THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

It seems that up there in Montana they have a river so appealing that they run a lottery to see who can run the river. And now a mining company wants to rip apart and despoil a major part of the river's watershed to dig for copper. And, as usual they promise to make nice and not shit all over the landscape.

There is a good chance you have never heard of the Smith. The river lies far from Yellowstone’s Technicolor excesses, in north-central Montana, where the tourist maps don’t point. It gathers itself in the Castle Mountains and flows north for 120 miles between the Big and Little Belt mountains, accumulating miles and grandeur as it cuts through limestone canyons and flows over brown trout and past black bears rooting in high meadows. A few miles south of Great Falls it merges with the Missouri River.

The Smith is not the easiest river to float, which is one of its attractions. Between the boat launch at Camp Baker and the take-out at Eden Bridge, 59 river-miles downstream, there is no public entry or exit. You must surrender your outside life for the four or five days it takes to float down the Smith and give in to the river’s moods and its rhythms.

Yet the river is so beloved that each winter for more than two decades the state of Montana has held a lottery to decide which boaters — accompanied by beer, steaks, fly rods, more beer and good friends — will be lucky enough to float this coveted stretch of river that is Smith River State Park. The question “Did you get your application in?” marks the hope for spring in Montana the way Groundhog Day does in Punxsutawney. This year a record 8,096 people, most of them Montanans, applied for just 1,175 permits. The Smith is the only river in the state that has such limits placed upon it, because of its popularity and the limited floating season before its summer flow drops to a trickle.

There is trouble on the Smith, however. A mining company has proposed a copper mine high in the Smith’s watershed, not far from its major tributary. The mine’s backers say the project would be a good neighbor, offering tax revenue and jobs. Opponents point to the state’s devastating legacy of hard rock mining — a legacy that includes dark touchstones like areas around the mining town of Butte and the downstream Clark Fork River, both now Superfund sites.

They ask why Montanans should gamble with something so precious as the Smith.

They shouldn't gamble. Even if the owners are well meaning with their promises, they are impossible to keep. It is not a question of MIGHT but WILL something go wrong and the answer is always YES. Montana needs to say NO.