While I was glad to see that the Daily Inter Lake recently ran a series of stories regarding the North Fork, of which I am a full time resident, I was disappointed that park officials and spokespersons for various environmental groups either were never directly asked or somehow avoided the real question: Is the dust (as seen in the photos) that comes off the North Fork Road both into the air and into the river a pollutant?

This is not and should not be a debate over paving or not paving — it should be a scientific question about air and water pollution. What our friend and neighbor Joe Novak discovered through a lot of research is that the park and the Forest Service simply are not monitoring pollution that may be caused by dust from the road. What’s worse is that they admit their guilt on the subject. They have no scientific data to say no it’s not harmful — rather they rely on emotional arguments to avoid answering the question.

My husband, Lynn Ogle, who was quoted in the story about dust bought land up here 53 years ago and has noted the changes.

Most of the visitors to the North Fork have no idea how bad the road and dust is because they simply never travel the 21 miles of road north of Polebridge. A good share of them travel across Camas Road in Glacier Park (which is paved) in the summer months and do not come up in the winter.

One of the comments online about the article was that North Fork landowners should be assessed extra taxes for the maintenance of this road because we choose to live up here. The whole outside world uses this road more than all the landowners combined! About 12,000 visitors crossed into the park last year through the Polebridge ranger station. This has become a major thoroughfare. And for that person’s information, we already pay property taxes up here and get a whole lot less services than those who live in the valley do.

Dust coat, you say. But it has never been proven to me that magnesium chloride (which is what the county is laying down on the road between Camas and Polebridge to hold down dust) is not a hazard in itself. We had a mechanic tell us that over time it can eat your brake system. Take a look at how the trees and brush near where the coating has been used seem to be damaged. This stuff either runs into the waterways or goes into the air as brown chemically treated dust. (Poor fish, poor ungulates, poor humans.) It is quite costly and may not last six months, so to be really effective should be applied at least every year. More and more chemicals in the water and air.

So how about it? Don’t we owe it to our children as actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus says in the radio ad for the National Parks Conservation Association to find out what is causing the increased pollution to quality of the air and water in GNP, and then do what is necessary to suppress it?

If that means paving — so be it. 

 Ogle is a resident of Polebridge.