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March
2003
Volume 3
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:
Winter Trespass Growing – At least seven snowmobilers
have been fined in recent months for driving their machines in the
Mount Zirkel Wilderness in Colorado. Snowmobile trespass is a growing
problem in Wilderness nationwide, and violators can be sentenced
up to six months in jail and fined up to $5,000.
X-Country Trails – The Townsend Ranger district is proposing
to build a trail connecting two x-country ski trails in the Grassy
Mountain Roadless Area. The 3-mile, 5-foot-wide trail would be constructed
using a mini-excavator. Currently, skiers bushwhack to complete
the loop. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies questioned the plan,
citing the Forest Service’s $1 billion deficit and the wisdom
of management activities in roadless areas.
Quote: "For me, and for thousands with similar inclinations,
the most important passion of life is the overpowering desire to
escape periodically from the clutches of a mechanistic civilization.
To us the enjoyment of solitude, complete independence, and the
beauty of undefiled panoramas is absolutely essential to happiness.
– Bob Marshall
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Two dams proposed for Weminuche Wilderness, CO
2. Good News for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AK
Action Alerts:
1. Drive-Thru Wilderness? Protect Cumberland Island Wilderness from
motor vehicle abuse!
2. SWAT teams in the public’s Wilderness?
*Wilderness News Briefs*
1. Two dams proposed for Weminuche Wilderness, CO
Two dams are being proposed for construction inside Colorado's Weminuche
Wilderness to serve irrigation purposes. The Wilderness Act is clear
that only the President may authorize the establishment and maintenance
of reservoirs, water-conservation works, etc., inside Wilderness.
The project is being proposed by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and
the Pine River Irrigation District.
For More Information:
The Durango Herald:
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news030308_2.htm
2. Good News for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AK
The Associated Press
(Published: March 19, 2003)
Washington -- The Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected oil drilling
in an Alaska wildlife refuge, rebuffing the Bush administration
on a top energy goal it had hoped to win with a wartime security
appeal.
Despite intense lobbying by pro-drilling senators and the White
House in the hours leading up to the vote, Democrats mustered the
support needed to remove a drilling provision from a budget resolution
expected to be approved later this week.
For More Information:
Anchorage Daily News:
http://www.adn.com/front/story/2801693p-2842292c.html
http://www.adn.com/front/story/2807145p-2846322c.html
*Action Alerts*
1. Drive-Thru Wilderness? Protect Cumberland Island Wilderness
from motor vehicle abuse!
Imagine yourself backpacking deep in the Cumberland Island Wilderness.
The island’s forests of pine and oak ease seaward into saw
palmetto and rolling dunes, creating at the water’s edge a
beach of white sand stretching the island’s 17-mile length.
You bask in exquisite solitude, little expecting that your reverie
is about to be disrupted by the rumble of jeep engines and the smell
of exhaust.
The Cumberland Island Wilderness needs your help!
The National Park Service (NPS) has released an Environmental Assessment
(EA) proposing to permit Greyfield Inn, a private corporation, to
conduct jeep tours through the Cumberland Island Wilderness in Georgia.
The EA also proposes to allow Greyfield to drive on two primitive
routes and on the entire length of the Island's sparkling white
beach, all within the park's designated potential wilderness, where
Congress directed the NPS to prohibit motor vehicle use.
By law, Wilderness is supposed to be free from motor vehicle use,
except in the rare circumstance that someone holds a private existing
right to drive there. Greyfield claims, based on a nearly 40-year
old court decree, that it has a legal right to drive a single route
(called "Grand Avenue") through the Wilderness. It is
doubtful, however, that the right includes running commercial tours,
and it certainly does not include driving in other parts of the
Wilderness or potential Wilderness. But the NPS is set to extend
driving into these protected areas. Your letters are needed to convince
it otherwise!
Amazing in its biotic diversity, Cumberland Island is the largest
undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. It was designated
as a national seashore in 1972; in 1982, 20,000 acres were designated
as Wilderness and potential Wilderness. Despite these designations,
the decision to permit motorized tours in designated and potential
Wilderness assures long-term damage to Cumberland's Wilderness qualities
and to the experience of all who visit there.
