Cabinet
Resource Group
His
motivation was pure and
simple. All that Bill
Martin wanted was a
decent drink of water.
He had left the San
Francisco Bay area looking for a new
life in the mountains of
northwest Montana.
Burned out from fighting
environmental battles to
protect California’s
remaining clean water,
he escaped city life,
bought land near Troy in
Lincoln County and
built a log home along
pristine Lake Creek. He
got a job planting trees
for the Forest Service,
and the Vietnam veteran
settled down to what he
hoped would be the good
life. But life today,
like clean drinking
water, is not that
simple.
Martin soon learned of plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the Kootenai
River at Kootenai Falls
– the last free-flowing
waterfall in the
Columbia River system
and downstream from his
home. And then he got
news of a proposal to
build a hard-rock silver
and copper
mine nearby. A mine
brought with it the
promise of jobs and
prosperity to a
community suffering from
the decline of timber
profits; there was one
problem, though, the
mine’s 300-plus acre
tailings impoundment
would be located
adjacent to Lake Creek,
upstream of Martin’s new
home. An earthen dam
would be all that would
separate Lake Creek’s
pristine water from
mining wastes. He wanted
anonymity,
not re-entry into
citizen activism, but
the water quality of his
and his children’s
source of drinking water
was made vulnerable.
He had no choice but to get involved. He wrote a letter to the editor in
the local paper raising concerns about the mine
and asking
others to join him in
the cause. He was
29-years-old at the
time, an urban refugee
and a newcomer to the
blue-collar community of
Troy. He set up a
meeting date and issued
a call to organize
around protecting water
quality and wondered if
anyone would show up.
As he tells it: “The first response
came on a bright
afternoon as I was
seeding freshly turned
beds, and a late-model
Lincoln – no dents or
cracked glass, nothing
like anyone
I knew would be driving
– pulled up. An old guy
with balding white hair,
glasses and a suit, got
out, came up to me and
asked if I was
who I was and introduced
himself as Art Shelden,
Montana state representative.
He’d read my letter,
and wanted to meet me.
In spite of my rudeness,
he saw the promise of
possibility and came to
the meeting.”
|
|
 |
|
So did a lot of other older folks; and, as a result, the Cabinet Resource
Group was born. Martin
says that over half the
people that showed up at
that first meeting were
sons, daughters or
grandchildren of those
who built the
communities of northwest
Montana. Descendents of
homesteaders, loggers, a
well known librarian who
would later help pull
together a monthly
newsletter, a Marine
Corps retiree and one of
the first teachers in
Troy, Nola Sloan, who
energetically
wrote letters to
government officials on
every issue until near
the end of her life at
103 years.
Now, 30 years later, most of these original CRG members are gone, but
Martin is still here and
currently president of
the group. He talks about those original
members with more than
fond nostalgia. He intends “to refute the
pernicious misperception
that ‘environmentalists’
are all newcomers,
outsiders and not part
of the traditional
culture of the area.”
These early members not
only defined CRG’s
principles and
goals - short and
long-term - but their strong connection to
place and its mountains,
rivers, and streams was
a major factor in the
organization’s
continuity to the
present day.
The Cabinet Resource Group didn’t organize against mining; instead, its
members took a stand for
clean water and
protection of the environment and the
lifestyles that
generations of area
residents had come to
enjoy.
“We’ve never tried to be
against anything,”
Martin says. “We just
wanted to have a strong
voice in decisions
affecting our lives.”
Although the dam at
Kootenai Falls was
stopped (now it’s a
popular scenic area),
the Troy Mine was
eventually built. It
began round-the clock
operations in 1981 until
it was mothballed
in 1993. It is currently
owned by the Revette
Silver Company, the same
company that proposes to
build the Rock Creek
Mine in the Cabinet
Wilderness near Noxon,
in neighboring Sanders
County and upstream of
the Clark Fork River and
North Idaho’s Lake Pend
Oreille.
Along with
water quality issues
associated with the Troy
Mine, in 1982 the
proposed Rock Creek Mine
became a key issue for
members of CRG to
scrutinize. Sanders
County property owner
Cesar Hernandez joined
Martin,
and others, to help
tackle the proposed mine
and has remained active
ever since.
|
|
|
|
After years
of absorbing reams of
environmental and mining
documents and hundreds
of hours doing research
and attending hearings
and meetings,
Hernandez, Martin and
the other CRG members
remain undaunted,
despite the fact that
the future of the mine
is still in limbo.
You do what you believe is necessary in order to protect water, wildlife
and the land, Hernandez
says. “It’s been more
than 20 years.
I’ll do it for another
20 years. No sweat.”
Martin believes it’s this persevering
attitude that has kept a
bad mine from being
built. It also helped
spawn the Sandpoint
based
organization, the Rock
Creek Alliance, the lead
group addressing the
environmental concerns
of the proposed mine for
Idaho. The activism of
both groups has
occasionally taken them
to court and they’ve won
important legal battles
on water issues; but
lawsuits are a last
resort.
Thirty years later, the Cabinet Resource Group has a membership of
several hundred people.
It’s still very
concerned with water
quality issues, but over
the decades it has
branched out into forest
planning issues,
wilderness protection,
sustainable economic
growth and community
development matters
and environmental
education. Every year
the Bull River Outdoor
Education Center, in
cooperation
with the U.S. Forest
Service, offers
youth and adults several
organized opportunities
to make learning about
and experiencing nature
a great deal of fun; and
CRG’s interest in
wilderness helped spawn
another group
headquartered in
Sandpoint, Friends of
Scotchman Peaks
Wilderness. Turns out
that Bill Martin is on
its board of directors
and is likely to be
along for some of the
great hikes for the
public planned by the
group this summer.
Now in his early 60s, Bill Martin says the Cabinet Resource Group is
strong and confident,
but needs to attract
more young people to
carry on its important
work for generations to
come.
“No matter what,” he says, “we need to keep the water clean.”
Cabinet
Resource Group, P.O. Box
238, Heron, MT
59844.
Friends of Scotchman
Peaks Wilderness
www.scotchmanpeaks.org.
Email:
info@scotchmanpeaks.org
P.O. Box 2061,
Sandpoint, ID 83864.
Rock
Creek Alliance -
www.rockcreekalliance.org
email:
info@rockcreekalliance.org
1319 N. Division, Suite
108, Sandpoint, ID
83864. |
|
