David Scalia III

We are flooded today with a dizzying array of images, activities, and even ideas that we accept without question. The flashy picture of a handsome couple gazing out the window of their luxury hotel. A new Ford Bronco driving straight up a gorgeous, untracked sand dune. One of the promotionals for the much-touted Gallatin Forest Partnership is footage of smiling, Patagonia-clad folk leaving a trailhead, heading into the wild beyond; glory, adventure, youth. Who would have guessed that even the term, "conservation," could be misused.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, The Wilderness Society, and Wild Montana - who shed its worn-out old clothes called Montana Wilderness Association - these three have been vocal drivers of the most "practical and realistic" Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act. It seems to carry the hope we need today, that of "breaking bread together," bringing together diverse Montanans, traditional rivals, excluding no one from open discussion. But is that what really happened?

There is a censored "rest of the story." Dissenting voices were dismissed as being "on the margins" - as happened in public testimony to a Montana Congressional subcommittee. These voices were excluded. No "breaking bread" there. And most crucially, untold is the loss of the Porcupine and Buffalo Horn drainages, the most wildlife vital part of the lands in question.

From 2002 - 2009, I was a Board Member and then President of Montana Wilderness Association. In fact, in those roles, I was one of the promoters and implementers of Montana environmentalism's movement away from the scrappy, uncompromising fight for wilderness, to the now acclaimed "compromise and collaboration" strategy.

We did not see what was censored; we saw any "rest of the story" as belonging to old has-beens. We thought we were visionary, not "caught in the past." We began the divvying-up approach to Wilderness-quality lands. That is when our coffers grew exponentially.

Like us then, the Gallatin Forest Partnership for years now has been working hard, being true to their new monetary resources. Selling a vision. A vision that they, like us 20 years ago, truly believe in.

But the birthing and wintering elk of the Buffalo Horn and Porcupine drainages of the Gallatins don't know anything about "collaboration and compromise;" only that they are being run out of some of the richest lands of the Yellowstone ecosystem by a never-ending increase of bicycles, of snowmobiles and motorcycles.

The grizzly bears who need those canyons in order to reach the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, for genetic integrity into the future, know nothing of human fantasies of glitter and fun, of true grit and romantic adventure. The existence-threatened wolverine finds no solace in ballyhooed recreation.

When the creators of "conservation and recreation," the collaborators and compromisers, actually bar groups who see flaws in their vision, censorship is still happening. When a venerable Montana leader is silenced, right before our too-often closed eyes, censorship is still happening.

The fate of the Gallatin is perhaps the most important conservation decision that will be made in a generation.

We must be very careful what we believe. And question what we think. Instead of assumptions of being right, can't we insist on uncensored public discussion that faces up to the fragile precipice on which we stand today?

Joseph Scalia III, Psya.D. is a psychoanalyst and environmental critic and activist. He is a past President of Montana Wilderness Association and of Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance.