WILD ISSUES:
Recent Issues
Wilderness in Congress
Stewardship Concepts
System-wide Threats
Policy Guide
Essays & Whitepapers

Recent Issues Share

• Montanore Mine Threatens Cabinet Mountains Wilderness: Updated 1/12 (5/09)
• Take Action to Help Protect the Phillip Burton Wilderness: 11/11
• Take Action Now to Keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wild: Updated 10/11 (4/10)
• Wilderness Wins—Silver King Creek Poisoning Plan Stopped: Updated 9/11 (4/09)
• Upper Chattooga Wild & Scenic River Plan Would Lessen Protections: 9/11
• Take Action: Add Your Voice to Support Sequoia-Kings Wilderness: 8/11
• Guzzlers Don't Belong in Mojave Wilderness: 8/11
• Cumberland Island, a Little More, A Little Less, Wild:8/11
• A Better Plan for the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness: Updated 8/11 (12/10)
• Damming Wilderness: Updated 8/11 (5/11)
• Heavy-Handed Wildlife Management Proposed in Wildernesses in California: Updated 8/11 (4/11)
• Court Upholds Helicopter Training in Wildernesses in Nevada: Updated 8/11 (2/09)
• Tower-Less Views Not Replaceable in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: 8/11
• National Park Service Proposes Weakened Wilderness Standards: Updated 8/11 (3/11)
• In Glacier National Park, History Trumps Wilderness: Updated 6/11 (7/10)
• Take Action: Cabeza-Prieta Wilderness Threatened by Development: 6/11
• Proposed National Forest Planning Rule Ignores Wilderness: Updated 5/11 (2/10)
• Forest Service Protects Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Chain of Lakes Decision: 4/11
• Montana Proposes Wolf Killing in Wilderness: 4/11
• Remote Arctic Wildernesses to Become Less Wild: Updated 4/11 (7/10)
• Help Protect National Park Wilderness: 3/11
• Wilderness Wins: Fish & Wildlife Service Rejects Alaska's Wolf Killing Plan for Unimak Wilderness : Updated 3/11 (10/10)
• A Second Chance to Get it Right : Updated 1/11 (9/10)
• Wilderness Wins: Court Rules Guzzlers in Kofa Wilderness Illegal: Updated 3/11 (2/09)
• Building New History in Wilderness: Updated 11/10 (7/10)
• Gates of the Arctic Wilderness Threatened: Updated 11/10 (3/10)
• Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Blown Up: 11/10
• WW Urges Restoration of Lone Peak Wilderness Through Breaching Silver Lake Dam: Updated 11/10 (2/10)
• Perseverance Pays Off in the Emigrant Wilderness: 10/10
• Commercial Outfitter DEIS Fails to Protect the Pasayten Wilderness: 10/10
• A Foul Plan for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: 10/10
• Help Protect the Natural Soundscape of Zion Wilderness and National Park: 8/10
• WW Advocates Removal of Half Dome Cable System in Yosemite Wilderness: 8/10
• Proposed Bighorn Sheep Study in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks Raises Concerns: 7/10
• WW Battles Against Wolf Collaring Project in the FC-River of No Return Wilderness: Updated 7/10 (2/10)
• New Forest Service Rules Allow Commercial Filming in Wilderness: 6/10
• A Chance to Remove a Dam in Wilderness: Updated 5/10 (6/09)
• Help Keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wild!: 4/10
• WW Urges FWS not to Approve Communications Tower in Cabeza Prieta Wilderness: Updated 3/10 (2/10)
• WW Voices Concern Over Water Tank Maintenance in Kofa Wilderness: Updated 3/10 (12/09)
• WW Challenges Fish Stocking in California: 2/10
• NPS Plans to Build Cabin in Katmai Wilderness: 2/10
• WW Weighs in on Yosemite's Merced River Plan: 2/10
• WW Weighs in on Proposed Water Developments Expansion in Cabeza Prieta Wilderness: 11/09
• WW Opposes Chainsaws/Logging in Sandia Mountains Wilderness: Updated 10/09 (3/09)
• WW Comments on Apostle Islands Draft General Management/Wilderness Plan: 10/09
• WW Supports FS Pemigewasset Wilderness Bridge Removal Project: Updated 9/09 (6/09)
• Camera Data Shows Bighorns Are Not Using Kofa Wilderness Guzzlers: 9/09
• Let it Rust in Peace in the Bob Marshall Wilderness: 7/09
• Oppose H.R. 2809, which would Amend the Wilderness Act: 6/09
• Congress Takes Up the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act: 5/09
• WW Supports Removing Deteriorating Cabins in South Baranof Wilderness: 3/09
• DOJ Withdraws Proposed Rule on Mobility Devices: 1/09

Montanore Mine Threatens Cabinet Mountains Wilderness(Montana): Updated 1/12 [Posted 5/09]
An underground copper/silver mine is proposed for the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness south of Libby, MT. Similar to the proposed Rock Creek mine, the Montanore mine would extract ore from beneath the mountains, meadows, and alpine lakes of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. The mine would discharge untreated wastewater, impact three threatened species and their habitat—bull trout, grizzly bears and lynx—and divert a perennial stream. The mine proposal also includes a mountain of tailings behind a massive dam. A milling facility and support structures would be built as well.

Wilderness Watch let the Forest Service of our concerns with the proposed Montanore Mine in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwestern Montana. Our concerns include the following:
• The Wilderness analysis in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) is inadequate due to unanswered questions, its failure to rely on data related to managing for wilderness character, and a lack of FS wilderness expertise to review its consultant’s assessment;
• The SDEIS fails to consider the combined effects of climate change and the mine on the Cabinet Mountains Wildernes and wildlife;
• The project will degrade water quality and decrease availability in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness;
• The mine will harm endangered species that live in the Wilderness, such as lynx, bull trout, and grizzly bears, and the proposed mitigation measures are likely inadequate

• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments on the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement

For more information on the mine and how to take action, please visit Save Our Cabinets' website, call 406-544-1494 or email info@saveourcabinets.org.
Photo: Steve Boutcher
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Take Action to Help Protect the Philip Burton Wilderness:
The National Park Service (NPS) has completed a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and is seeking public comments on a proposal to allow a commercial oyster farm to operate in Drakes Estero in the Philip Burton Wilderness in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Please send your comments today urging the NPS to select the No Action Alternative so that Drakes Estero will become Wilderness in 2012, as directed by Congress 36 years ago!

The 1976 Point Reyes Wilderness Act mandates the addition of Drakes Estero to the Philip Burton Wilderness in 2012, when a commercial oyster farm lease expires. Unfortunately, a rider attached to an Interior Appropriations bill granted the Secretary of the Interior the authority to extend the Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s lease beyond its expiration. The NPS’s draft EIS addresses whether to extend the permit another 10 years. Please urge the NPS to preserve Drakes Estero as Wilderness in 2012, rather than continue to allow commercial activity in this important wildlife area.

To comment on the draft EIS go to the Park Service website: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=333&projectID=33043&documentID=43390
The comment deadline is December 9, 2011!

The Draft EIS makes clear that allowing the private, commercial oyster company to exploit Drakes Estero for ten more years would have numerous adverse impacts—most notably from the invasive species—on eelgrass habitat, native fish, harbor seals, resident and migratory birds, endangered species, wilderness values and the National Park experience.

Critical Talking Points:
• Support the NO ACTION Alternative. It is the Environmentally Preferred Alternative and would provide for the area to become Wilderness in 2012 as Congress intended since the 1970s.

• The Action Alternatives have significant long-term adverse impacts to the Drakes Estero environment, including to wetlands, birds, fish, harbor seals, native mollusks, endangered species, eelgrass beds and to wilderness and the national park experience.

• The Action Alternatives are a direct attack on the Wilderness Act of 1964, run counter to the 1962 Point Reyes enabling legislation and the 1976 Point Reyes Wilderness Act, and set a dangerous precedent for future commercialization of National Parks and Wilderness around the county.

• The oyster operation involves 3,700 motorboat trips per year through harbor seal and eelgrass habitat; promotes the spread of invasive species impacts to native oysters, eelgrass beds, bird, fish and endangered species habitat; and litters remote Point Reyes beaches with thousands of pieces of plastic trash.

Many thanks to the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin for the information in this alert.

• For more information and to read the draft EIS, click here.
Photo: Bill Ingersoll
Help Keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wild (Alaska)! Updated 10/11 [Posted 4/10]
The Fish and Wildlife Service has released a draft environmental impact statement for revising the Arctic Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP). The final plan will guide stewardship of this iconic, magnificent wilderness for the next 15 years or more. A strong record of public support for preserving the exemplary wilderness character of Arctic Refuge is needed.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is our "Geography of Hope," unmatched in its vast scale, remoteness, ecological integrity, and wilderness character. The Refuge is 19 million acres of America’s premier wildlands. In 1980, Congress designated 8 million acres as Wilderness. The CCP should recommend designating the remaining 11 million acres as Wilderness. But because wilderness designation alone does not guarantee protection of the Arctic’s special values, and since only Congress may designate additional wilderness, the standards set in the CCP for managing both the designated and potential Wilderness will determine whether these incomparable wildlands remain wild and pristine for years to come.

The Refuge should set the benchmark for appropriate stewardship of our entire National Wilderness Preservation System. Now, more than ever, the Arctic Refuge needs your help to become what its founders envisioned.
• Click here to take action on the draft CCP
• Click here to read WW's comments on the draft CCP
• Click here to read a group sign-on letter advocating for Alternative E

The Alaska Chapter of Wilderness Watch has assembled the collective knowledge of veteran Arctic Refuge activists and former agency stewards to identify detailed issues that must be addressed in an effective plan.
• Click here to see suggested provisions for Arctic Refuge CCP, and formulate your own scoping comments.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's scoping comments, prepared by our Alaska Chapter
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments, prepared by our Alaska Chapter, on the CCP review of Refuge rivers for possible Wild River designation
Photo: Dusty Vaughn
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Wilderness Wins—Silver King Creek (Carson-Iceberg Wilderness) Poisoning Plan Stopped (California): Updated 9/11 [Posted 4/09]
Wilderness Watch and co-plaintiffs, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics and Friends of Silver King Creek, have successfully challenged the California Department of Fish and Game's proposal to poison 11 miles of Silver King Creek in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell, Jr. ruled to permanently stop the project, finding that poisoning an entire ecosystem to benefit one species over all others is incompatible with preserving Wilderness.

