High-tech hopes in Superior though partnership with GCS Research of Missoula

SUPERIOR – Mineral County is
floating an economic development
plan before Congress, and if it
prevails, the impoverished former
logging town will become a
technological hub and the eyes and
ears for the West.

By BETSY COHEN of the
Missoulian

The plan, which is officially called
"Project Alert," brings together
innovative computer technologies,
high-resolution satellite imagery and
unmanned aerial vehicles to create a
new way to monitor and manage
vast holdings of public and private
lands.

"We won’t know if this will fly – but we certainly have high hopes," said Jim DeBree, president of
the Mineral County Community Foundation, which is promoting the project.

If the project gets the go-ahead, expertise for the endeavor will be guided by GCS Research http://www.gcs-research.com/ a
private Missoula technology business that uses satellite imaging for precision mapping, and the
Institute for Software Research, a NASA-funded company in West Virginia. Education, research
support and training for the local work force to operate the computer programs and input data
will come from the University of Montana.

DeBree said he is optimistic that the program’s $5 million budget request will be funded because
Project Alert dovetails neatly with President Bush’s push for homeland security initiatives.

"Ninety percent of our public lands are within a 700-mile radius of Superior, so we are in a good
location to monitor them," DeBree said. He also believes the project is viable because Mineral
County – and much of northern Montana – is relatively abandoned when it comes to
government/police surveillance and yet it includes a major interstate, railroad system, waterway,
and is essentially the only direct route to the coast, he said.

"What we realized is that areas like Superior on major transportation cores are vulnerable, and if
we don’t develop a security system for them, they will be in peril," said George Bailey, UM’s
assistant vice president of research.

But DeBree believes the program’s real value is that it will help scientists, landowners, firefighters
and biologists better understand what is happening to public lands, and how they are changing.

"We are talking about things like cameras that can detect a quarter at 30 miles away," DeBree
said. "We are talking about a terabyte – which shows a square meter of real estate and the leaves
on a tree – and we can detect moisture levels.

"The information is important to everyone, Bailey said. "We don’t often have terrorists, but we do
every year have lost hunters, lost snowmobilers and avalanches – and this can project can help
out in those situations."

If all goes well, the Superior-based service will be contracted out to build programs for other
agencies in the West that deal with large land holdings, and share information through internet
programs, said Alex Philp, president of GCS Research.

"This is an important digital resource that all counties could benefit from," Philp said. "In everyday
terms, it translates into enhanced 9-1-1 services, it can help guide the national fire plan by helping
to create defensible space and buffers between homes and forests, and it can tell us where the
fuel loads are high."

If the project is approved, the federal appropriation will fund initial facility development,
equipment, training programs, and support general infrastructure requirements. The hope is that
private business will be able to spin off the technological infrastructure once it is in place, DeBree
said.

Even if Project Alert is not fully funded, backers will push to bring in the infrastructure for
high-tech computer systems to Mineral County with the help of the Missoula Area Economic
Development Corp.

"The whole idea is to help the county function better, to create a network of services, to bring
Mineral County into the 21st century and make the county more attractive as a place to do
business," Philp said. "We believe a lot of people would be interested in moving to and living in
beautiful Mineral County – if there were jobs."

An empty historic school building in downtown Superior is currently considered the most likely
site to house the project, but all the groups involved with the project have not ruled out building a
brand new structure.

The future of the project now rests in the hands of Congress, which will consider the request
sometime late August or early September when the issue goes before the full House and Senate,
DeBree said. If there is a difference of opinion, the issue will go before a special committee and a
final decision will likely be made at the end of September.

"This community is so desperate for jobs, that we are really ready for something," DeBree said.

When Crown Pacific closed its lumber mill in 1994, it took away the community’s main employer
and with it, the middle class families and workers who kept the town vibrant, he said.

"When the mill closed, people were able to go get retrained for other work, but those people got
trained and left to where the jobs are – to Spokane and Missoula," DeBree said. "We lost the
middle of our community, and now, we are hoping this opportunity will help reconnect that lost
middle class."

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at [email protected].