The stuff of life arrives high in the mountains of northwest Montana, whether in the form of rain or any of the 17 forms of frozen precipitation. From there it flows, down waterfalls, perhaps residing in a glacier for a time, through tarns, alpine lakes, and cascading streams, through larger lakes down the valleys and ultimately out to rivers like the Middle Fork of the Flathead.
These waters are one of the great wonders, and great gifts, of our world. Due to the foresight of our ancestors and continued vigilance of agencies including the National Park Service, the water is pristine and protected*.
With regret, we come to the asterisk *, and the reminder that lines on the map are not real, except as they may provide some influence on the activity that occurs in one place as opposed to another.
Fortunately, Glacier is big. Really big. That helps. But everything is connected. The ranger stations won't stop mercury and other pollutants from coal fired power plants and industrial activity from arriving on the wind and in the rain. Fracking on the neighboring Blackfeet reservation is a threat. Global warming is causing the majestic glaciers to disappear.
For anyone who visits our great national parks, I hope that the sense of wonder you may experience will translate, if even a little bit, to help firm everyone's commitment to tread lightly, and to work for policies across our country and across our world to save all of our sacred places, whether large or small.
Still to come in a future diary: Facing Down Climate Silence at Glacier National Park
Our Future - Worth Saving
Any time you think that you don't have a choice, you actually do.
Any time you think you have to do something that's wrong, you don't.
Not Here
Not Today
Not Any More
We shall not participate in our own destruction.