California Fish and Game (CDFG) had proposed to poison Silver King Creek to kill non-native fishes introduced into the stream by CDFG for many years, so that Paiute cutthroat trout can be stocked in this reach of stream. The California Deptartment of Fish and Game considers the Paiute cutthroat trout a highly desirable sport fish. While Wilderness Watch and our co-plaintiffs do not oppose removing the non-native fishes by other means, we have vehemently objected to the use of poisons that will kill much of the native aquatic life including species that may be found only in Silver King Creek. Wilderness Watch and other organizations stopped the original poisoning plan in 2005.

• Click here to read the Decision.
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Upper Chattooga Wild & Scenic River Plan Would Lessen Protections: 9/11
Wilderness Watch joined Georgia ForestWatch in urging the Forest Service (FS) to protect the Wild & Scenic Upper Chattooga River in Georgia and the Carolinas. The FS is proposing to open 16.5 miles of the river to boating for three months of the year. The area, which includes part of the Ellicott Rock Wilderness, has been closed to boating for the last 35 years. This closure has helped protect solitude, natural conditions, and the wilderness character of one of the Southern Appalachian's last quiet places. WW is urging the FS to stick with the compromise struck more than three decades ago, which dedicated the lower half of the river to boaters.
• Click here to read more in a press release
• Click here to read more in a news article
• Click here to read our comments
Photo: Georgia ForestWatch
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Add Your Voice to Support Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness (California): 8/11
We encourage you to voice your support for protecting Wilderness in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park (SEKI). The National Park Service (NPS) is developing a Wilderness Stewardship Plan for the park’s 800,000 acres of Wilderness, the crown jewel of the High Sierra with “giant Sequoia groves, sublime alpine lake basins, and the highest peaks in John Muir’s ‘Range of Light.’” The deadline for official "scoping" comments ended on 8/31, but comments can be sent at any time.

• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read WW's Scoping comments
Photo: George Weurthner
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Guzzlers Don’t Belong in Mojave Wilderness (California): 8/11
Wilderness Watch joined with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to urge the National Park Service (NPS) to remove water developments (“guzzlers”) in the Mojave Wilderness as part of a plan to manage water sources throughout the Mojave National Preserve. All of the big game guzzlers and many of the small game water developments are within the 695,200-acre Wilderness. All of the developments were put in place prior to 1994 when the National Preserve was established and the Mojave Wilderness designated.

In our comments we noted the Wilderness Act prohibits structures such as guzzlers unless they are the minimum required to administer the area as Wilderness. It would be a stretch for the NPS to conclude that artificially inflating the population of game animals and birds is necessary for preserving the area as Wilderness.

We asked the NPS to address in its Environmental Impact Statement all structures that fail to meet the minimum requirement standard, and to at least make all of these structures inoperable and safe for wildlife. Those that can be removed without the use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment, or mechanical transport should be. All removal should be accomplished by applying the minimum requirement standard.

• Click here to read Scoping comments submitted by Wilderness Watch and PEER
• Click here to read the Scoping brochure
Photo: National Park Service
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Cumberland Island, a Little More, A Little Less, Wild (Georgia): 8/11
Wilderness Watch recently encouraged wilderness advocates to support the National Park Service’s (NPS) efforts to help re-wild part of the Cumberland Island Wilderness in Georgia and honor the intention of the Seashore’s original vision. The NPS is proposing to end the private use of seven properties on Cumberland Island National Seashore as required and agreed to when the Seashore was established nearly 40 years ago. In its Environmental Assessment (EA), the NPS is proposing to remove some structures and convert others to agency use.

One of the seven properties—Toonahowie—is located in the Cumberland Island Wilderness and is the only developed site in the general area. The NPS plans to remove the structures on the 20-acre property, including a modern ranch house with an attached carport, a shed, and a dock on Mumford Creek.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments submitted by our Georgia Chapter

Unfortunately, Cumberland Island Wilderness will become a little less wild when motorized jeep tours begin. In 2004 Wilderness Watch won a lawsuit banning motorized vehicle tours in the Wilderness. The court’s ruling was a victory for this fragile and unique barrier island Wilderness, but unfortunately a short-lived one. Soon after, GA Rep. Jack Kingston attached a rider to a Congressional spending bill carving the Wilderness into pieces and mandating motorized tours along the carved-out routes. The tours are slated to begin in the near future.
Photos: National Park Service/Jerome Walker
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A Better Plan for the West Chicagof-Yakobi Wilderness (Alaska): Updated 8/11 [Posted 12/10]
Based on objections from Wilderness Watch and other concerned citizens, including wilderness rangers, the U.S. Forest Service (FS) has adopted a much better plan for the long-term management of the White Sulphur Springs cabin, bathhouse, and trail in the West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness in southeast Alaska. The agency’s recent decision, while not perfect, will nonetheless improve the wilderness character of this part of this Wilderness. The FS announced it will dismantle the bathhouse, but re-build the cabin.

