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May 2002
Volume 5
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:
More Wilderness for California? - California Senator Barbara
Boxer will introduce a bill to designate 2.5 million acres of new
Wilderness in California. Not surprisingly, the bill will meet with
virulent opposition from republicans, many who feel the bill would
shut out multiple use options.
Tossing Away Wilderness Study Areas - Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho)
is proposing legislation that would negate Wilderness study areas
if they are not designated as Wilderness in ten years. Wilderness
study areas are managed as Wilderness to protect their primitive
character. The legislation gives Wilderness opponents an edge -
by stalling designation until the deadline, they can remove areas
from Wilderness consideration.
Quote: To experience wilderness is "to know a profound
humility, to recognize one’s littleness, to sense dependence
and interdependence, indebtedness, and responsibility." - Howard
Zahniser, author of the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Snowmobile Legislation Strikes at the Heart of Denali Wilderness,
AK
2. Prescribed Fire set to Burn in Scapegoat Wilderness, MT
3. Running Camp Seeks Special Treatment in Steens Mountain Wilderness,
OR
4. Utah Wilderness Bombarded with Pro-Military Legislation
5. Weeding the Wilderness – Aerial Herbicide Spraying in Selway-Bitterroot
Wilderness, MT
6. Commercial Shellfishing in the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge,
MA
* Wilderness News Briefs *
1. Legislation would put snowmobiles in Denali Wilderness
Alaskan Republican Don Young is at it again, this time trying to
win the snowmobile industry access into the Wilderness core of Denali
National Park. Young’s bill, HR 4677, not only ignores the
Wilderness Act’s prohibition of motorized equipment in Wilderness,
but also revokes a National Park Service (NPS) regulation that bans
recreational snowmobile use within the Wilderness. The NPS regulation
was the result of three years of study, and received overwhelming
public support throughout Alaska and the Lower 48.
Snowmobile use in Denali’s Wilderness is likewise prohibited
under the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act (ANILCA),
which allows for snowmobile use for "traditional activities"
only if they have been used in the area in the past. Since Denali’s
Wilderness has always remained free of such use, Young’s bill
also runs counter to the provisions of ANILCA.
For More Information:
Alaska Center for the Environment: Cliff Eames, 907-274-3647, cliff@akcenter.org
Northern Alaska Environmental Center: Linda Paganelli, lindapag@mtaonline.net
Wilderness Society: Eleanor Huffines, 907-272-9453
Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/1100952p-1207619c.html
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: http://www.news-miner.com/framework/0%2C1413%2C113%257E7249%257E613684%2C00.html
2. 10,000 acres set to burn in Scapegoat Wilderness
In the largest prescribed burn in the history of the Lewis and Clark
National Forest, the Forest Service plans to ignite 10,000 timbered
acres in the Scapegoat Wilderness in late May. The burn will proceed
in three stages, and was planned over five years to promote forest
health and to provide a defensible boundary to stop future Wilderness
fires from escaping the boundary.
The plan is controversial, with landowners concerned about their
property and conservationists questioning the size and necessity
of the burn. Commercial outfitters worry that the smoke and fire
may damage camps and/or deter business. Despite these concerns,
the fire is set to burn as long as weather conditions remain stable.
For More Information:
Great Falls Tribune: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20020426/localnews/215139.html
Missoulian: http://www.missoulian.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/April/27-988-news22.txt
3. Running camp brings commercial operation to Wilderness
The Steens Mountain Running Camp is seeking special legislation
to allow it to operate within the Steens Mountain Wilderness in
Oregon. The legislation would be necessary for the camp to operate
legally, as Wilderness laws and agency regulations bar commercial
operations in Wilderness. Furthermore, the camp leads three separate
runs a year, each with over 150 people, through the Wilderness en
masse, an activity which endangers the purpose of Wilderness –
mainly that it be a place "untrammeled by man" providing
outstanding opportunities for solitude.
While Wilderness Watch is not opposed to the camp operating outside
Wilderness, (as it has for 26 years) but we are opposed to altering
the will of the American people and Congress as expressed in the
Wilderness Act and land management regulations. The special exception
would set a dangerous precedent concerning the management of our
last remaining wild places.
For More Information:
Wilderness Watch: George Nickas, (406)542-2048, gnickas@wildernesswatch.org
4. Proposed legislation threatens Wilderness in Utah
Congressman Jim Hansen (R-UT) has attached anti-Wilderness legislation
to H.R. 4546, the Defense Authorization Act. Among its many faults,
the proposed legislation undermines the Wilderness Act of 1964 with
unacceptable and unjustified Wilderness management language. It
puts in place never-before-used management language for newly designated
wilderness that would allow new and unrestricted on-the-ground military
development on BLM lands designated as "wilderness" in
Utah. It would also allow the military to unilaterally close public
access within designated BLM wilderness and explicitly deny a federally
reserved water right necessary to protect wildlife and other natural
resources within designated wilderness.
For More Information:
Gail Hoskison, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, 202-546-2215,
gail@suwa.org, http://www.suwa.org
Pam Eaton, The Wilderness Society, 303-650-5818, mailto:pam_eaton@tws.org
Lawson Legate, Sierra Club, 801-467-9294, mailto:lawson.legate@sierraclub.org
5. Adding Insult to Injury? - Forest Service steps up battle
against noxious weeds
In their draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), the Bitterroot
National Forest proposes to implement specific noxious weed treatment
and prevention measures on approximately 35,000 acres in support
of the Forest’s Integrated Weed Management Plan and Forest
Plan. Proposed methods to control noxious weeds include a combination
of ground and aerial (helicopter) application of herbicides; mechanical,
biological, and cultural weed treatments; and public awareness measures.
There are many concerns with the Forest Service’s plan, including
the herbicide’s impacts on the health of wildlife and humans.
The project is the largest herbicide spraying project in the history
of the Bitterroot National Forest, the second largest being the
spraying of 1,775 acres in the Frank Church river of No return Wilderness
in 1999.
To learn more about the Forest Service’s proposal, please attend
the public meeting scheduled for May 29th at the City Council chambers
in Missoula, Montana. The meeting will begin with an Open House
from 6:30 to 7:30, during which there will be information available
about the proposed action. At 7:30, there will be a public comment/question
period. If you live in the Missoula area and care about the Bitterroot
National Forest, please attend this meeting!
For More Information:
Women’s Voices for the Earth: Alex Gorman, agorman@wildrockies.org,
(406) 543-3747
Wilderness Watch: Hilary Wood, hwood@wildernesswatch.org, (406)
542-2048
6. Town claims commercial shellfishing rights in Wilderness
The town of Chatham, Massachusetts has pledged $250,000 to hire
a law firm to keep commercial shellfishing legal in the Monomoy
National Wildlife Refuge near Cape Cod. The issue was raised by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), who mentioned that commercial
shellfishing might violate laws and regulations set up to protect
Wilderness. The USFWS was reworking its management plan for the
refuge when it realized the commercial shellfishing operations were
not in compliance.
Making a strange comment for an agency official, refuge manager
Bud Oliveira was reported to assure the town that there would be
a way around the law. Chatham is home to nearly 500 shellfisherman,
who bring in $3 million in shellfish from Monomoy each year.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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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