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February 2002
Volume 2
Welcome to the Wilderness Guardian, a monthly online digest
dedicated to providing up-to-date news and
information concerning Wilderness protection and stewardship nationwide.
A service of Wilderness Watch, the
Guardian was created to help Wilderness advocates keep abreast of
breaking news, as well as providing
contact information to facilitate public participation.
Interesting Tidbits & Wilderness Quotes:
Branding Wilderness - Just when you thought there was nothing
left to brand! In 1998, Bridgestone/Firestone Corporation donated
10,000 acres of land to the State of Tennessee to create the Bridgestone/Firestone
Centennial Wilderness. See it at http://www.centennialwilderness.com/index.html
Alaska Wins Again – There are 106 million acres of Wilderness
in the United States. Alaska is responsible for 55% of the total
with 58 million acres of Wilderness, designated by President Carter
in 1980 as part of the Alaska National Interests Land Conservation
Act (ANILCA).
"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever
let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last
virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette
cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species
into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and
dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the
last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free
in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of
human automotive waste." – Wallace Stegner, 1962
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Motor Vehicle Tours in Wilderness Challenged
2. Winter Recreation Impacts on the Rise
3. The end of Washington’s Rain Forests?
4. Motorboat Numbers to Triple in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
Wilderness, MN
5. Forest Service Places Predators Under the Gun
Action Alerts:
1. Say No to Cabins in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness!
2. National Day of Action to End Forest Fees set for June 15, 2002
* Wilderness News Briefs *
1. Wilderness Watch challenges motorized tours in Cumberland
Island Wilderness, GA – 2/11/02
Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court today
challenging the National Park Service’s (NPS) decision to authorize
motorized vehicle tours in the Cumberland Island Wilderness. The
suit, filed by Wilderness Watch, Defenders of Wild Cumberland (DWC)
and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), seeks
to stop motorized tours in the Wilderness to protect the area’s
primitive character and to bring the NPS management of the area
into compliance with the law.
Cumberland Island, which lies off Georgia’s southeast coast
just north of the Florida border, is the largest undeveloped barrier
island on the eastern seaboard. The entire island was designated
as the Cumberland Island National Seashore in 1972. Ten years later
Congress designated 8,800 acres of the heart of the Island’s
north end as the Cumberland Island Wilderness. The island provides
shelter for over 300 species of birds and nesting sites for sea
turtles, including the threatened loggerhead sea turtle. Because
of its incredible ecological significance, Cumberland Island was
named an International Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
For More Information:
Wilderness Watch: http://www.wildernesswatch.org
Defenders of Wild Cumberland: http://www.wildcumberland.org
PEER: http://www.peer.org
Media Coverage:
The Florida Times-Union:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021202/met_8593825.html
The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
http://www.accessatlanta.com?ajc/epaper/editions/today/news_c386acb3f5881108004a.html
Land Letter – Natural Resources Weekly Report
http://www.eenews.net/Landletter/Backissues/021402ll.htm#1
2. Wilderness feeling the pressure of increased winter recreation
Winter recreation is on the rise, due mainly to new snowmobile technology
that makes machines faster and lighter than ever before. Land managers
in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana estimate that the forest
averages 350,000 snowmobile visits a year, about 50,000 of those
in the Cooke City area and 100,000 in the West Yellowstone region.
Trespass into Wilderness is common, as the agency has little money
or manpower to enforce the boundaries. Increasing use has also resulted
in avalanche fatalities, wildlife-human conflicts, and social conflicts
with other backcountry users.