Built a long time ago at a natural hot springs, the two buildings are in disrepair. The FS’s earlier plan called for replacing the bathhouse, reconstructing or replacing the 12 x 14’ cabin and moving it 100 feet from the springs, and reconstructing the one-mile trail with a gravel surface. A helicopter would have been used to deliver the bulk of materials for the project, including gravel for the trail.

After hearing from WW and other concerned wilderness supporters, the FS significantly revamped its proposal in ways to better protect the area’s wilderness character. Specifically, the FS decision calls for:
• Removing the bathhouse and improving the natural appearance of the hot springs concrete pool;
• Using local native materials for reconstructing the mile-long existing trail and 30 feet of new trail;
• Using only traditional tools and skills;
• Using no helicopters.

WW had recommended that the existing public use cabin be removed and the site restored, but the FS decided to replace it with a new one. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act allows for repair and replacement of public use cabins such as this one.

This decision to remove the historic bathhouse stands out in another important way. Unlike several recent examples where the FS has unlawfully replaced or rebuilt unnecessary old structures in Wilderness, such as the Green Mountain Lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, in this case the agency’s decision to preserve the area’s wilderness character by removing the buildings, while first documenting their historic values, has appropriately applied the agency’s obligations under both the Wilderness Act and National Historic Preservation Act.

• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the Environmental Assessment
• Click here to read the Decision
Photo: Forest Service
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Damming Wilderness (Montana/Idaho): Updated 8/11 [Posted 5/11]
Wilderness Watch is challenging the escalating use of motorized vehicles and equipment on dam-related projects in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (SBW) in Montana and Idaho. These projects are having a significant impact on the wilderness character of the SBW, turning one of America's premier Wildernesses into one of its most motorized. Taken together, the cumulative effects of the authorized motorized activities and the proposals for additional use have caused and threaten to continue to cause significant impacts to the SBW.

Two such projects Wilderness Watch (WW) and Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) are challenging through appeals are a Forest Service (FS) decision to allow a local irrigation company to use helicopters and heavy equipment to maintain the Tamarack Lake dam and a FS decision to allow a dam owner to use a helicopter to airlift 700 pounds of materials to to the Fred Burr High Lake Dam. The FS's environmental assessments (EAs) for these projects fail to include an alternative that protects wilderness character by using non-motorized, non-mechanized equipment as was done for almost a century, including for several decades after the SBW was established by the 1964 Wilderness Act.

In our comments we noted the challenge for wilderness managers (and the dam owners) is to administer these legally permitted, non-conforming structures in a way that doesn’t further degrade the area’s wilderness character. Using traditional skills without relying on motorized equipment upholds the spirit of the Wilderness Act, while invading Wilderness with helicopters strikes at the heart of Wilderness as a place set apart.

Photo: The Forest Service is proposing to allow the use of helicopters to transport materials to replace this simple catwalk at Fred Burr High Lake Dam in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments on the Tamarack Lake Dam proposal
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments on the Fred Burr High Lake Dam proposal
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s appeal of the Tamarack Lake Dam Decision
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s appeal of the Fred Burr High Lake Dam Decision
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Heavy-Handed Wildlife Management Proposal in Wildernesses in California: Updated 8/11 [Posted 4/11]
Wilderness Watch let the Forest Service (FS) know of our concerns with a California Fish and Game (CFG) proposal to land helicopters in several Wildernesses in California’s Sierra Nevada range as part of a bighorn sheep capture and collaring plan. Wilderness Watch strongly supports the conservation and timely recovery of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, but all efforts must comply with federal and state laws, and include an environmental analysis and full opportunity for public review and comment.

Our concerns include:
• impacts to at least six areas’ wilderness character from dozens of helicopter overflights and landings for several years, and unnecessarily adorning more bighorns with radio collars;
• the lack of an adequate alternative for studying the sheep using non-intrusive, Wilderness-compatible research methods;
• the efficacy of this proposal for recovering bighorn sheep, and the risks posed to individual sheep from the extremely intrusive net capturing, tranquilizing, and collaring methods; and
• the cumulative impacts of this proposal with that in adjacent National Park Service Wilderness and with CFG helicopter operations for managing other species on adjacent lands.

Bighorn numbers have steadily climbed in recent years and there are many non-invasive management actions that could be taken to further benefit the sheep without the risks or harm to Wilderness and bighorns caused by the proposed helicopter operations. In our scoping comments, we requested a joint federal/state environmental impact statement/environmental impact report be prepared.

