As you know, I’ve been paying attention the the river outside my front window. This morning a log caught on the bridge support downstream. Knowing this could rather rapidly escalate into a major dam, backup and flood for us lowlanders, I called the highway department.
They were out within hours. I expected response, but was quite pleasantly surprised by its rapidity.
Chatting with the crew chief, we discover the essence to them: A dam on the support exerts tremendous pressure and could take the bridge down. Replacement cost could be $1.500,000… 
a bit of a budget breaker for the county.
Improving their motivation, a half-mile west was a similar problem on the bridge over the West Fork. One tractor trip saves two bridges.
Well, good for us here. Having a bunch more branches catch on that log, backing up the high water, flooding our homes would be a bit inconvenient.
ONE PHONE CALL to the Ravalli Highway Department got this all in motion, and I was the one to make that call. It is not at all impressive to me that I see a problem and take action. However, I am always, continually bemused that nobody else does… interesting world we inhabit.
I love this picture (and those in it) of the spectators to the dam removal show. They certainly found the prime seating for the event. By the way, the hint-of-green under the west side of the river is some lawn I won’t be mowing for a while.
