Zinke representative visits Mineral County

MINERAL COUNTY – A representative from Congressman Ryan Zinke’s office was on hand last Friday at the weekly Mineral County Commissioner’s meeting to listen to the concerns of residents regarding a wide array of issues primarily regarding land management.

District Director Evan Wilson sat before commissioners and heard what other representatives from Washington D.C. policy makers have heard in the past primarily that residents want greater access and control over forested, federal land in Mineral County. The county commissioners also stressed that in order to bolster a lagging economy in the area, it is vital to get logging operations up and running because of the tenuous nature of federal aid the county has come to rely upon with the loss of the timber industry.

Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons said, while he was encouraged Zinke sent a representative familiar with land management issues, until the talking stops and logs start coming off Mineral County slopes, he would remain cautiously optimistic.

“The biggest thing we were trying to get across was the land management of our forests and how important it is to Mineral County and the people that live here,” Simons said. “That forest has to be managed. Either man will do it or fire will do it. Fire doesn’t have near the economic impact that logging does. That was the biggest thing.”

The next most important message commissioners wanted to deliver, according to Simons, was the importance of transferring control of the land to some type of local control albeit state or county control. Simons said not being able to manage their own land and leaving decisions in the hands of lawmakers in D.C. was unacceptable.

“My firm belief is that in ten years’ time, we’re still going to here going, ‘where’s the wood?” Simons said. “They just aren’t getting it done. It’s a bureaucracy. They move at a snail’s pace. Maybe the state managing it isn’t the answer. Maybe it would take the state and county together. It’s something worth investigating. They say it’s too expensive but it’s no more expensive than letting all this timber burn up without even looking at it. All they say is, ‘it can’t be done.”

Simons and Commissioner Laurie Johnston said they did want to thank lawmakers for coming through on Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding which was recently approved by Congress. SRS funding provides critical financial aid to counties such as Mineral County which used to pay for it’s own services with tax revenue from timber sales. With the loss of the timber industry, Mineral County and other areas of Northwest Montana have come to rely on SRS funds to pay for road maintenance, schools and other essential county services.

“We thank them for coming through on that,” Simons said. “That was big for us as it is for all western counties.”

Commissioners said the county would receive approximately $1.2 million retroactive to last year and $1.2 million for this fiscal year. After that, commissioners said they expected to be back in the same place pleading with Washington lawmakers to approve SRS funding.

“Come next year, we will be right back here dealing with the same old thing,” Johnston said.

Simons and Johnston said they were pleased with Watson’s response to their concerns and they felt he understood how important these issues were to them and the people of Mineral County.