• Click here to read WW's Scoping comments submitted by our Eastern Sierra Chapter.
Photo: National Park Service
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Court Upholds Helicopter Training in Wildernesses in Nevada: Updated 8/11 [Posted 2/09]
A federal judge in Nevada has upheld the Bureau of Land Managment's (BLM) decision authorizing the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) to land helicopters hundreds of times each year in the La Madre Mountain Wilderness and Rainbow Mountain Wilderness as part of their search and rescue training exercises. Wilderness Watch challenged the decision in early 2009 because the Wilderness Act does not provide an exception for aircraft use for training purposes and because BLM acknowledges the training will have a significant impact on the area’s wilderness character.

BLM’s decision authorizes helicopter landings at 33 sites within the Wildernesses. Up to 60 landings per training session could occur, resulting in more than 400 landings per year, in perpetuity. The decision represents the single largest motorized intrusion—by a factor of several-fold—ever authorized in a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System. LVMPD chose the sites based on their proximity to Las Vegas and ease of access for rescue team members.

In no other Wildernesses in the country are aircraft allowed to land as part of search and rescue training. BLM’s decision has created an unmitigated mess, with at least one BLM district contemplating allowing local search and rescue teams to ride ATVs through Wilderness as part
of their training exercises.

Wilderness Watch is deciding whether to appeal the district court ruling.

• Click here to read more about the lawsuit
• Click here to download the Decision
• Click here to read BLM's Environmental Assessment (1.8 MB)
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's Appeal to the Interior Board of Land Appeals of BLM's Decision
• Click here to read the Interior Board of Land Appeals Opinion
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Tower-less Views Not Replaceable in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: 8/11
On August 3rd, a Minnesota court blocked construction of a 450-foot cell phone tower proposed by AT&T at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota. The tower would have required lighting 24 hours a day and would have been visible, day and night, from numerous locations in the Wilderness.

The litigation, brought by the Minneapolis-based Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, challenged the tower construction under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act, which allows citizens to challenge actions that would materially adversely affect natural resources of the state. “The affected natural resource, broad scenic views with no visible signs of man, is not replaceable,” the judge wrote.

Hennepin County Judge Philip Bush’s opinion, among other things, quoted Edward Abbey on why Wilderness is worth protecting. The judge directly rejected AT&T claim’s that extending cell-phone service into the BWCAW was necessary. “[T]his Court could find no case law, congressional finding or FCC findings that there is a national need for extending cell-phone service into Wilderness areas for 911 purposes.” Rather, the judge found that “[v]isiting a wilderness area does pose some risk, but that risk exists because it is a wilderness -- users entering the wilderness accept these risks.”

The judge also ruled that a shorter tower under 199 feet could be built at the proposed site, since a tower of this height would not need lighting and would not mar the scenic and aesthetic resources of the BWCAW as the taller lighted tower would do.

• Click here to read the Decision
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National Park Service Proposes Weakened Wilderness Standards: Updated 8/11 [Posted 3/11]
Wilderness Watch weighed in on the National Park Service’s (NPS) proposed revisions to Director’s Order 41 (DO 41), which deals with wilderness stewardship, including management of NPS recommended Wilderness. The NPS is updating this order for consistency with its 2006 wilderness stewardship policy revisions. While this order is only a subset of wilderness stewardship policy, it allows some activities to be done in a way contrary to the Wilderness Act.

One of the order’s biggest changes regards climbing and the use of permanent anchors or installations. The new proposal encourages clean climbing, but falls short of requiring it. Previously, DO 41 did not mention that climbers could place fixed or permanent anchors in Wilderness. While the new proposal is more explicit, it leaves open the possibility that climbers, rather than the NPS, may place these devices. That is similar to allowing hikers, stock users, or other visitors to build their own trails, bridges, or other structures to make Wilderness more accessible. The proposed changes to DO 41 need to prohibit park visitors from placing permanent installations or structures in Wilderness. Wilderness Watch believes all users must accept Wilderness on its own terms and leave it as they found it.

Other changes include less explicit direction on cultural resources. This could lead the NPS to approve motorized use to maintain unneeded structures, to continue current NPS commercial use policies (which even allows commercial filming under rare circumstances), and to decrease protection for Wilderness from scientific research.

The existing DO 41, though imperfect, is better than the proposed policy, which weakens protections in many ways.

• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments
• Click here to read the proposed revisions to DO 41
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In Glacier National Park, History Trumps Wilderness (Montana): Updated 6/11 [Posted 7/10]
Glacier National Park has decided to move forward with its plan to stabilize the non-operational Heavens Peak Lookout, within recommended wilderness, despite the objections of Wilderness Watch, two retired Glacier NP rangers, and the majority of those who commented on the environmental assessment. The project includes repairing the roof, shutters and exterior wood surfaces, painting the exterior and stabilizing the masonry. The lookout was constructed in 1945 and abandoned years ago, as was the trail leading to it. A helicopter (up to 12 flights) and a generator will be used.

Wilderness Watch objected to the plan based on its disregard for the Wilderness Act (which prohibits structures and the use of motorized vehicles/mechanized equipment in Wilderness) and Park Service policy (which requires recommended wilderness to be managed as Wilderness). Click here to read more about why this decision runs counter to the Act and NPS policy.

• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s EA comments
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s Scoping comments
• Click here to read what a retired NPS biologist, who worked at Glacier for 25 years, has to say about the lookout stabilization project
• Click here to read the Environmental Assessment
• Click here to read the Decision
Photo: National Park Service
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Take Action: Cabeza Prieta Wilderness Threatened by Development (Arizona): 6/11
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing an unprecedented habitat development scheme for the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness in Arizona, the largest wildlife refuge Wilderness outside Alaska. The plan calls for constructing five new water developments and enlarging five existing ones, each designed to hold approximately 11,000 gallons of water, along with at least three collection points that divert natural overland flows to the tanks via pipelines. Construction would require the use of a backhoe at six sites, plus 240 to 360 helicopter trips to fly in equipment, construction materials, and personnel, all in Wilderness. The FWS’s Environmental Assessment (EA) also includes a plan for an unspecified number of “temporary waters” (with up to 2000-gallon capacity) in undisclosed locations, requiring frequent truck or helicopter trips to refill them. Additionally, the FWS is proposing to install feeding platforms and storage pallets to provide bailed alfalfa and pellets for Sonoran pronghorn, requiring up to 15 helicopter and 10 truck trips per season.

By any measure, this level of development, motorized use, and intentional manipulation of natural conditions makes a mockery of the refuge’s Wilderness status. But the matter is complicated because the project is ostensibly being done to benefit the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a species that is certainly on the edge of survival.

Sonoran pronghorn occupy approximately eight percent of their native range, which included most of southwestern Arizona, northwestern Sonora, Mexico, and southeastern California. Approximately 170 pronghorn live on Cabeza-Prieta, though 70 of the pronghorn are in a semi-captive, non-wilderness herd that is provided supplemental feed and water in a non-wilderness portion of the range. The pronghorn recovery plan calls for 300 animals across 1.6 million acres of the Cabeza-Prieta, Organ Pipe National Monument and Goldwater military range.

Wilderness Watch supports efforts to protect and recover Sonoran pronghorn, but those efforts also need to honor the Wilderness. The EA contains this “Action Plan” along with a “No Action Plan,” but it does not consider any real options to the proposed plan. Wilderness Watch believes the agency should first explore heavy-handed management actions on non-wilderness lands, including the Goldwater range, as well as expanding the captive-herd efforts until the pronghorns' natural habitat becomes more secure. Some of the main factors for its current precarious status include poaching in Mexico and a profusion of human activity associated with illegal border crossings and border patrol activities, which drive the pronghorn from their preferred areas.

We believe the proposed project runs afoul of the Wilderness Act and is unnecessary.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s EA comments
• Click here to read the Environmental Assessment
Photo: Fish & Wildlife Service
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Proposed National Forest Planning Rule Ignores Wilderness: Updated 5/11 [Posted 2/10]
Wilderness Watch is urging the Forest Service (FS) to strengthen and greatly improve the Wilderness provisions in its proposed new National Forest Management Act planning rule. The proposed rule basically ignores Wilderness, even though one out of every five acres of national forest land is designated Wilderness. We urged the FS to provide direction in national forest plans to ensure the plans protect and preserve Wilderness on the national forests. As written, the proposed rule fails to provide this direction to preserve wilderness character or address Wilderness with any level of detail. In our comments we advocated for:
• establishing agency monitoring and reporting on wilderness character, including defining a set of “minimum requirements” for preserving the wilderness character of each Wilderness;
• requiring review and assessment of every administrative structure or installation to determine whether it is the minimum required to preserve Wilderness;
• documenting administrative need for use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment, or mechanical transport;
• limiting visitor use, where necessary, to preserve each area’s wilderness character;
• providing standards for the need for trail systems and commercial services;
• providing guidance for wildlife management activities to protect wilderness character and for search and rescue activities to lessen their impacts;
• requiring each Wilderness to have appropriate funding and staff levels, along with staff trained in the use of traditional skills; and
• requiring each Wilderness to have a fire plan that encourages natural fire to shape the ecosystem.

• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments on the DEIS
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's Scoping comments
• Click here to read the Federal Register Notice
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Forest Service Protects Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Chain of Lakes Decision: 4/11
The Forest Service (FS) has decided to protect the wilderness character of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) from proposed increases in motorboat traffic on the so-called ‘Chains of Lakes.’ Wilderness conservationists have been engaged in this effort for the last 18 years.

Congress allowed some motorboat traffic to continue on specific lakes when passing the 1978 BWCAW Act, but limited this use with daily entry point quotas not exceeding the average annual motorboat use prior to 1978.

In 1993, the FS developed a new management plan with many changes to better protect the area’s wilderness character:
• reducing overall visitor quotas to reduce crowding and better protect solitude,
• eliminating signs and log canoe rests along portage trails,
thus reducing human-built structures in the Wilderness,
• reducing the maximum group size from 10 people to nine, and
• capping the number of watercraft at four or less per party.

