Three depressing and rancorous hearings last week on the Appalachian Trail/Saddleback issue settled nothing, but they did prove two things: Grown adults with perfectly valid points of view can behave in perfectly boorish ways; this 14-year-old impasse will never be resolved as long as the two sides continue to talk at, instead of to, each other.

The next logical step would be the National Park Service and the owners of Saddleback Ski Area to take the wise advice offered by Rep. John Baldacci several months ago — mediation. Perhaps, once away from the din of true believers on both sides, the principals could find, with the guidance of someone experienced in resolving differences, an acceptable balance between protecting the trail and allowing the ski area to grow and prosper.

Probably not, though. It may be that the wounds are too deep and the positions too entrenched. If so, the parties should admit it and move on to the time-tested, foolproof method of solving a problem when reason fails: Throw money at it.

The NPS should buy the backside of Saddleback Mountain. Not for the $186,000 it previously offered for the 4,000 acres; $46.50 an acre is just plain silly. The price must be based not on the mountain’s worth as a remote, unreachable rock, but on its economic potential as a recreation area. A fair price may be a few million, maybe more, but after this protracted war of words, settling an argument over numbers should be a breeze.

Everybody would win. It would give the ski area the cash and peace of mind it needs to move on with development plans. It allows the NPS to preserve the spectacular view it cherishes without trampling any rights. Appalachian Trail supporters should like the idea of a public land purchase. Property rights fans should see this as fitting right in with their view that if the public wants land protected from development, it should jolly well pay for it.

By law, the NPS cannot pay more than its appraised value for land, but Congress can, especially a Republican-controlled, private-property loving Congress with more money than it knows what to do with. Surely conservationists and property-rightists joining hands and pulling together could wheedle a measly $5 million or so.

Especially now that Congress is getting serious about funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund was created in 1965 to use revenue primarly from offshore gas and oil drilling for the purchase of land for parks, wildlife habitat and recreation areas. Since the early 1980s, much of the revenue — now up to about $900 million a year — often has been diverted to other programs and the component to assist state purchases has not been funded at all since 1995. An amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill to get the LWCF back on task has passed the House; a Senate version enjoys strong bipartisan support. Congress says it wants to pay a fair price for the land it wants the American public to have and, if the Appalachian Trail is the national treasure many say it is, Saddleback would be a good place to start.

While this could set a welcome precedent of bitter enemies working together, a strictly business solution won’t start the nation down the often-cited, much-feared path of paying people not to develop land along the Appalachian Trail they have no real intention of developing. Only about 26 miles of the entire 2,100-mile trail, barely a full day’s walk, is unprotected by agreements between the NPS and the landowners. This slippery slope would be a mere bunny hill.

This must be resolved not by fiat but to mutual satisfaction and it must be done quickly. The $50 million land bond on the state referendum ballot in November now enjoys wide support according to opinion polls. It will get killed at the only poll that matters if the specter of NPS condemnation remains.

Maybe it’s still worth a shot for the NPS and Saddleback to sit down with a mediator. If not, this argument, having devolved into anti-government rhetoric and lots of hurtful name-calling, must end. Sometimes, the only thing to do with trouble is to buy your way out of it.