For More Information:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/archive.php?section=local&display=rednews/2002/01/21/build/local/00-backcountry.inc
http://www.nativeforest.org/campaigns/last_refuge/index.html
http://www.headwatersnews.org/todd020802.html
Want to Help? Contact one or all of the Following:
NFN The Last Refuge Campaign - Keeping the Wild in the Wild West
by exposing the impacts of motorized wreckreation. www.nativeforest.org/campaigns/last_refuge/index.html
Native Forest Network, Phil Knight, Last Refuge Campaign: pknight@wildrockies.org
Greater Yellowstone Coalition: http://www.greateryellowstone.org
Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project: http://grizzly.sierraclub.org/wildtrails.htm
Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads: http://maps.wildrockies.org/orv
3. New study predicts effects of global warming in Pacific Northwest
A new study released by the World Wildlife Fund and the University
of Toronto predicts extensive alterations to ecosystems in the pacific
northwest, including changes to habitat protected as Wilderness.
Using conservative estimates, researchers report that current and
projected levels of global warming will lead to the disappearance
of the Olympic rain forests, as well as causing major ecosystem
shifts in Washington’s Cascade Range and the Klamath-Siskiyou
region of southern Oregon and northern California.
For More Information:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/57571_warm08.shtml
4. More motorboats are bad news for the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area Wilderness, MN
The Forest Service plans to triple the number of motorboat permits
for three lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).
Motorboats on the affected lakes, Moose, Saganaga and Farm, will
increase from the current 2,376 to 6,892 per season.
The Forest Service’s decision seeks to accommodate private
property owners who believe they were slighted by a 1999 ruling
by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Before the 1999 ruling,
landowners were allowed unlimited motorized access to all 12 lakes
without a permit. The ruling ended this practice, limiting the landowner’s
unlimited motorized access to the lake where their property was
located. For motorized use on other lakes, the landowners would
have to apply for limited permits on an equal basis with the general
public. The new Forest Service permit quotas are now being expanded
to better insure a landowner’s chance of getting a permit for
other lakes in the Wilderness.
For More Information:
News Story: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/1616995.html
Superior Nat’l Forest, MN : http://www.superiornationalforest.org
Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation: http://www.cpinternet.com/~mrr
Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness: http://www.friends-bwca.org
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness: http://www.nmw.org
5. Forest Service wilderness policy changes bad for predators
The Forest Service is proposing changes to its predator control
policies within wilderness. Working with the Animal & Plant
Health Inspection Services - Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS), the Forest
Service has proposed numerous changes to the existing policy, including
the allowance of aerial gunning and cyanide guns. Though the current
policy focuses on offending individuals, the new policy expands
this to "offending individuals and local populations",
which will allow the agency to exterminate entire populations adjacent
to grazing allotments. Wilderness Watch is currently evaluating
the policy changes, and will issue a detailed Action Alert in March.
For More Information:
TinaMarie Ekker, Policy Coordinator, Wilderness Watch, tmekker@wildernesswatch.org
* Action Alerts *
1. Your comments needed to remove the Crippen cabin from the
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, MT
Your comments are needed to remove the Crippen cabin from the Absaroka-Beartooth
Wilderness. Wilderness is defined by law as an "area untrammeled
by man" with "no structure or installation within any
such area." Though the Forest Service is ready to extend the
cabin’s lease for 20 more years, the structure stands in violation
of the Wilderness Act, and should be torn down.
Background
The Crippen Cabin (owned by former state senator Bruce Crippen)
was built before the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness was designated
in 1978. The original special-use permit was set to expire in 1989,
though the Forest Service failed to enforce the termination, opting
instead to extend the cabin leases by an additional 10 years, albeit
illegally. In 1999, Crippen tried to have it extended again, though
his request was denied. In 2001, Crippen entered into a confidential
deal, giving the cabin to Montana State University in Billings (MSU-B)
with the hope of extending the lease for an additional 20 years
for educational purposes. Needing Congressional approval for the
deal, Senator Conrad Burns attached the mandate as a stealth rider
to a larger appropriations bill. The bill passed, despite the lack
of public awareness and participation.
