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WILDERNESS GUARDIAN *
January 2005
Volume 1
Wilderness Quote:
"Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there,
we can also know that we are still a rich nation, tending our resources
as we should - not a people in despair searching every last nook
and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a
blade of grass, or a tank of water." — Senator Clinton
P. Anderson (1963)
Contents:
Wilderness News Briefs provide short issue summaries and contact
information. Action Alerts are full-length, time-sensitive postings.
Wilderness News Briefs:
1. Unregulated Motorized Incursions into Kalmiopsis Wilderness Blocked
by Federal Court in Precedent Setting Decision (OR)
2. Forest Officials Withdraw Heli-skiing Permit (WY)
3. Helicopters Proposed for Tongass Wildernesses, AK
4. Controversial Property in Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness has new
owner (MT)
5. Patrols get Tougher on Snowmobile Trespass in Wilderness (MT)
*Wilderness News Briefs*
1. Unregulated Motorized Incursions into Kalmiopsis Wilderness
Blocked by Federal Court in Precedent Setting Decision (OR)
From the Western Environmental Law Center:
EUGENE, OREGON - Federal Magistrate John P. Cooney has ruled that
a group of investors who paid $150 to patent a mining claim in the
Siskiyou National Forest, will not be able to develop unregulated
motorized access to build a destination resort in the heart of the
Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. In his order dated January 10, 2005,
the Judge ruled that the "undisputed evidence" before
him demonstrated that the claims brought by the plaintiffs in the
case Alleman v. United States of America, Siskiyou Regional Education
Project and Wilderness Watch, had no merit. Moreover, the Court
held that it need not even reach the substance of the plaintiffs'
claims because the investors were not the proper parties to bring
the suit and that they had waited too long to file their case.
In a holding with national significance, the Judge ruled that-by
its language explicitly prohibiting permanent roads within a Wilderness
Area-the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 should have placed
the public on notice that the United States did not believe that
there were any permanent roads or historic rights-of-way located
within the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. Accordingly, any claims that
a party wished to bring asserting that such access rights did exist
should have been brought within the 12-year statute of limitations
imposed by law, i.e. no later than 1976. Plaintiffs did not file
this suit until 1999, long after the time allowed by the Court…
More Information:
http://www.westernlaw.org/frame.htm
2. Forest officials withdraw heli-skiing permit
By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Casper Star-Tribune
JACKSON -- U.S. Forest Service officials have agreed to reconsider
a permit authorizing a helicopter skiing company to operate on public
lands in northwest Wyoming.
Kniffy Hamilton, supervisor of the Bridger-Teton National Forest,
withdrew a Nov. 8 decision allowing High Mountain Heli-Skiing to
offer 1,200 skier days for backcountry skiing on the forest. A skier
day is one individual skier during the course of the season.
Jay Anderson, forest spokesman, said the supervisor's decision was
based on information in an appeal that "prompted Kniffy to
do a greater investigation."
The Nov. 8 decision was appealed in December by several conservation
groups, who said, in part, the agency failed to consider the impacts
the activity would have on the Palisades wilderness study area.
"The deciding official has the prerogative to withdraw a decision
prior to an appeal as a way to go back and verify the data and,
honestly, save the taxpayers some dollars," Anderson said.
"She thought there was some information worth reviewing."
More Information: http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/01/22/news/wyoming/0988d1f62e9135cd87256f8f00066b0e.txt
3. Helicopters Proposed for Tongass Wildernesses, AK
The Forest Service is reviewing a proposal to use helicopters to
access 900+ vegetation monitoring plots in Tongass Wildernesses
over the next 10 years. The Forest Service determined that the use
of helicopters was the minimum action necessary for achieving the
project, as well as the minimum tool for safety and accessibility.
Several years ago this same proposal was approved on the Tongass,
but reversed by the Chief of the Forest Service upon appeal.
The proposal originated with the Forest Inventory Analysis team,
a research group charged with monitoring vegetation resources on
regional Forest Service lands. Data from the Tongass will be combined
with the similar projects across the country to form a statistically
uniform nationwide grid of monitoring plots. Each regional research
station is charged with accessing 10% of the study plots each year
to conduct vegetation inventories.
Though access for monitoring in other Wildernesses is accomplished
by foot, boat, or horseback, the team claims that ground access
is too dangerous, citing bears, sprained ankles, and steep slippery
terrain. If the proposal is approved, the Tongass will be the only
forest in the country using helicopters for vegetation studies.
4. Controversial property in AB Wilderness has new owner
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
LIVINGSTON -- An isolated private inholding in the Absaroka Beartooth
Wilderness Area has been sold.
Under a previous owner, the 120-acre parcel was at the center of
a long controversy and lawsuit that reached all the way to the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Records on file in the Park County courthouse show that the previous
owner, Jim Sievers, sold the property June 30 to George E. Matelich,
of New York City.
Matelich, who owns some other property in Sweet Grass County, declined
on Friday to comment for this story.
Bill Avey, the district ranger in Big Timber for the U.S. Forest
Service, said Matelich had told him he had no particular plans for
the property other than "to be a good neighbor."
The property in question is a long, narrow strip of six mining claims
on the spine of the Absaroka Range, south of Livingston. The land
is at 10,000 feet in elevation.
Sievers, a former San Francisco property developer who now lives
in Paradise Valley, bought the land in 1991 and, starting in the
late 1990s, began helicoptering crews and equipment there, working
on a cabin and roads.
In 2000, he asked the Forest Service for a road leading from the
Main Boulder Road to his property. The Forest Service declined,
and Sievers later sued.
Sievers argued that the federal government should pay up to $1.7
million to build a road for him, but he lost in federal District
Court and again in the appeals court…
More Information: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2005/01/23/news/sievers.txt
5. Snowmobile patrols get tougher
By JIM MANN
The Daily Inter Lake
Flathead National Forest is beefing up its monitoring and enforcement
efforts against snowmobile trespass in wilderness and other areas
closed to motorized use.
Swan Lake District Ranger Steve Brady said snowmobile trespass has
become a chronic problem, particularly in the Mission Mountain Wilderness
and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area on the Swan Mountain Range.
"Last year, we had a significant amount of snowmobile trespass
in the Mission Mountain Wilderness and the Jewel Basin and some
other closure areas," Brady said. "They were recurring.
They occurred all through the season. I think we had a few citations,
but we see the problem as a continuing one that we need to address
with more observation and enforcement."
Brady said the forest has taken steps to beef up patrols on the
ground and from the air to catch snowmobilers who have crossed boundaries
into closed areas.
And there will be stiffer punishment for those who are caught, he
added.
The Forest Service will pursue mandatory court appearances, as opposed
to issuing citations and allowing violators to settle fines outside
the courtroom. Past fines have averaged about $200, but now the
agency will seek $500 fines and snowmobiles will be impounded until
cases are adjudicated and fines are paid…
More Information: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/01/23/news/news04.txt
_____________________________________________________________________________
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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