LOADS: Beauty of region threatened

Have you fished the Middle Fork of the Clearwater or rafted down the Lochsa River? Driven along the Wild and Scenic Highway 12, between Lewiston and Lolo Pass? If so, you know the beauty and wildness of the rivers, the stunning scenery of the drive.

All of this is now threatened. Like never before. By the first inroads of Big Oil. ExxonMobil is hauling gigantic modules of oil refinery equipment across Highway 12, through Missoula (really!), then north to the Tar Sands of northern Alberta. To further develop the dirtiest of all fossil fuels: tar sands oil.

Highway 12 would be turned into an industrial corridor, a permanent scar on the beauty of north central Idaho. And that's just the start. As the Tar Sands oil complex further develops, thousands of miles of oil pipelines would cross over our pristine rivers and aquifers. Actually over 32 states and all 10 Canadian provinces, according to the book, "The Heart of the Monster." Rupturing with a frequency and devastation that would ruin our fishing, hunting, hiking and rafting.

To protect the beauty, the wildness and the lifestyle we all find precious here, oppose these mega-loads. Keep the tentacles of Big Oil out of north Idaho and western Montana. Write your Senator and Representative and the Idaho Department of Transportation. Join the growing opposition. Before you're stuck behind one of these mega-loads for hours!

BILL IRVING

Hayden