October 2004
Volume 10

Interesting Tidbits & Wilderness Quotes:
Quote:
"The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask." - Nancy Newhall quoted in John McPhee's, Encounters with the Archdruid

Vote Wilderness! Working Assets selected Wilderness Watch as one of 10 national conservation organizations for inclusion 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!

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 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. Stream Poisoning Postponed at Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, CA
2. NPS approves plan to helicopter shelters into Olympic Wilderness, WA

Action Alerts:

1. Save the Wild & Scenic Salmon River and Alaskan Wilderness from Anti-Environmental Riders!
2. Right-to-Ride Livestock Bill Headed for Senate – Your Letters are Needed!

*Wilderness News Briefs*

(1) Stream Poisoning Postponed at Carson-Iceberg Wilderness

On September 8, a Regional Water Board in California tabled a request by the California Dept. of Fish and Game (CDFG) to poison streams and lakes in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. The CDFG had proposed to use rotenone, a chemical poison, to remove non-native fish from streams and lakes in the Carson-Iceberg. CDFG hoped to eliminate fish species such as brown and rainbow trout (previously planted by CDFG) that compete with native Paiute cutthroat trout. The CDFG had obtained permission from the U.S. Forest Service to conduct the poisoning, but also needed a discharge permit from the Regional Water Board. The water board heard testimony from scientists who expressed concern that the poisoning is not necessary to save the Paiute cutthroat, and that rotenone has significant adverse effects on other instream organisms, such as amphibians and macroinvertebrates. The Regional Water Board formally tabled the issue (i.e., took no formal action) and instructed CDFG to conduct background surveys and better environmental analyses before it would consider permitting the project. Wilderness Watch submitted comments opposing the project, along with Californians for Alternatives to Pesticides, and several concerned scientists.

For More Information:
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb6/AG_MIN/AGMIN_Index.htm

(2) NPS approves plan to helicopter shelters into Olympic Wilderness, WA

The National Park Service (NPS) recently approved a plan to helicopter two newly constructed shelters into a remote sub-alpine meadow in the Olympic Wilderness. The new shelters were constructed to replace two abandoned forest service shelters the NPS deems historic that collapsed due to winter snow. The new shelters were constructed - at no small expense - even before the NPS invited public comments on the proposed plan.

That the structures occur in designated Wilderness appears to be of no concern, as does the fact that the newly constructed replacements are hardly historic. (The two shelters are sided with milled lumber and fitted with constructed floors, both significant departures from the original earthen-floored, cedar shake-sided structures they are meant to replace.) Sadly, Olympic officials have played fast and loose with cultural preservation in Wilderness for years. Many restored structures include buildings that fail to meet the minimal 50-year requirement for consideration under the National Historic Preservation Act. Importantly, the Act does not require that buildings be preserved, even those listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Though historic documentation is required, the buildings may be removed or simply allowed to fade back into the landscape - often the most appropriate option in Wilderness.
Wilderness Watch, along with Olympic Park Associates and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, plan to challenge the NPS’ decision in court.

*Action Alerts*

(1) Save the Wild & Scenic Salmon River and Alaskan Wilderness from Anti-Environmental Riders!

Senate Bill 2804 (part of the FY2005 Interior appropriations bill) contains sections aimed at reversing court decisions and removing environmental protections from America’s public lands. Your voice matters – please send your letters today!

Section 336: This provision would amend the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, overturn a recent court decision, and open Alaska’s vast Wilderness lands to commercial fish hatcheries and stocking, including associated roads and airstrips. In 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a commercial salmon propagation project in the Kenai Wilderness violated the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on commercial enterprise and must cease operation. If passed, Sec. 336 would allow commercial aquaculture operations not only on the Kenai, but also on all Wilderness lands in Alaska. Commercial enterprises are the antithesis of Wilderness and would result in the on-the-ground degradation of some of the nation’s wildest places.

Section 340: This provision would create permanent outfitting lodges along the Salmon River, a Wild and Scenic River in Idaho’s Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness. The rider would void a 2000 court order calling for the removal of the camps, which were built illegally as commercial enterprises. Please consider the following points:

S.2804 would represent the first time that the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act has been amended to allow such developments on a protected Wild River.

S.2804 reverses 7 decades of administrative and congressional protection for the wild Salmon River.

S.2804 is special interest legislation at its worst. If S.2804 passes without amendment, the losers will be the vast majority of Wilderness visitors seeking a wild river experience, and the great number of Americans who take pleasure in knowing that wild places are preserved—all for the benefit of three outfitters who have willfully violated the law.

S.2804 nullifies taxpayers’ efforts to protect the Salmon River corridor. American taxpayers have spent several million dollars since 1980 to protect the Wild Salmon River corridor from development by securing conservation easements along the river. Sec. 340 nullifies these efforts.

Remove Sec. 336 & 340 from S. 2804. Send your letters to:

The Honorable C.W. Bill Young
Chair, House Appropriations Committee
House of Representatives, H-218 Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable David R. Obey
House Appropriations Committee
House of Representatives, H-218 Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Ted Stevens
Chair, Sentae Appropriations Committee
United States Senate, S-128
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Sentae Appropriations Committee
United States Senate, S-128
Washington, DC 20510

(2) Right-to-Ride Livestock Bill Headed for Senate – Your Letters are Needed!
From High Sierra Hikers Association:

URGENT ACTION ALERT
Horse and mule users (including commercial packstock outfits) are lobbying Congress to "grandfather" their existing stock animal uses (and abuses) of wilderness, parks, and forests. Their bill passed the House of Representatives on Sept 21, and has moved to the U.S. Senate. All concerned hikers need to contact their senators, as soon as possible, to prevent this horrible legislation from becoming law. Your letters now will make a huge difference !!

The bill (HR 2966), called the "Right-to-Ride Livestock on Federal Lands Act of 2004," would create a new federal law that says (among other things):

"As a general rule, all trails, routes, and areas used by pack and saddle stock shall remain open and accessible for such use."
This bill has already passed the House, and if passed by the Senate, will likely be signed by President Bush and become law. This could make it very difficult for the agencies to close any routes to stock animals, or to limit stock numbers, even where resource damage is documented.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Send a letter ASAP to each of your two U.S. Senators and ask them to OPPOSE H.R. 2966. Say the following:

1) You strongly OPPOSE HR 2966 ("Right-to-Ride")
2) No user group should receive such preferential treatment
3) The agencies should be able to limit any and all uses that are damaging to public lands and/or harmful to the experience of other visitors. HR 2966 could prevent them from doing so.

End your letter by repeating that you urge your senator to strongly OPPOSE HR 2966.

The address for all senators:

The Honorable Senator (name)
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

If you live in California, your two senators are Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Please write to both! If you live in another state, and don't know the names of your two U.S. senators, ask your local newspaper editor, or find your senators' names at: http://www.vote-smart.org/

To see the bill in its entirety, visit the Library of Congress website, and type in HR 2966: http://thomas.loc.gov/

Please spread the word, and get other hikers, friends, and family members to write their senators, urging them to OPPOSE HR 2966.

Alert prepared by:
High Sierra Hikers Association
P.O. Box 8920
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158
email: HSHAhike@aol.com
web: http://www.highsierrahikers.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.

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Wilderness Watch
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Phone: (406) 542-2048
Fax: (406) 542-7714
http://www.wildernesswatch.org