Betty Jo Gigot, Editor and Publisher

It was a true adventure. Happy the Bus Driver, piloting the Gypsy Wagon, drove two cats, Sunshine the dog, and me 3,600 miles in 28 days through seven states and two Canadian provinces. Montana and Idaho’s mountains, lakes and streams can only be topped by the Canadian Rockies.

Several things were obvious. Arbor Day seems a little redundant when you realize how many trees there are on this continent. As I understand it, there are more trees in the U.S. today than there were when Columbus arrived.

There is a serious problem though. We drove for hundreds of miles and a number of days with smoke blocking the sun. Forest fires were the only news on Montana radio stations. Several of the towns we drove through had recently been evacuated. Coming back into Idaho from Canada, down through the Sawtooth Mountains, not only were there miles of burned timber, but entire forests had been devastated by beetles. Forest management has obviously been non-existent for the past 20 years, bowing to environmental groups that have no concept of the life cycle of trees. No matter what they think, trees sprout, grow and die and were put there to be harvested for useful purposes, not left to fall and become fuel for fires.

While we were up north, a study was released that indicated harvesting of fire areas should not be allowed because, where harvesting had been done, there were fewer woodpeckers. I don’t suppose that the woodpeckers just moved.

We also discovered that crossing the border could be an education. Coming back from British Columbia into Idaho – the week of the plot in Britain to blow up planes destined for the U.S. – we were asked for passports and then told to pull over and let an official board the motor coach. A very nice looking, young, uniformed lady from the USDA stepped into the coach, asked us to stand aside (I was trying to keep the cats from escaping) and then went through our refrigerator and freezer very carefully. I asked her what she was looking for and she informed me that, although many people did not realize it, Canada was a foreign country. (I kind of knew that.) Then she said she was looking for any Canadian beef we might be trying to bring back into the U.S. I told her we did not have any but had eaten quite a bit while there, and she just looked at me and then explained about the possibility of BSE in any that we might have purchased to bring back. She wasn’t at all concerned about the possibility of “eleventy-seven” terrorists hiding in our bedroom or undercarriage bay.

Neither of us was prepared for the oil boom going on in Alberta. It was one of those “be careful what you wish for” deals, and I understand people are already wondering about the changes that may come with the discovery of new oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Booms bring wealth, but not always “good times.”

This morning’s news is covering the immigration of Mexicans into Canada for work. I understand that a number of the workers in the Tyson plant at Brooks, Canada, are from Sudan, and the Canadians are searching internationally for people to fill jobs from waiters to scientists.

Every feedlot manager I talk to is worried about their ability to find good, hard-working employees. It looks like that problem will not go away any time soon. It seems to be a universal problem in developed countries and will take a lot of thoughtful, consistent action to overcome.