But when a coalition of local entities appealed the plan as too restrictive, and wilderness advocates appealed other portions as not restrictive enough, the matter went to federal court.

The BWCAW law had exempted homeowners and their guests and resort owners and their guests from the motorboat quotas on their particular lake partially in the Wilderness. However, the FS allowed these “exempt users” to run motorboats beyond their particular lake and on three Chains of Lakes deep into the Wilderness, exempt from the quota restrictions. This was far more motorboat use on interior lakes than Congress intended.

In 1999, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the wilderness advocates on the Chain of Lakes issue. The FS then attempted to increase the motorboat quotas—by triple on all three chains of lakes and nearly quintuple on the Moose Lake Chain. Faegre and Benson law firm represented the wilderness advocates again as they challenged this.

In 2006, the appeals court again ruled in favor of the wilderness advocates. Since then, the FS has been unable to find data to justify an increase in the motorboat quotas. Forest Supervisor Jim Sanders has brought this lengthy issue to a close by deciding that the quotas will remain as they were set in the early 1980s.

• Click here to read the Decision.
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Montana Proposes Wolf Killing in Wilderness: 4/11
Wilderness Watch joined other conservation groups to urge the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to deny Montana’s request to kill wolves in the Bitterroot Mountains, including in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (SBW). The five wolf packs targeted by the “West Fork Lethal Wolf Control Plan” live almost entirely on national forest land. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP) has asked to kill all but 12 wolves (there are currently 30), and have permission to further reduce the wolf population over the next five years. The State claims wolves are killing too many elk, preventing it from reaching its herd management goals. Yet it has steadily increased the population goal since wolves were reintroduced more than a decade ago. In reality, the wolf killing plan is nothing more than a reflection of anti-wolf agency culture and an attempt to appease vocal wolf-hating hunters in the Bitterroot Valley.

• Click here to read the groups’ letter.
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Remote Arctic Wildernesses to Become Less Wild (Alaska): Updated 4/11 [Posted 7/10]
[UPDATE, 4/11]: Despite the objections of Wilderness Watch and other wilderness advocates, the National Park Service (NPS) has decided to move ahead with its plan to install permanent remote automatic weather stations in designated Wilderness across the Arctic. Nine of the sites are in the Gates of the Arctic and Noatak Wildernesses and the remaining eight are on wilderness-eligible lands. Helicopters would be used in nearly all cases to transport stations to sites and for annual maintenance. In addition to violating the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on installations and the use of motor vehicles in Wilderness, the agency’s decision would result in permanent human-built modern installations in what remains of the most remote, pristine Wilderness in the world.

The draft environmental assessment released on June 11, 2010:
• does not include a reasonable array of alternatives for adequate evaluation
• fails to acknowledge that installations are prohibited in designated Wilderness
• lacks discussion of data from existing locations in the region and how extrapolation can be made to Wilderness areas without installing weather stations
• underestimates the impact installations and helicopter flights will have on wilderness character
• places the desires of researchers above those of Wilderness Act requirements and preservation of Wilderness

For further information contact:
Fran Mauer (Wilderness Watch AK Chapter Rep)
907-455-6829

• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments, prepared by our Alaska Chapter
• Click here to read the Decision
Photo: National Park Service
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Wilderness Wins: Fish and Wildlife Service Rejects Aerial Wolf Killing in the Unimak Wilderness (Alaska): UPDATED 3/11 [Posted 10/10]
In a victory for Wilderness, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has decided to deny the State of Alaska’s proposal to shoot and kill adult wolves from the air and gas pups in their dens on Unimak Island. Part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Unimak lies just off the tip of the Alaska Peninsula and is the largest and easternmost island of the Aleutian island chain. It’s home to waterfowl and shorebirds, brown bears, caribou, wolves, and wolverines. Ninety three percent (910,000 acres) is Wilderness. The only human community on the island is the village of False Pass (pop. 41).

The FWS’s environmental assessment (EA) states the purpose for killing wolves on Unimak Island is to increase the number of caribou for subsistence hunting. The caribou population has declined recently, but causes for the decline are not known, with caribou numbers on the island having significantly fluctuated in the past. The EA reports caribou numbers fluctuating from an estimated 7,000 in 1925 to about 400 now. The herd was estimated at 1,200 caribou in 2001 when the State of Alaska initiated its hunting program. Several times in the past 80 years the herd has been much smaller than now including years when no caribou were found, so this cycle does not seem atypical.

According to subsistence studies, local hunters primarily hunt caribou from the nearby Southern Alaska Peninsula herd—more easily accessible by boat. All reported harvest of the Unimak herd since 1999 has been by non-local Alaska residents and non-residents. The vast majority of hunting is done through two commercial guide services and is focused on killing trophy bulls.

The EA acknowledges a lack of assessment of caribou habit and forage on Unimak Island, but studies on the nearby Alaska Peninsula showed lichens, an important caribou food source, depleted and a likely cause of low caribou birth/survival rates and population decline. Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates about 20 to 30 wolves on Unimak Island, however the population experiences periodic rabies epidemics.

