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May 2003
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:
Send us Your News - Wilderness Watch is always
looking for news and information concerning Wilderness stewardship
nationwide. Please send us any Wilderness related news from magazines
or your local newspaper, so we can help to spread the word and make
sure nothing slips through the cracks. Thank you for your help!
Bureau of Logging and Mining?– This Spring,
the Bush administration issued an administrative order removing
200 million acres of wilderness study land managed by the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) from further wilderness review in the American
West and Alaska. No longer protected from development, these lands
may now be opened to logging, oil and gas development, road building,
and mining.
For more information:
New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/opinion/04SUN1.html?pagewanted=print
Quote:
"…in the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate
than in the streets or villages…in the woods we return to reason
and faith." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Road proposed in the Mecca Hills Wilderness, CA
2. Wilderness be Dammed – Poor stewardship in the Selway-Bitterroot
Wilderness, MT
Action Alerts:
1. Keep the Denali Wilderness Wild! Support ‘Alternative B’
– May 30th Deadline!
2. Sheep Farming by Helicopter? Comments needed for New Mexico and
Arizona Wildernesses
*Wilderness News Briefs*
1. Road proposed in the Mecca Hills Wilderness, CA
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing a draft environmental
impact statement concerning a request by a landowner to construct
and maintain a 20-foot wide gravel road through the Mecca Hills
Wilderness to access a mining claim on his privately owned land.
Though there is faint evidence of an old track in the area, the
vast majority of the project would require new construction. If
constructed, the road would travel 2,000 feet through the Wilderness,
and be open to use by the landowner to inspect and manage his land.
For more information: TinaMarie Ekker, Wilderness Watch, (406) 542-2048;
tmekker@wildernesswatch.org
2. Wilderness be Dammed – Poor stewardship in the Selway-Bitterroot
Wilderness, MT
Sheltered by the jagged flanks of Canyon peak, two small lakes,
Wyant and Canyon, complement the beauty of the Selway-Bitterroot
Wilderness. Both lakes have earthen dams, build a century ago for
irrigation purposes. Though maintained and operated by the Canyon
Creek Irrigation District (CCID), natural processes have degraded
the dams, resulting in spillovers and leaks, and the dams no longer
meet safety standards. Recently, the CCID petitioned the Forest
Service to gain motorized access to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
to address the problems.
Wilderness Watch reviewed the Forest Service’s Draft Environmental
Impact Statement (DEIS) concerning CCID’s proposal. Though
we were pleased that the man-made dam on Wyant Lake will be permanently
breached and the dam on Canyon Lake temporarily breached while its
long-term future is determined, we were disappointed that the agency’s
favored alternative allowed for the liberal use of motorized equipment.
Indeed, the DEIS lacked a non-motorized alternative even though
the project is based in Wilderness.
The administration of these dams highlights one of the most significant
breaches in Wilderness stewardship since the passage of the Wilderness
Act. During congressional debate over the bill, the Secretary of
Agriculture assured Congress that these small dams (there are 17
in the SBW) were accessed and built by non-motorized means and would
be maintained in the same way. But in the past decade managers on
the Bitterroot National Forest have authorized extensive motorized
incursions around these dams on a routine basis. Neither the CCID
nor the Forest Service has lived up to its respective responsibilities
to maintain the dams without impairing the area’s wilderness
character.
For more information: George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, (406) 542-2048;
gnickas@wildernesswatch.org
* Action Alerts*
1. Keep the Denali Wilderness Wild! Support ‘Alternative
B’
May 30th Deadline!
The National Park Service (NPS) has released a draft backcountry
management plan for Denali National Park and Preserve. Of the four
action alternatives, three propose opening portions of the park
and preserve to recreational snowmobiling for the first time in
park history. NPS’ ‘preferred alternative’ would
open an astounding 46% of the park’s backcountry to recreational
snowmobiles. Although snowmobiling will not be allowed inside the
2.1 million acre Denali Wilderness, it would be allowed on much
of the park’s additional 3.75 million acres that have been
formally proposed for wilderness designation.
Despite the current ban on snowmobiles, trespassing machines have
become a chronic problem in the park, including noisy intrusions
into critical wildlife winter range and into the Denali Wilderness.
