Corps' cleanup was welcomed by most

I’ve seen several articles and letters in the paper and how upset some folks are over Lightning Creek. It strikes me as funny that the only ones complaining are the people who don’t live on the creek.

I, for one, am glad that the Army Corps was able to come and clean some of the debris from the creek. I am upset that they didn’t have the time or money to do more cleanup as someone who has lived here almost 30 years not 30 days.

It is not a matter of if the creek will flood; it always does. It’s a matter of which day it will start. So, now we are in spring run off which because of the winter snow pack stands to be strong one this year. I’m just left wondering how soon the Army Corps can come back and dredge some of the rock out, the way they did in the ’90s to help control flooding. It’s my opinion, if the fish managed to survive the extreme floods of 2006, 2004, 1996, 1990, 1986, 1980, 1974 and many more dates going back to 1894 they can survive this and more.

The reason the Clark Fork area has survived these events is because of continually monitoring, removing the bed-load and tree debris from the creek after each event, and after all this the fish still manage to spawn. A little smoke and a few trucks may have ruined the income of some outfitters for the day but the fish will be fine as always. I’ll bet if you asked anyone who lives here the Clark Fork area, their opinion of the cleanup, most may ask why didn’t they clean up more of the creek?

P.S. Lightning Creek is a “creek” not a river.

PAMELA J. SCHENCK

Clark Fork