The Fish and Wildlife Service cited public opposition (95,000 people commented on the EA) and a re-evaluation of applicable Refuge laws, regulations and policies as guiding its final decision to adopt the “No Action Alternative,” which was supported by Wilderness Watch. Citizens commented that the proposal violates the Wilderness Act and other federal laws and that the EA is inadequate. The decision memo states FWS’s initial inclination was to approve the State’s proposal. However, the agency concluded that killing wolves would negatively impact natural diversity and wilderness character, two purposes of the Refuge, and far outweigh the potential benefit of possible future subsistence hunting, a third purpose of the Refuge. The FWS also recognized that the use of helicopters would degrade wilderness character.

There's just one catch, however. Alaska has the option of translocating bull caribou to Unimak Island from the Southern Alaska Peninsula, pursuant to a permit issued in May 2010. Any such action, unfortunately, would still result in a manipulation of wilderness character and have impacts to natural diversity. The Fish and Wildlife Service approved this permit with a Categorical Exclusion, and it remains valid through 2012.

This exception aside, Wilderness Watch applauds the agency's selection of the no action alternative here and its resulting preservation of the wilderness character of Unimak Island.
• Click here to read our press release on the Decision
• Click here to read the Decision
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's Scoping comments
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's EA comments
• Click here to read what a researcher with 50 years of work, much of it with caribou and reindeer in island situations, including Unimak Island, has to say about this wolf-killing plan
• Click here to read more information and view our action alert
Photo: Peter Stelling
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Wilderness Wins: Court Rules Guzzlers in Kofa Wilderness Illegal (Arizona):
Updated 3/11 [Posted 2/09]
In December 2010 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled two guzzlers in the Kofa Wilderness are illegal. Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups had filed a lawsuit in June of 2007 after learning the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) had constructed one 13,000-gallon water development within the Kofa Wilderness and was planning to install another similar structure.

Following a decline in the desert bighorn population in 2006, the USFWS issued a Categorical Exclusion (CE) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to construct the guzzlers. The agency provided no public notice of—or opportunity to comment on—the CE or the decision to construct the guzzlers. Arizona Game and Fish and the Yuma Valley Rod and Gun Club partnered with the USFWS in the building of the guzzlers. In 2008, the District Court in Phoenix ruled in favor of the USFWS. In February 2009 Wilderness Watch, along with Arizona Wilderness Coalition, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, Western Watersheds Project, and Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, filed an appeal of the District Court ruling. The Ninth Circuit’s decision reversed the District Court ruling.

“The Appeals court found that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to show that constructing the tanks met the requirements of the Wilderness Act and were necessary to preserve Kofa’s wilderness character,” stated George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch.

Following the December 2010 Ninth Circuit decision, several hunting-related groups, including the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International, intervened in support of the FWS. The groups submitted a petition to the Ninth Circuit Court asking for a rehearing en banc. In March 2011 their petition was denied, so we will be back in District Court arguing that the guzzlers be removed and the Kofa Wilderness restored.

• Click here to read more in a news release
• Click here to download the Decision, 2010
• Listen to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals transcript, 2009
• Click here to read a news release on the District Court Appeal, 2009
• Click here to read the District Court Decision, 2008
• MORE: Camera Data Shows Bighorns Are Not Using Kofa Wilderness Guzzlers, 2009
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A Second Chance to Get it Right: UPDATED 1/11 [Posted 9/10]
Wilderness Watch recently joined other organizations in sending a letter expressing concerns about future northern border plans. The letter was drafted in response to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's intent to prepare four programmatic environmental impact statements (EISs) for the United States' entire border with Canada (including land extending 100 miles to the south of the line). The letter outlines concerns with the process, along with potential impacts to wildlife, wilderness and other public lands, Native American lands and interests, local economies and communities, and climate change.

Much of the environmental disaster that has beset the southern border has been exacerbated by Border Patrol activities. For example, the Cabeza-Prieta Wilderness in Arizona has become riddled with user-created roads, many of which were created by Border Patrol chasing footprints across the desert. Wilderness Watch will continue to work with other organizations pushing for a more Wilderness and wildlife compatible approach to the northern border.

[UPDATE, 1/11]: Border Patrol recently announced a change in plans, and now intends to prepare a single programmatic EIS for the entire northern border. This approach makes sense in many ways. But the process continues to be plagued by Border Patrol's failure to identify what the proposed action might be. Without knowing what Border Patrol is planning, or any possible alternatives to a proposed action, concerned citizens or affected government agencies (like the Forest Service or National Park Service) won't be able to provide meaningful comments for Border Patrol's consideration in the draft EIS.

Regardless of how one feels toward the activities of Border Patrol on our southern border, or the trade-offs involved, there is no dispute that its actions have wreacked untold damage on fragile Wildernesses like Cabeza-Prieta and the Otay Mountains. To think that the same approach might be coming to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Glacier or North Cascades national parks, the Pasayten Wilderness and others, ought to give anyone pause.
• