November 2002
Volume 11

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.

Wilderness Quote:

"We listened for a voice crying in the wilderness.
And we heard the jubilation of wolves."
- Durward L. Allen

Contents:

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

Wilderness News Briefs:

1. Wilderness Watch asks court to enforce order to remove resorts from Salmon River
2. Montanans report violations to new Forest Service hotline
3. 9th Circuit places cows over mountain lions in Wilderness
4. Guzzlers threaten California’s desert Wilderness

Action Alerts:

1. Comments needed for Olympic Wilderness (WA)

*Wilderness News Briefs*

1. Wilderness Watch asks court to enforce order to remove resorts from Salmon River

Wilderness Watch has asked a U.S. District Court to find the U.S. Forest Service is in civil contempt for its failure to comply with a September 2000 court order that required the agency to remove permanent resorts from the Salmon Wild and Scenic River corridor in Idaho. The order was the end result of Wilderness Watch v. United States Forest Service, where the court granted summary judgement in favor of Wilderness Watch, holding that the lodges where in violation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

To date the Forest Service has failed to comply with the court’s order requiring the removal of the structures within the Salmon Wild and Scenic River corridor, and has abused its discretion by first setting, then abandoning deadlines, undertaking needless additional studies, and ultimately failing to establish a reasonable deadline for the removal of the resorts.

For More information:

Idaho Statesman:
www.idahostatesman.com/News/story.asp?ID=24474

2. Montanans report violations to new Forest Service hotline

The Forest Service is working with Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks' existing hotline service to accept calls about violations of FS regulations, such as illegal motorized off-road travel in Wilderness, travel behind closed gates, vandalism to signs, theft of trees and fire-related offenses.

Calls relating to FS lands are forwarded to forest rangers for response. Callers can remain anonymous. 1-800-TIP-MONT

3. 9th Circuit places cows over mountain lions in Wilderness

November 1, 2002 Arizona Daily Star by Howard Fischer

A federal court won't block the government from killing mountain lions and other predators to protect cattle grazing on public lands. In an unsigned ruling Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by the Forest Guardians and other environmental groups that the policy violates the law that designated a portion of the Coronado National Forest in Southern Arizona as a wilderness. The judges also rejected contentions that the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not conduct adequate environmental studies before deciding to kill the animals. Congress set up the Santa Teresa Wilderness area in 1984, encompassing about 14,000 acres near the San Carlos Apache Reservation.

Arizona Daily Star:
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/fri/21101LIONS2f2frjs.html

Tucson Citizen:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/10_31_02hunting.html

Court decision:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0115239p.pdf

4. Guzzlers threaten California’s desert Wilderness

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released its environmental assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) regarding the proposed construction of two new guzzlers within the Sheephole Valley Wilderness. Wilderness Watch has challenged the BLM’s conclusion that the impacts of construction and maintenance are insignificant regarding wilderness character. To the contrary, we believe the impacts are indeed significant, especially when viewed within the broader regional push to install more of these guzzlers in the California Desert.

The proposed guzzlers would be constructed in wilderness with the help of cement mixers and heavy earth-moving equipment. A review of the facts as presented in the EA leads Wilderness Watch to conclude that the primary purpose and "need" for these new guzzlers is not a need at all, but instead is based on the desire of the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG), in concert with the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, to increase the number of bighorn sheep for purposes of hunting and killing them as sport.

For more information please contact TinaMarie Ekker at Wilderness Watch – (406) 542-2048; tmekker@wildernesswatch.org.

*Action Alert*

1. Comments needed for Olympic Wilderness (WA)

From Olympic Park Associates: Deadline December 6, 2002

Olympic National Park (ONP) officials propose to fly two newly constructed shelters into subalpine meadows in the heart of Olympic's magnificent wilderness. One will be dropped on Low Divide, the other on Home Sweet Home meadow.

The shelters are built, the sites cleared, and funding for heavy-lift helicopter flights is in hand. Now park officials want to know what you think.

Park officials view the forest service structures as cultural treasures, more significant than the wilderness the are charged to protect. They have announced that they will issue an environmental assessment (EA) on the shelter "rehabilitations." The EA will consider a range of options, including removing the remains of the two old existing shelters (they collapsed due to winter snows).

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write or email Olympic National Park. Tell park officials to adhere to the Wilderness Act by removing these and other dilapidated Forest Service shelters or allowing their remains to recycle quietly into the ecosystem.

POINTS YOU CAN MAKE:

- Issues that seriously impact wilderness values should be determined by a Wilderness Management Plan with an environmental impact statement, subject to full public review (14 years after designation, Olympic still lacks such a plan).

- New construction is not "rehabilitation" or "repair", especially in wilderness.

- The park needs to demonstrate precisely the overwhelming cultural significance of these structures that cause them to trump wilderness protection.

Remind the NPS their TOP priority should be protecting Olympic's spectacular wilderness, not building bureaucratic legacies.
The deadline for comment is December 6, 2002.

Please email or write to the following address:

olym_ea@nps.gov
or
Planning Coordinator
Olympic National Park
600 East Park Avenue
Port Angeles, WA 98362
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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