by Gary Leese, Stevensville
Montana – the Last best Place, a big-time advertisement for several years recently. Today Ravalli County has been discovered as a place of beauty. We have a mild climate, clean air, natural beauty and a cherished way of life. There was a time when “Don’t Fence Me In” was a popular country song and many folks were thinking we have lots of space. We won’t have to worry. During the last 30 to 40 years of the 1900’s, we saw a vast influx of people to the valley. Major changes took place. Our pristine environment was suddenly challenged. We looked at some degree of planning, maybe zoning, land preservation or some means to protect the ground that provided a source of locally raised food and fiber as well as open space. These were adamantly discouraged and resulted in an area with very limited vision of what would evolve to become the new Ravalli County driven by outside dollars and hungry developers. Today our valley’s areas are being challenged by the need for housing of any kind. We are seeing a major influx once again, much greater than that of the last 25 years of the late 1900’s. They come with outside money and desire to have a piece of the Bitterroot Valley. They ask for services. Schools, roads, law enforcement were all expected to cover the areas that were working farms and ranches. We were expected to feed and to provide a way of life comparable to what they left behind. This could not be completely provided. Our area quickly changed from a provider to a desire for services and a source for supporting employment. These were needed to pay for this changed way of life.
It has changed producing lands to a habitat asking for services. Services that must come at a cost. Roads, utilities, law enforcement, mail service, schools, parks, playing fields are a few. These are costly as well as space consuming. Our valley is rapidly becoming a mini, moving toward a mega, metropolitan suburb. Do we want to completely lose our way of life and our lost open space? Freedom is costly and it has changed our valley.
If we want to save any of our remaining areas, we need to continue to support the program developed and approved in 2006. It is a means of leveraging every dollar invested by 3 dollars from other sources. This investment in bonds is not a permanent levy. It will authorize the renewal of $10 million for the Open Lands Program. It will honor private property rights using voluntary, non-regulatory tools, maintain private lands on the tax rolls, help conserve private farmland and preserve wildlife habitat that is being challenged with every new development.
I ask you to do your part to help the valley retain open spaces for the future of our beautiful valley and our future generations of farmers and ranchers. Please vote for the Open Land Bond on November 8.
MAJ says
Hmm,
Up front this “open lands” looks like a win for all. I do support open lands but here are a couple points to consider:
– I just got my tax bill from the county and there are 3 separate levy’s for open lands.
– Have you received several mail flyers supporting Open Lands and look at all the signs around the valley, newspaper ads? Who is paying for those and who stands to benefit?
– Do you know that 75% of all the land in Ravalli County is open land owned by the Feds or State? And..NOT going to be developed.
– Do you know Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act contains millions of $ for this purpose. So your paying taxes twice for the same objective. Maybe they should have made your social security Medicare solvent instead.
– If you are a conservative thinker/voter, have you checked out the membership of the Bitterroot Land Trust and also figured out they are leftist and one of the Board is affiliated with World Economic Forum. I’ll bet if you crossed referenced the Friends of the Bitteroot with staff/board of the Bitteroot Land Trust you would find nearly the same list. If Margret Gorski is supporting this, one has to ask why…besides her husband is part of the Land Trust and she no doubt demonstrates a leftist agenda.
Do a little research and find out what your voting for besides an increase in your property taxes.