Here are two of the Boulder Chain Lakes in Idaho’s White Clouds Mountains. The chain contains 13 lakes in the drainage. Because of the scenery and the wildlife habitat, especially further to the east, Idaho conservationists have been struggling for a Wilderness designation since the late 1960s for these and the adjacent Boulder Mountains.
Whether the non-wilderness side payments in CIEDRA to anti-wilderness or wilderness indifferent groups are too much, or not enough, has become an issue that extends beyond Idaho.
Photo copyright Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.