June 2002
Volume 6

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:

We Don’t Serve Grizzlies - Fremont County, Wyoming recently passed laws to ban wolves and grizzlies from county land. Though it is still unclear how they will be enforced, the laws serve as a clear reminder of the hatred and fear natural predators still face in the West.

No New Wilderness – The Forest Service has announced it will not support any further Wilderness designation in the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The Tongass currently has 9.7 million acres of roadless land and 5.8 million acres of Wilderness.

Quote - "There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche of the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness." - Robert Marshall, 1930.

Contents:

Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.

Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Crippen Cabin to be Removed from Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, MT
2. Phone Company Backs out of Cumberland Island Wilderness, GA
3. Wilderness Designation for the Colorado River?
4. Harder to Find Solitude in Alaska

Action Alerts:
1. Comments Needed - Mining Company has Plans for Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, ID
2. New Fire Plan for Death Valley Forgets Wilderness!

*Wilderness News Briefs*

1. University drops plans to use Wilderness cabin

MAY 24 – Montana State University-Billings (MSU-B) announced that it will not pursue a Special Use permit to use the controversial Crippen cabin in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. University Chancellor Ronald Sexton’s decision was prompted by the concerns of conservation organizations including Wilderness Watch and the MSU-B Academic Senate, who unanimously opposed using the cabin.

The Crippen cabin is one of three private cabins in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. One of the buildings, known as the Dayton cabin, was removed by the Forest Service in April. The remaining structures, known as the Pippen and Crippen cabins, are also slated for removal sometime before July 2004. Wilderness Watch applauds MSU-B’s decision and thanks all of you who wrote letters to Chancellor Sexton for your hard work! If you would like to thank the University for their decision, please send your letters to 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

For More Information:
Billings Gazette:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&tl=1&display=rednews/2002/05/24/build/local/60-wilderness-cabin.inc
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/05/25/build/local/67-cabin.inc

2. Phone company abandons plans to lay cable in Cumberland Island Wilderness

A phone company in Camden County Georgia recently announced that they will not pursue plans to lay underground cable through the Cumberland Island Wilderness. Opposed by Wilderness advocates including Wilderness Watch, the plan would have used heavy equipment to put in cable for a handful of vacation home owners who wanted high-speed internet access and were tired of using cell phones. Facing the risk of a lawsuit, the company decided the project was too much trouble and quietly announced it was not going forward despite the costly environmental assessment drawn up for the project.

3. The end of motorized use on the Colorado River?

Should the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park be managed as a non-motorized wilderness river? This is a question the NPS must address while preparing a new Colorado River Management Plan. More than 90% of the park including the river corridor has been recommended for wilderness. It is national NPS policy to manage it the same as if it were designated wilderness. Twenty years ago the NPS suggested banning motors from the river. That alarmed commercial river concessionaires who sought congressional assistance to scuttle the proposal. Most of the sixteen commercial river operators use motorized pontoon boats to transport their clients. NPS grants commercial outfitters 70% of the allowable annual use on the river. The remaining 30% of visitor use is allocated to the self-guided boating public who ply oar-powered boats and rafts through the canyon. Due to the inequitable use allocation, there is now a 20-year waiting list for individuals seeking a permit to float the river! The Park Service is accepting public comments through mid-August regarding how the Colorado River should be managed in Grand Canyon.

4. Hunting for quiet

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska has proposed new criteria for selecting commercial hunting guides who will operate on refuge lands which include nearly 19 million acres of designated wilderness. These operations can pose significant adverse impacts to wilderness values through development of large base camps and intensive use of aircraft to spot game and land in close proximity to desired targets. Such practices are out of line with fair chase hunting ethics, but the proposed selection criteria do little to curb these practices. Some current commercial operators keep large amounts of fuel and several airplanes on hand in camp.

Instead of taking days or weeks for a wilderness hunt, the intensive use of low-flying aircraft assist clients in "bagging" an animal as quickly as possible, often on the first day. This enables clients to jet back to the lower 48 with their trophy without expending a large amount of time, and allows the guide to take out more clients during a season. Increasingly, the agency is hearing from non-guided hunters and recreationists that natural quiet is disappearing and that the sometimes constant drone of aircraft is highly annoying in geographically remote areas where people expect to find real wilderness, not motorized noise.

*Action Alerts*

1. Mine Threatens Idaho Wilderness

The American Independence Mines and Minerals Company plans to build a gold mine within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The two claims are located are roughly fifty miles northeast of McCall and cover a total of forty acres. The mining company intends to convert a trail into a road and drive a bulldozer, backhoe, road grader, and other vehicles 2.7 miles into the Frank Church Wilderness Area in addition to constructing 2,000 feet of new road. The mining production would excavate an estimated 750 feet of trenches and drill 31 development holes. While the Forest Service believes that American Independence and Minerals has a legal claim to mine the land, the Forest Service wants to receive comments about the manner in which the company is allowed to access and mine the area.

Concerns: The Forest Service plans to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerning access for this project. Though initial scoping comments were due May 27th, you can still send your concerns and comments to the address listed below. Comments must be addressed in the EIS if they are received prior to the completion of the initial draft. The list below examines a few concerns:

1. The use of mechanized equipment in Wilderness is completely incompatible with the area’s wilderness character. The Forest Service needs to understand that the preservation of wilderness predominates over other values.

2. The area in question is within a Riparian Habitat Conservation Zone. Mining operations will harm threatened or endangered bull trout, chinook salmon, steelhead, and westslope cutthroat trout that occupy the waters downstream of the site.

3. A mining claim in a Wilderness Area does not confer a right for road access or construction. The Forest Service can still allow the claimant reasonable access with pack animals or on foot.

Send your comments to:

Ana Egnew
Krassel Ranger District
P.O. Box 1026
McCall, ID 83638
Phone: (208) 634-0624
Fax: (208) 634-0634
Email: aeegnew@fs.fed.us
For More Information:
Idaho Conservation League – John Robison, jrobison@wildidaho.org, 345-6942 ext. 13.

2. Death Valley fire plan omits 3,100,000 acres of Wilderness

The National Park Service (NPS) began the scoping process for an environmental assessment for a fire plan for Death Valley National Park. Scoping is the initial process of public involvement that assists the NPS in determining the full range of alternatives and issues.

In the scoping announcement, the NPS failed to mention that Death Valley National Park includes 3,100,000 acres of designated Wilderness. This omission is important as NPS Management Policies state that fire management practices in designated Wilderness must "conform to the basic purposes of wilderness."

The NPS is obligated to preserve Wilderness so as to retain its primeval character and its natural conditions. Where fire is a naturally occurring occurrence, the NPS must seek to maintain its essential part in the Wilderness ecosystem. Total suppression of all naturally ignited fire violates the very concept of Wilderness.

In addition, the NPS stated that it may develop fire management prescriptions to maintain vegetative types for Native American practices. Though such practices are important, the NPS has no authority to permit or prescribe fires in Wilderness. In fact, such manipulation is the antithesis of Wilderness. Nothing in the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act (P.L. 106-423) authorizes the manipulation of Wilderness resources for Indian traditional cultural practices. To the contrary, the Act explicitly directs that the NPS and Tribal use of the area must be "consistent with the purpose and intent of the Wilderness Act." That intent does not include creation or perpetuation of human influences.

The NPS must not produce a Draft Fire Management Plan that ignores the largest NPS Wilderness in the lower 48 states. Please send your comments by July 31st to the following address:

Fire Management Plan
National Park Service
Box 579
Death Valley, CA 92328
Fax: (760) 786-3258
dana_york@nps.gov

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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