As part of their weekend edition, the NYT has posted a piece on the Smith – Can Montana’s Smith River Survive a Nearby Mine?
While the high-end, guided trip (teams are taking chefs along on the float for the blue-blooded travelers these days) the author completed on the Smith is a far cry from the experience most Montanans pursue on the Smith, the river weaves it magic for all who pass.
The author even spent a bit of time with Jerry Zieg, a VP for exploration at Tintina Resources, the BC company hoping to exploit the Johnny Lee Deposit on the Smith’s headwaters, and appropriately delved into the tainted environmental legacy the mining industry has left behind in Montana and the northern Rockies.
A worthy effort overall, and like many working to stop the mine we’re appreciative of the exposure given the pending application for permit (likely) this fall.
[Years ago, in response to a posting we’d made back on Chi Wulff’s predecessor site (Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone) about the wolf debate in Yellowstone country, a pompous nitwit – who turned out to be a junior NYT editorial staffer – shared what idiots we were, referencing a piece in the Times about wolves. He posited the Times was the final word on any and everything in the world – whatever opinion was posted in those hallowed pages ended the discussion. Period.
He managed to work in clever schoolyard insults about Montana’s people, places, history and our lack of intellectual prowess compared to the center of all civilization – the Northeast.
The NYT does indeed have a venerated history that trumps just about every other print news portal, though they’ve long jumped the objective truth shark in so many areas. Kudos for breaking out and getting it right on the Smith…]
