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Yesterday looked like the day to get out for a few hours of afternoon fishing here in Bozeman. I think that it ended up being pretty windy on the lower, so I probably didn't miss out on too much. A couple of the shop guys went up the Gallatin a bit and supposedly had a good afternoon. I don't know though, they were standing on ice shelves…better them than me…I think. It was definitely windy and cooler today though, so the immersion in actively running a business was much more appealing than it was around 10:30 am yesterday.
I attended the Madison Gallatin Trout Unlimited monthly meeting last night (the first time in a couple of years), to learn more about the proposed copper mine in the headwaters of the Smith River. Too often, in my opinion, people blindly follow the calls of environmental groups without learning enough or forcing themselves to just make a decision based on their own values. I tend to be one of the latter more so than the former. Specifically, I can be "wishy-washy" over some of these issues because I don't want to make the wrong decision.
As I was sitting there in the meeting, listening to a one-sided view of the proposed mine (by a TU employee…not a MGTU member or member rep), it became very clear to me that I am not in favor of a copper mine in the headwaters of the Smith River. Not because of the fear-mongering (showing a picture of the Animas River from this spring) and spinning data (36% of time pollution was worse than expected…as opposed to saying that 2/3 of the time the mining companies do as good or better than predicted), but just because the Smith River is an awesomely unique place in the world and we should try to keep some of this world exactly that.
I'll let the minutiae's fight over the who and what of the matter, I just don't want a mine to ruin any part of the Smith River experience…ever. Learn more from the environmental side at http://www.smithriverwatch.org and http://www.tintinaresources.com/projects/black-butte-copper for the mining companies side.