Although truly hardy backcountry habitués may decry the intrusion of modern technology, practical needs outweigh the pursuit of the pristine.
Unless compelling reasons are found to abandon the idea, the U.S. Forest Service probably will approve a cell phone trans-mission tower on the north side of Galena Summit to provide cell coverage on both sides of the summit in areas that have no service now.
Supporters and opponents of the project can read the project description online at www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth and submit comments in various forms.
The 90-foot transmission tower would be "camouflaged" as a pine tree. It will tower 40 feet over any surrounding pines and be visible from many angles. But as an unlighted tower it will look better than its industrial-style brothers that mar land-scapes from coast to coast.
With more hikers and campers pouring into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and more people traveling state Highway 75 near Galena, medical emer-gencies and the need for assistance in-crease. Cell service will bring quicker res-cue and aid.
Also, cell service will provide law en-forcement with enhanced communications links between the remote Sawtooth Valley and its few populated settlements and ad-joining counties.
As for cell phone users in the backcoun-try, they should enjoy the isolation and not conduct business on cell phones. Wil-derness and wireless should be separate.
Now, if all cell phones would only in-clude a chirping ring that could be mis-taken for a bird calling for a mate in the wild.
