In the News |Back

11/13/2007
Black Hills Fox News: Wilderness areas could help the Black Hills
- Jim Peterson

The beauty of the Black Hills not only draws tourists to the area, but also permanent residents which some say could spoil the very scenery that brought them here. Local leaders got together on Tuesday to hear one idea on how to avoid this potential problem. Thomas Power, an economics professor at the University of Montana, did a study on declaring some areas as wilderness and the effects that has on the economy. His study showed that wilderness classification can have a positive effect. Power says, "And so one can see wilderness classification not as some sort of anti economic thing that puts a restriction on a commercial economy, but as the opposite. As a way of protecting what's been driving the economy and supporting the economic vitality which is the high quality of life, granting permanent protection to some of the landscapes". He says one way the wilderness classification could protect the land would be by closing trails to motorized vehicles. Power's study was focused on a small part of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. He says that, if an area in the grasslands becomes a part of the wilderness classification, it wouldn't affect livestock grazing.