system of state river-access sites, and despite the
ecological need for lightly used habitat, the Montanans suing
apparently believe that their innate right to trespass and fish
remains gravely injured. Their ideology appears to be: “If I
can’t use it, what good is it?”
Members of the Bitterroot River Protective Association cared
little for Mitchell Slough before it was restored, and now its
members want to fish there to make a blunt point with newcomers:
“This is our valley, not yours.” As a result, the group has
tarred good people like Huey Lewis and Ken Siebel with the broad
brush of elitism. They’re helped by having a charismatic leader
in Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who has vowed to protect river
access for average Montanans. This adds little of substance to the
debate, however, since Mitchell Slough, it turns out, is too small
for floating.
I have come to believe that what matters most in the changing West
is not land ownership, but land stewardship. Critics tend to focus
on the bank account of the donor, not the on-the-ground benefit.
But if public access wins at Mitchell Slough, what landowner would
ever restore a ditch or spring creek again? Is that the outcome we
want?
The message of Mitchell Slough runs deep. I have worked with
easements for more than 30 years and now chair the New Mexico Land
Conservancy. We have put over 50,000 acres of ranches, farms, and
open space under easement in just four years; some of the donors
are wealthy, some are not. In any case, wildlife don’t know the
difference.
For the West to mature as a society, we need to get over the fact
that rich people are moving here. It turns out that many of them
care about the land just as much as we do. It matters little that
a rich person saved a stretch of Mitchell Slough instead of a
working-class person, or that George W. Bush expanded the income
tax deductions for conservation easement donations instead of Bill
Clinton. What matters most is our shared stewardship of this
achingly beautiful landscape. The blame game will never conserve
private lands in the West. This is the time for clear thinking and
a new way forward.
Jack Wright is a contributor to Writers on
the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia,
Colorado
(hcn.org). He heads the geography department at the
University of New Mexico and lives in Mesilla, N.M.
|
