Conservation and Diplomacy 



to Rock Creek homes, and steel transmission towers 

 raised in 1985 carry high tension wires across the 

 mouth of the canyon. Small ranches are being sub- 

 divided for modern houses, bringing more cars, 

 power lines and potential sewage problems to the 

 canyon. And gold miners await only higher prices 

 to swing their claims into full production. 



The threat of all this development degrading 

 Rock Creek remains real. The upper basin is broad 

 and accessible, with soils that erode easily when 

 logged and hundreds of tiny tributaries that may 

 be trampled by cattle, fouled by mines or silted by 

 timber cutting. The popular lower canyon is suscep- 

 tible to overfishing and pollution from cars and 

 campers raising dust in a perpetual summertime 

 parade. And because it remains unzoned at the edge 

 of a growing city, real estate development already 

 has changed the character of the lower canyon from 

 purely country to semi-suburban. As elsewhere, 

 everyone accuses someone else of degrading the en- 

 vironment: loggers blame miners who blame cat- 

 tlemen who blame real estate developers. Only one 

 area in the lower basin, the Welcome Creek 

 Wilderness, has been declared forever off-limits to 

 commercial activity. 



But nearly two decades ago, the Forest Ser- 

 vice answered public criticism about its logging and 

 road-building plans by convening a committee of 

 all the loudest critics. Conservationists whose first 

 aim was to stop the logging sat down across a table 

 from people concerned about profits and jobs in 



mining, logging and ranching. Also represented 

 on this fractious committee were the University of 

 Montana, the state Fish and Game Department and 

 other public agencies. During three years of con- 

 frontation, compromise and often tedious commit- 

 tee work the group forged agreements that put a 

 premium on the quality of water, the fisheries and 

 the surrounding scenic areas. Most important, the 

 Forest Service agreed that before it opens any of 

 its vast Rock Creek lands to logging, roading, graz- 

 ing or campsites, it must test the water — and con- 

 tinue to do so during and after the activity. When 

 the quality of water is found to be suffering, the ac- 

 tivity must stop and the damage must be repaired. 

 The agreement doesn't keep people from 

 making a living in the Rock Creek basin; it only 

 seeks to ensure that the creek and its surroundings 

 will remain a pleasure to fish, float or simply 

 behold. By itself, the agreement is no guarantee. A 

 series of legal challenges, public meetings, new 

 citizens committees and pacts have refined, moder- 

 nized and strengthened the standards for preserv- 

 ing Rock Creek. The state, through the Rock Creek 

 Advisory Council, now administers a SI. 5 million 

 conservation trust fund for the drainage.'^ Sports- 

 men and conservationists, residents and state 

 wildlife officials all continue to cooperate with the 

 Forest Service on issues ranging from elk habitat to 

 residential sanitation, mining, grazing and, of 

 course, logging. In this way, they plan to keep Rock 

 Creek a treasure for generations^ to come. 



