Wilderness/Roadless
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Of all those wilderness, plus side-payment (to non-wilderness interest) bills that have suddenly emerged, this is the worst. Washington County, Utah is the fastest growing part of the state because it is scenic desert country–warm in the winter, and cool in one’s air conditioned house in the summer. It’s a magnet for LDS retirees and…
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Scott Stouder is a field coordinator for Trout Unlimited in Idaho. He lives in Riggins where steelhead fishing on the Salmon River and the short salmon seasons are very important. Stouder is warning of Idaho’s development-oriented position of the Bush roadless area policy. Stouder’s piece in today’s Idaho Statesman.
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House Resources Committee chair, Richard Pombo, the ardent enemy of endangered species and public lands will be the one who becomes extinct January 1, 2007. Meanwhile he remains chair of the committee for the “lame duck” session of Congress which will soon resume. A big question is the future of CIEDRA, which has drawn both…
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One of the Wilderness areas I haven’t spent much time in is Utah’s largest, the High Uintas Wilderness, which embraces much of this unique 13,000 foot plus east/west uplift (almost all of the Rocky Mountains run north/south). The Wilderness is very popular in Utah with a few trailheads very crowded. I long wondered why most…
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Way above timberline, looking across Meadow Creek Basin in the Francs Peak roadless area. Shoshone National Forest. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan Wyoming has many fine roadless areas that are not protected as designated Wilderness — 3-million acres in total. Liz Howell of the Wyoming Wilderness Association writes in their defense and against Governor Freudenthals’ short-sighted…
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Folks have been fighting the proposed Rock Creek mine in the Cabinet Mountains of NW Montana for about 20 years now. It has been stalled. Now the USFWS has rewritten its earlier objection to the mine saying that with all the money for mitigation work planned, the grizzly will actually benefit. This may be so.…
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Idaho Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brady and Republican nominee Butch Otter finally had a debate of sorts. It turns out they differ considerably on conservation issues. Otter’s lack of clarity on the out-of-state-funded “property rights” Proposition 2 was troublesome. They also differed on Wilderness and Otter made it clear that while he might sign a…
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“The rulings come at a time when an emerging bipartisan coalition of Western politicians, hunters, anglers and homeowners has joined conservation groups in objecting to the rapid pace and environmental consequences of Bush administration policies for energy extraction on federal land.” Read about it in the Washington Post (via the Casper Star Tribune). Related: Interior…