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March 2004
Volume 3
Interesting
Tidbits & Wilderness Quotes:
Quote: "Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization.
I wonder if we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness
the right to live on?" — Margaret Murie
Vote Wilderness!! Save on your long distance
while making a real difference for America’s Wilderness!
Working Assets selected Wilderness Watch as one of 10 national nonprofit
conservation organizations to be included on its 2004 Donations
Ballot. This is an excellent opportunity to save on your long distance,
mobile service, and/or credit card payments while making a real
difference for America’s Wilderness!
The Working Assets donation program distributes an estimated pool
of over $4 million among the 50 selected organizations working in
a variety of fields. Working Assets customers determine the distribution
by vote - therefore the amount Wilderness Watch receives is contingent
upon the number of votes generated. Working Assets pays all
administrative costs, so every dollar in the donation program goes
directly to the selected organizations. Please place your vote today!
If you are already a Working Assets customer, you will be able to
vote for Wilderness Watch on the Donations Ballot provided in your
monthly bill or online at www.WorkingAssets.com/voting. If you are
not a customer, please consider using Working Assets for your long
distance, credit card, or wireless services. Working Assets donates
1% of its revenue (35 million since 1985) to nonprofit groups -
at no extra cost to its customers! If you are not already a customer,
it is not too late to support Wilderness Watch's efforts to ensure
the protection and proper stewardship of lands and rivers included
in the National Wilderness Preservation System and Wild and Scenic
Rivers System.
To learn more about Working Assets or to become a customer, call
1-800-788-8588 or visit http://www.workingassets.com.
Thank you!
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
(1) Forest Service blasted for considering hot tubs in Frank Church
– River of No Return Wilderness, ID.
(2) Alaska senate seeks appeal of Tustumena Lake salmon-stocking
decision
(3) Colorado Supreme Court decision may keep mining claim development
out of Wilderness
(4) Settlement Over Arizona Mountain Lion Killing 'Study' in Four
Peaks Wilderness, AZ
(5) Landowner’s Bid To Build Road into Wilderness Rejected
by Court of Appeals
(6) 2004 Northwest Wilderness Conference, April 23-24
Action Alerts:
(1) Stop Forest Service proposal to reconstruct road adjacent to
Buckhorn Wilderness, WA!
*Wilderness News Briefs*
(1) Forest Service blasted for considering hot tubs in Frank Church
– River of No Return Wilderness, ID.
Just two months after issuing its controversial and highly inadequate
Wilderness Management Plan for the Frank Church – River of
No Return Wilderness (FC-RONR), the Forest Service is receiving
intense criticism as it begins environmental analysis on a proposal
to install three 1250-gallon hot tubs in the Wilderness. The hot
tubs, which were proposed by a commercial outfitter, would be installed
and maintained near three airstrips for client use. The fact that
the Forest Service would even consider the outfitter’s proposal
is indicative of a disturbing trend where the agency favors commercial
interests over the protection and stewardship of the public’s
wilderness.
"The Forest Service’s consideration of this proposal is
so ludicrous, it is almost funny," states George Nickas, executive
director of Wilderness Watch, a national conservation organization
dedicated to the protection of Wilderness and Wild Rivers nationwide.
"However, the humor quickly vanishes once you consider the
time and expense they are committing, as well as their eagerness
to thumb their nose at the Wilderness Act and the responsible stewardship
of the largest Wilderness in the Lower ’48."
For more information:
Billings Gazette:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/03/07/build/nation/85-wilderness-hottubs.inc
Idaho Stateman:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/Story.asp?ID=62660
(2) Alaska senate seeks appeal of Tustumena Lake salmon-stocking
decision
From Kenai Peninsula Online:
The Alaska Senate has passed and sent a resolution to the Alaska
House requesting the U.S. Depart-ment of the Interior and the U.S.
Department of Justice to appeal a decision by the 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals that has banned salmon stocking in Tustumena Lake.
Senate Joint Resolution 26 also requests the federal agencies seek
an emergency stay of the order to allow some 6 million fry being
raised at the Trail Lakes Hatchery in Moose Pass to be released
into the lake later this year…
For more information: http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/030304/leg_030304leg001001.shtml
Juneau Empire: http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/022704/sta_akdigest.shtml
(3) Colorado Supreme Court decision may keep mining claim development
out of Wilderness
From The Aspen Times:
Lands in some of Aspen’s favorite backcountry playgrounds are
a step closer to having development threats removed thanks to a
decision Monday by the state Supreme Court, according to four environmental
groups.