What you can do
MSU-Billings Chancellor Ron Sexton is currently preparing the special
use permit to extend the cabin’s lease by 20 years. Please
write to urge him NOT to apply for the permit. The arguments listed
below may help you formulate your argument:
* The Wilderness Act prohibits permanent structures or installations
in Wilderness except as necessary to meet the minimum requirements
for the administration of the area. The Crippen cabin fails to meet
this exception, having neither administrative nor educational value.
* This incident sets a dangerous precedent. Congressional action
to ensure retention of a cabin in the Wilderness is unprecedented
in the nearly 40 years of the Wilderness Act. If allowed to stand,
this action could encourage others to try the same trick.
* MSU-B already has a larger and more suitable structure outside
the Wilderness boundary for housing its students. In this time of
stretched education budgets, the cabin will saddle the University
with 20 years of repair and maintenance costs.
Your comments are important to protect the integrity of the Wilderness
Act! Please communicate your concerns to Dr. Sexton by mail, email,
phone or fax, at the following address:
Dr. Ronald P. Sexton, Chancellor
Montana State University – Billings, 1500 N. 30th Street, Billings,
MT 59101
rsexton@msubillings.edu
Phone: (406) 657-2300
Fax: (406) 657-2299
Media Coverage:
Billings Outpost: http://www.billingsnews.com
Missoula Independent: http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=2261
2. Annoyed with fee-demo programs for Wilderness? Here’s
your chance to act!
Fee demo programs pose numerous risks for Wilderness and Wilderness
management:
* The Commercialization of Wilderness: Problems arise when you mix
Wilderness and profit incentive. Once user fees constitute the majority
of an area’s budget, Wilderness managers become less likely
to restrict the number of visitors, even in fragile, overcrowded
areas. Wilderness itself becomes commercialized, set up to attract
the greatest number of people to achieve the greatest amount of
return.
* More Parking Lots? Your fees will be allocated to the construction
of new "improvements" in the wilderness. In an area defined
by law as "untrammeled by man", signs of man will become
far more evident as agencies push for maximum access.
* An Elitist Wilderness? As an American citizen, you already pay
for the management of public lands. Do you need to pay more? What
happens to Wilderness when only those who can afford it can use
it? Do those who pay have a greater stake in Wilderness?
If these issues worry you, put June 15th on your calendar to protest
fee-demo and to urge Congress to restore adequate funding to maintain
appropriate levels of recreational infrastructure on, and provide
adequate protection of, America's public lands.
For More Information:
Wild Wilderness, OR: http://www.wildwilderness.org
Free Our Forests, CA: http://www.freeourforests.org
New England Public Forest Advocates, NH: http://www.nepfa.org
Free our Parks and Forests, WA: http://www.freeourparks.org
Keep the Sespe Wild Committee, CA: http://www.igc.org/sespewild
National Forest Defense Alliance, CA: dreamflight@earthlink.net
Free the Forests, WA: coldmtn@methow.com
Arizona No Fee Coalition: itomni@hotmail.com
The Rock Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service has
published a useful Annotated Reading List titled: "Recreation
Fees in Wilderness and Other Public Lands." (RMRS-GTR-79-volume
3). It provides a summary of published fee-demo articles from academic
sources. The document is available on the web at http://leopold.wilderness.net/resapp/pdfs/vol3.pdf
and can also be obtained by contacting rschneider@fs.fed.us
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Since
its founding in 1989, Wilderness Watch has pursued its mission
as the citizen voice for Wilderness
stewardship, giving a voice to the wilderness and wild rivers of
our national preservation systems. We
seek to preserve our unique natural heritage - the public will articulated
by the Wilderness Act and Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act.
To join Wilderness
Watch please visit our website at www.wildernesswatch.org.
If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe from
this list, have any questions, or would like to post a news
release, please contact Hilary Wood at hwood@wildernesswatch.org.
If you prefer the post, please send your
letters to:
Wilderness Watch
P.O. Box 9175
Missoula, MT 59807
Ph: (406) 542-2048
Fax: (406) 542-7714
http://www.wildernesswatch.org
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