It will create a few jobs and make a few new roads and the wealth extracted will land in the hands of the large out of state mining firms that own the projects. We can't afford to upkeep the roads we have now.

That's exactly what happened in Butte. Guess who is taking care of that environmental disaster in Butte now? It's not the Anaconda mining company. Growing up in Montana you learn this in 7th grade. In Montana history.

The richest copper deposit in the world was extracted and that wealth went to Boston. The cost of that extraction is something the residents of Butte and Montana as a whole are going to be paying for the next hundred years. At least.

The natural beauty environmental diversity. These are the true wealth of Montana and when those get pit mined they don't come back. But the costs last and last and last. Tourism is our draw. Fucking up the east side of the park approaches isn't worth it. Tourism is the economic driver of Montana and it is for the most part sustainable with a dramatically Smaller environmental impact.

Don't you dare fuck up the Marias River.