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I’m from Clark Fork. I’ve spent significant time in the proposed wilderness: I’ve climbed Middle Mountain and Sawtooth, camped near Horseshoe Lake, and scrambled along Vertigo Ridge in the wind. I’ve summitted Scotchman Peak from the northeast—not an easy feat—and via the trail more times than my neighbors have planted silly white signs in their front yards. I love this proposed wilderness, and this is my front yard. I support the wilderness, and I’m concerned that a number of people are letting themselves be misled by misinformation, and provoked to fear—which thrives on ignorance—to oppose it.

Neighbors, you’ll still have those woods, even if you’ve never touched them. You can still hunt, pick berries, and ignore it; the fires will still be fought. The wilderness managed itself beautifully long before man came on the scene, and somehow we’ll all survive if one small patch is left alone to manage itself without us. We are blessed with hundreds of thousands of forested acres to mutilate to our collective hearts’ content. Those who fear the wilderness are like a wealthy child who ignores the riches he already has to wail after one small bauble he doesn’t; it’s comically sad that such a hue and cry is raised at the suggestion that one small corner be left alone, free of our trails and noise and trash.

I would hope that our neighbors base their decisions on facts, and not on the fear generated by those few who rely on ignorance to sell their signs.

DOUG FLÜCKIGER

Clark Fork