Howdy Beaver
By Alkali Springs Correspondent
Here it is the end of another year and once again we can think about a wish list for the area.
First, we wish for lots of snow (not too cold, mind you) to start 2002, so that our coulees in the Bear Paws and Little Rockies will be bank full of snow and we will actually have some runoff to fill area reservoirs and lakes.
We are thankful that we have such a great recreation area as Beaver Creek Park right in our back yard. You know most folks living in prairie towns have to drive half a day to see a hill or a forest of trees. Not us. It is close and so great to use four seasons a year.
Our hope is that when the new highway starts winding its way through the park, that park and highway officials will be so very careful not to cut a single tree or bush that does not need cutting. The last time the highway was built through that area, the superintendent of the park went around removing tags from trees as fast as the highway crews put them on. As a result, there are to this day some beautiful trees next to the roadway that add to the park. The real deal is for highway builders to keep in mind that this is a park, a place of beauty where trees should take precedence over roadways.
We hope that somehow our agriculture community will have some good news for a change. Even if we didn't have a drought going on, still the agriculture outlook is bad. Granted, maybe this part of the world should never have felt the first tongues of the plow. But it did and now we have the technology and the equipment to feed the world. And yet our government chooses to pay us to keep our fields idle. As a result our towns are dying right in front of our eyes. A few years ago, consolidating Hi-Line schools could never have happened, but it did. And now there is talk of consolidating the consolidated. All the while people are starving for our wonderful wheat. This, in the words of some young people today, sucks! We hope someone will help us sometime so we can help so many more.
We hope that MSU-Northern continues to grow and prosper. It had hit rocky ground for some time and all of a sudden, with good leadership at the top, things look better. Why, even the speed bumps are gone.
Keep it up, MSU-Northern. You might just be the salvation for Havre yet. And like always, Northern will be fine as long as Havre and Hi-Line folks work hard to see that it stays here and healthy.
And last, we hope that area folks keep working to continue to make this part of the world the very best of all places to live and raise a family. Bad things happen elsewhere. Let's not let them happen here!
