I thank Phil Hough of FSPW for his letter clearing up confusion regarding the proposed Scotchman wilderness.

I made the mistake of referring to the latest “The Scotchman Peaks Wilderness” map for a map of the wilderness — who would have thought to use that? It is astounding that even though a wilderness bill has been introduced in U.S. Congress, regarding an area within sight of Clark Fork, as far as I can tell, there has not been a single FSPW public meeting to discuss, listen, and work together in Clark Fork.

We constantly hear about the strong local support regarding this, that there is virtually no opposition, yet, as far as I can tell, FSPW, USFS, the commissioners or Sen. James Risch have never held a town hall meeting or visited the local city councils closest to this area. Is this the “outreach”, “engagement” and “diverse local support” we hear so much about? Nobody from Clark Fork or anywhere in Bonner County needs to search a Facebook page or make repeated contacts with the USFS or commissioners to look for information about their backyards, when those groups ought to be coming to the communities. Not to throw out candy in parades, but to sit, listen and work this out together. Make all this known to Sen. Risch now — let him know about the real “outreach” and that he ought to come up for a visit. For once. Who knows, maybe a real “consensus” can be reached.

STAN MYERS

Hope