The proposed plan would simply bestow approval on the illegal snowmobiling.
The plan would also open up the northern portion of the park to
the noisy machines where there is currently little or no illegal
use occurring. The open valleys along the northern wilderness boundary
will assure that trespass into this quiet portion of the wilderness
will be inevitable.
The plan would do little to effectively reduce the escalating amount
of commercial scenic air tours that drone constantly over portions
of the park during the summer, including over wilderness. Instead,
it would seek ‘voluntary’ cooperation from commercial
operators to slightly reduce impacts. The plan would also allow
visitor use and congestion in some popular areas to increase, including
aircraft landings of scenic tours.
One of America’s wildest premier wilderness parks is about
to be transformed into an increasingly crowded and motorized playground.
Please Help Prevent this Tragic Loss of Wild
Alaska!
1. Support Alternative B, which places greater restrictions on aircraft
landings and prohibits all recreational snowmobiling in the park.
2. Protecting wildlife, the natural soundscape, and the park’s
unsurpassed wilderness values should be the plan’s focus.
3. NPS plans to develop ‘soundscape standards’ for the
park – tell them Nature has already established those standards,
and that standard is the area’s natural quiet, without the
noise of snowmobiles and frequent aircraft landings.
4. OPPOSE ‘preferred alternative D’ as well as all other
alternatives that allow any recreational snowmobiling anywhere in
Denali Park and Preserve.
5. INSIST that the plan must define "traditional activities’
for the entire park before allowing the use of aircraft, motorboats,
or snowmobiles for recreational activities. By law, snowmobiles
are only allowed for transportation to "traditional activities,"
unlike recreational snowmobiling where the snowmobile is an intrinsic
part of the activity.
Send your comments to:
Superintendent
Attn: Draft Backcountry Management Plan
Denali National Park and Preserve
PO Box 9
Denali Park, Alaska 99755
Email: dena_public_comments@nps.gov
Read the plan online:
http://www.nps.gov/dena/home/planning/plans/bcplan/bcbrief.html
2. Sheep Farming by Helicopter? Comments needed for New Mexico and
Arizona Wildernesses
The NM Game & Fish has asked the USFS for permission to use
helicopters in three wildernesses for the next five years to capture
and move bighorn sheep around to various locations in New Mexico
and Arizona.
NM currently has a population of 700 Rocky Mtn bighorns. According
to the proposal, populations in the Wheeler Peak, Pecos, and Latir
Peak Wildernesses are at or near carrying capacity for their range.
Game & Fish claims this makes them more susceptible to large-scale
die-offs and lower birth weight. They want to transplant portions
of these herds to other suitable habitat 'to ensure perpetuation
of this subspecies in the state."
In addition, they want to participate in sheep exchanges with Arizona...
trade Rocky Mtn bighorns for Arizona's desert bighorns.
The USFS claims the helicopters will only have short-term impacts
on 'wilderness experience.' The decision will be made by the Regional
Forester, who may issue a categorical exclusion, which of course
means no appeals.
A few points to consider:
* Is predator control practiced in these wildernesses? A healthy
predator population should be able to prevent massive sheep die-offs
due to stress and disease.
* How many sheep hunting permits are sold each year in NM? If the
current statewide sheep population is lower than desired, it seems
the first step would be to stop hunting them, rather than unnecessarily
invading wilderness with helicopters.
* If the goal is to re-introduce sheep into native ranges where
they have been extirpated (by what??) then they should be rounded
up from non-wilderness areas.
* The Wilderness Act expressly prohibits use of aircraft and motor
vehicles in wilderness because they are antithetical to wilderness
character and the very purpose and meaning of wilderness. One key
exception is if the proposed action is NECESSARY to protect the
area as wilderness, AND the motorized use is the MINIMUM means of
carrying out the necessary task. In this proposal, there is no wilderness-related
'necessity' for moving game species around just to establish new
and larger populations of them for recreational hunting purposes.
* Manipulating game species does not comply with the definition
of wilderness as a place that is to remain free of intentional human
interference -- untrammeled.
SEND
COMMENTS TO:
Mary Ann Elder
Questa Ranger District
Carson National Forest
PO Box 110
Questa, NM 87556
(505) 586-0520
e-mail: melder@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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