What YOU Can Do!!
Please send a letter, fax or e-mail to the NPS by March 31, 2003.
You might want to include the following key points:
1. Urge the NPS to NOT issue a permit for commercial vehicle tours
anywhere in the Cumberland Island Wilderness or potential Wilderness.
To do otherwise sets a terrible example for other Wilderness areas.
2. Urge the NPS to NOT issue Greyfield a permit that allows motor
vehicle access to the beach, which is designated potential Wilderness.
Send your comments to:
Art Frederick, Superintendent
Cumberland Island National Seashore
P.O. Box 806
St. Marys, GA 31558
Fax: 912-882-5688
arthur_frederick@nps.gov
You can download the EA at: http://www.nps.gov/cuis/pphtml/facts.html
2.
SWAT teams in the public’s Wilderness?
Imagine yourself relaxing after a beautiful day spent hiking
in the Sacatar Trail Wilderness in California. You sit happily by
your cook stove, enjoying the growing silence as the moon rises
over a nearby ridge. You are stirring your noodles when you hear
a sound and look up, deeply startled to see that your camp is surrounded
by a dozen men, faces painted a deep green, shotguns at ready.
The Sacatar Trail Wilderness needs your help!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering issuing a Special
Recreation Use Permit to the Tactical Firearms Training Team (TFTT),
a commercial enterprise offering courses in firearms and tactical
skills, to use portions of California’s Sacatar Trail Wilderness
for training exercises. The four-day, around-the clock training
course, entitled "Combat Fieldcraft", teaches extreme
survival skills and tactics, including night operations, land navigation,
patrolling, rope work, small unit operations, observation exercises
and camouflage. Participants bring their own shotguns and 40 rounds
of ammunition for use during the course. The BLM reports that the
course would have "about" 15 people and would "probably"
take place twice a year, with the first course scheduled for May
27, 2003.
In the past, the TFTT’s programs were conducted on a privately
owned ranch adjacent to the Wilderness boundary. The ranch was recently
sold and the new owner has prohibited the training on his land,
so the TFTT is seeking permission to use the Wilderness. The BLM
reports that no vehicles or mechanized tools will be used, though
the team will dig and cover a latrine. The government would receive
3% of the TFTT’s gross receipts for the course, which costs
$600 per participant. Let your voice be heard! Please send your
letters to the BLM asking them not to issue a Special Recreation
Use Permit to TFTT for their Combat Fieldcraft course.
You might want to include the following key points:
1. The training course is a commercial enterprise. The Wilderness
Act is clear that commercial services are only allowed in Wilderness
to "the extent necessary for activities which are proper for
realizing the recreational or other wilderness purposes of the area."
(Emphasis added) Combat survival training does not meet either of
these requirements, and has no place in Wilderness.
2. The training course is prohibited by BLM’s own regulations.
"In BLM wilderness areas you must not:
Engage or participate in competitive use as defined in section 8372.0-5(c)
of this chapter, including those activities involving physical endurance
of a person or animal, foot races, water craft races, survival exercises,
war games, or other similar exercises." (Emphasis added) 43
CFR § 6302.20(i)
3. The training course will negatively impact the wilderness
character of the Sacatar Trail Wilderness. Combat training,
complete with the use of shotguns, is incompatible with the tangible
and intangible elements of wilderness character. Wilderness was
envisioned as a place for humility, set aside for solitude, self-examination,
and reflection upon our place in the larger community of life. The
Combat Fieldcraft course is the antithesis these values, displacing
wildlife, impacting visitor’s experiences, and trammeling fragile
areas. (not to mention the related safety issues) Sadly, these impacts
would continue for four days, 24 hours a day.
Send your comments to:
Bakersfield Field Office
Attn: Michael Ayers
3801 Pegasus Drive
Bakersfield, CA 93308
To learn more about TFTT’s courses, visit their website at
http://www.tftt.com
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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