The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Watch, two national organizations,
as well as Aspen Valley Land Trust and Aspen Wilderness Workshop,
teamed with Pitkin County in an ownership dispute over a mining
claim on the back of Aspen Mountain.
The environmental groups provided research for the county and were
allowed to submit a brief as parties with an interest in the outcome,
according to their attorney, Lori Potter of Denver.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the county Monday.
That decision kept the mining claim out of private hands and snuffed
the potential for development…
For more information:
The Aspen Times:
http://www.aspentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040310/NEWS/40309015
(4) Settlement Over Arizona Mountain Lion Killing 'Study' in Four
Peaks Wilderness, AZ
From The Fund for Animals:
Agencies Agree to Examine Real Causes of Declining Bighorn Sheep
Populations, Rather than Sanction Killing of Lions
WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight animal protection and
conservation organizations have reached a settlement with the federal
government in a suit challenging the killing of mountain lions in
the Four Peaks Wilderness Area of the Tonto National Forest in southeastern
Arizona. The groups had argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy
Act, the Wilderness Act, and other laws by authorizing, assisting,
and funding the Arizona Game and Fish Department's project to kill
mountain lions essentially to "study" the impact of those
killings on the bighorn sheep population. ..
Internal memoranda from Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists
indicated that disease transmission from domestic sheep, habitat
degradation, and drought are all threats to the bighorn sheep population.
Despite the knowledge that mountain lion predation is the least
of these factors related to bighorn sheep survival, the three-year,
federally-funded study sought to kill 75% of the mountain lions
within the study area, and to capture up to 15 bighorn sheep several
times a year with nets shot from guns out of helicopters...
More:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040312/dcf011_1.html
(5) Landowner’s Bid To Build Road Into Wilderness Rejected
by Court of Appeals
From Earthjustice:
Seattle, WA-- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a
landowner’s attempt to build nearly nine miles of new road
to reach a private parcel deep within Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth
Wilderness Area. In an March 12 ruling, the appeals court agreed
with a lower court ruling that found existing trail and helicopter
access to the landowner’s property was adequate to permit use
of the property while preserving "the pristine and primitive
nature of the wilderness."
"This ruling protects one of our nation’s most outstanding
wilderness areas from a misguided road proposal. It represents a
victory for the entire wilderness system," said Earthjustice
attorney Tim Preso, who represented The Wilderness Society, Montana
Wilderness Association, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Park County
Environmental Council and Wilderness Watch in opposing the landowner’s
lawsuit. "The law does not require destruction of the public’s
wilderness every time somebody buys property within a wilderness
area and wants to drive to it." …
Earthjustice:
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=795
Billing Gazette:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2004/03/16/build/state/26-forestraods.inc
(6) 2004 Northwest Wilderness Conference
April 23-24
The Mountaineers Building
300 Third Avenue West, Seattle, Washington
The 2004 Northwest Wilderness Conference will celebrate the 40th
year of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the 20th
year of the Washington and Oregon Wilderness Acts. By looking into
both the past and the future, the Conference will seek to increase
public support for dramatic expansion of the current system and
for improved protection and maintenance of existing Wilderness areas
for the next 40 years and beyond.
For further information, including registration and program, visit
http://www.2004wilderness.org
or email osseward@juno.com
*Action Alerts*
(1) Stop Forest Service proposal to reconstruct road adjacent
to Buckhorn Wilderness, WA!
From the Olympic Forest Coalition:
The Forest Service is proposing to reconstruct the washed-out Dosewallips
River road through an unroaded late-successional reserve in Olympic
National Forest. The agency's decision, expected March 25, will
likely involve upslope reconstruction immediately adjacent to the
Buckhorn Wilderness Area. The new road grade would eliminate over
2.5 acres of classic old growth forest and destroy a coho salmon
spawning tributary in the process. The road cut, to be built on
steep, wet, unstable soil, is expected to run well beyond its designed
top, potentially even across the Wilderness boundary.
Three ESA-listed threatened species -- northern spotted owl, marbled
murrelet, and Puget Sound chinook -- are expected to be adversely
impacted by this project. Olympic Forest Coalition and Olympic Park
Associates, both of which have urged the Forest Service to convert
the final five miles of road into a scenic trail since the January,
2002 washout, are planning to challenge this anticipated decision.
Comments may be directed to Dave Craig, District Ranger, Hood Canal
Ranger District, P.O. Box 68, Hoodsport, WA 98548, or by phone at
360-877-5254.
More information is available at http://www.olympicforest.org.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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
Phone: (406) 542-2048
Fax: (406) 542-7714
http://www.wildernesswatch.org
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