Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 304 Editor's Choice: 6
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I just got done reading the New West articles...
[Read the article: Luxury community of "conscience"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...linked in your story.
http://tinyurl.com/4k3qvs (click my signature for direct link)
The biggest specific environmental objection to Dokken's plans atated in the New West series relates to the issue of selling off 1270 acres of public land - about 2 square miles- of rare elk wintering range, to a private landowner who promises to build on only about 300 acres of it- and who is also promising to keep 8000 acres of the 9500 acre parcel that he already owns (which incidentally completely surrounds the public land parcels in question) intact for wildlife, including elk migration and wintering.
(By the way, New West editors- I think that strictly speaking, in the context of discussing wild countryside, the phrase "pristine ranchland" is an oxymoron.)
For some perspective on the matter of Wyoming/Montana elk wintering range, including the amounts of land needed and used by the elk, and the acreage of Wildlife Management lands held by the State of Montana, including elk wintering range preserves:
http://tinyurl.com/5qau63 (special notice- Dome Mountain)
http://tinyurl.com/3uxp8e (get directions from Paradise Valley to Dome Mountain)
http://tinyurl.com/5ja2qz
The other specific environmental objection apparently centers around the possible risk of flooding due to the 25 acres of planned impoundments projects.
25 acres.
The last specific objection seems to be that the planned development is in forest fire country. Like much of the rest of homestead acreage in rural western Montana.
More generally, I hear the more general objections, simply to the process of construction and development itself. But nature heals- especially if the building is attentive to the habitat. Even suburban tract developments of 1/4 acre parcels- which invariably look ghastly at first- transform into welcoming habitats for wildlife after about 25-30 years of tree planting by the residents. Deer, raccoons, foxes, rabbits, snakes, mice, owls, etc. all repopulate suburban neighborhoods. And that's just the suburbs. The idea that humans are fated to doom every species around them as the result of constructing their own dwellings is nonsense.
If Walter Dokken were simply a greedhead, he'd be putting in a golf course. He's actually decreasing the buyer appeal of his project without including one. As a matter of fact, with a parcel like that, he could probably triple his profits by developing the parcel he already owns more intensively. Nothing to stop him, apparently, since according to the New West series, Montana's Park County has no zoning laws.
Of course, if all rich people look alike to you- embodiments of greed and evil- I suppose that the worst has already happened, no matter who develops the land, or how it gets developed- and whether the owner has voluntarily made overtures for a measure of continued access by the public, or not.
I respect the opinions of Park Commissioner Jim Durgan, an opponent of the development. He's obviously closer to the issue than I am, and has more at stake. But I think his objections may be mostly misplaced. And I don't think he'll realize the wish that's apparently at the core of his objections- that rich outsiders stop moving to western Montana. They are there already. More are on the way, one way or another. My advice is to find the friendlies.
If the locals think they have a problem now, wait until Dokken throw up his hands and sells his parcels to Big Sky (for more on Big Sky, see Part V of the New West series, and do an on-line search.)
Calm down, I didn't say that was happening. Only that it could.
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the tiny.url links in my previous comment...
[Read the article: Luxury community of "conscience"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]are not working, evidently.
For those interested in pursuing references:
1) To see the first link, click on my signature, "cabdriver".
the other URLs:
2) http://fwp.mt.gov/habitat/wma.html ; also http://fwp.mt.gov/lands/site_281152.aspx
3)Google Map Directions-- "paradise valley montana" to "dome mountain"
4) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html
?res=950DE6DF1730F933A15751C0A96F948260 (connect split link)
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Feltrinelli
[Read the article: Che anything]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, the Cold War wasn't all that good to Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.
Signor Feltrinelli, Italian millionaire and one of the co-founders of the left-wing Partisan Action Group during the 1960s-70s bouts of radical street violence and terrorism in Italy, was found dead on March 14, 1972, blown up by explosives that he was alleged to have been attempting to rig to an electrical pylon. He was 45 years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giangiacomo_Feltrinelli
A pair of excellent references on that intriguing era:
1) The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy, by Richard Drake http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/chis/990000850.shtml
2) Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, by Philip Willan
http://www.amazon.com/
Puppetmasters-Political-Use-Terrorism-Italy/dp/0595246974 (connect split link)