LETTER TO THE EDITOR

ACTION NEEDED TO MAKE U.S. HIGHWAY 191 TRAVEL CORRIDOR SAFER

Dear Editor,

We as a society must find alternative routes between Idaho Falls to Bozeman for shipping freight. Perhaps economic incentives, such as fast pass stations, can be employed to reduce increasingly heavy truck trafficking through America’s most sensitive wildlife corridors.

Following the recent Gallatin Valley Earth Day Committee event about safe wildlife crossings, a question was raised but not answered: “Instead of hardening the entire transportation corridor through the Yellowstone Ecosystem, how about regulating long haul trucking permits to avoid high speed travel and related visitor and wildlife resource impacts.”

According to Google Maps, the fastest way from Idaho Falls to Bozeman is through the sleepy cow town of Ennis on the Madison River wildlife corridor, with an expected drive time of 3hrs 49min. The same drive time through the Gallatin Canyon is 3hrs 52min. Same drive, but sticking to the designated freeways to Butte and then to Bozeman: 4hrs 10min.

Trucking dispatchers automatically select the quickest travel routes for the 36,000 trucks traveling from Idaho Falls to or through Bozeman each year and vice-versa.

All the carnage we have been experiencing from 18-wheelers driving too fast on our icy, narrow roads could be avoided by requiring corporate controllers to avoid trafficking freight through our Yellowstone ecosystem.

So tightly are these routes regulated, that I was told that a single DOT check station cost them more time than was saved by driving through Ennis, a drive where drivers are killing anything in their way because they can’t see, due to poor visibility—which is always the excuse given to law enforcement.

Eighteen minutes are saved by parsimonious computer programs that direct our essential transportation workers into peril: West Yellowstone’s buffalo highway has seen 19 bison killed this winter alone, with an equal number of elk at Gateway, so far. The unprotected Highway 20 in Island Park kills a lot of moose.

The Ennis travel corridor (U.S. Highway 287) saves the companies 21 minutes (compared to the interstate route). Multiplied by 36,000 trucks per year, it’s a noticeable impact. However, collisions, crashes and driving into the ditch because of poor visibility must make this shortcut a fool’s errand sometimes.

My question during the event was partially answered by a staffer for the Center for Large Landscape Conservation who said, “regulation of freight roads is an administrative policy issue,” controlled by DOT. Highway 191 has been temporarily closed in the past for administrative reasons.

Considering the increasing volume of trucks, can we ask our elected officials to request a DOT review of the status of freight roads through sensitive ecosystems. We should ask them to consider the cost of new regulations versus the cost of killing the wild animals that make our home so special. Which way is easier?

Bob Lindstrom Local resident Hebgen Lake