As Grassroots As It Gets

Two weeks ago I got a chance to make one of my favorite drives, over the hill (known to the rest of the world as the Continental Divide) to Dillon, Montana for meetings.  The drive to Dillon takes you on one of the only, if not the only, stretch of dirt highway in the states of Idaho & Montana & travels through miles of open spaces, sage brush & big ranches.  No cell service, spotty radio & few other vehicles breaking up the long empty stretches.  If you live in Lemhi County you have to at least accept & hopefully like driving & I’m fortunate to fall in the latter camp, so a silent drive with the hum of my diesel in the background, dodging frost heaves & stopping only to lock & unlock my hubs wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours.  It’s the kind of drive I’d take any day over crowded big city interstates & illustrates just how isolated our little corner of Idaho is, just how most of us like it.

Just after dropping down into Montana at the base of the pass, a semi was stopped in the road & flagged me down & I stopped to talk to the driver who wanted to know if he needed to chain up before he started the climb.  As I rolled up my window & drove off, I was struck by the fact that traveling by myself, it was pretty unlikely on any other stretch of road that I would’ve stopped for a random man flagging me down, but miles from any place on a deserted stretch of dirt road I did.  Was it my best idea ever?  Maybe not, but there’s something that unites people when there’s no one else around, it’s the same reason every other vehicle I passed waved to me & I waved back.  In these tiny, out of the way communities, you have to depend on each other.

That same conviction about working together & depending on yourselves is at work right here in Lemhi County too.  No one is going to come in & do it for us, it’s up to us to make our community a better place.  As LRLT enters into our tenth year, I’d even say it’s the secret to our success.  As I overheard our Executive Director tell someone recently “we’re as grassroots as it gets.”  Nobody created a land trust for us, LRLT is the vision of four local ranchers who believed that we could conserve our private lands through a local organization & protect the things we all love best about our valley–the ranches, wildlife habitat, open spaces & culture.  LRLT started from nothing–no office, no checkbook, no funding–we’re built on the community’s passion, love of our valley & a whole lot of blood, sweat & tears, but we did it.  We all did it.  Not the founders, the staff or the board of directors, our community did it & you’re a part of that, regardless of where you call home.  You’ve celebrated every conservation easement completed with us, attended our events & read our newsletters for ten years now & we can’t wait to spend 2015 celebrating TEN YEARS of being as grassroots as it gets!