For Immediate Release: April 19, 2004

Contacts:
Barbara Ullian, Siskiyou Regional Education Project, (541) 474-2265; barbara@siskiyou.org
George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, (406) 542-2048 ext. 4; gnickas@wildernesswatch.org

GRANTS PASS, OR – On April 13th, an U.S. District Court in Oregon settled a case challenging a Forest Service decision to grant motorized access to a private inholding located 8 miles within Oregon’s Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The case was resolved after the agency withdrew its Record of Decision (ROD) in March. The ROD allowed a private landowner to convert a Forest Service trail into a road to access a 60-acre parcel he plans to log, mine, or develop into a resort. The permit authorized 8 motorized trips per year with 3 high clearance vehicles, with maintenance of the access route limited to hand tools.

The Siskiyou Regional Education Project and Wilderness Watch challenged the ROD, as the agency’s environmental analysis failed to consider the cumulative impacts of motorized access before issuing a special use permit. The landowner also challenged the ROD, claiming unlimited motorized access under a provision of the 1866 mining law known as Revised Statute 2477 (RS-2477).

"We filed this case to protect the Kalmiopsis Wilderness from unlawful motorized access," notes Barbara Ullian of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project. "By allowing motorized travel into this wild area, the Forest Service would place biologically important stands of Port Orford cedar along the Wilderness' productive wild salmon and steelhead streams at severe risk from a non-native root-rot disease."

Taking advantage of a provision in the antiquated 1872 mining law, Carl Alleman acquired the inholding from the federal government for $150 in 1988 – a full 34 years after Congress designated the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Though inholders are allowed access to their property, they are not guaranteed that such access be motorized. Efforts by the Forest Service to purchase the inholding have failed, as Alleman is demanding nearly half a million dollars for the property, which was largely burned in the 2002 Biscuit Fire.

"This is an important test case for Wilderness," stated George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch. "There are hundreds of scattered parcels of private land within the national Wilderness system. Had the Forest Service approach to the Kalmiopsis case been upheld, we'd be facing the prospect of a Wilderness system riddled with roads and inappropriate development. Let's hope the agency in the future looks beyond the interest of a single private party and instead makes decisions that protect the public's wilderness resource."

"Our suit sought to force the Forest Service to withdraw the motorized access permit and require any vehicular access to be subject to a proper environmental review," states David Bahr, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who represented the conservation groups. "This is precisely what we accomplished through this settlement, so we are extremely pleased."

Motorized Access to the patented land in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness is still under contention in a separate case brought by the land owner. Siskiyou Project and Wilderness Watch are intervenors in this RS2477 case.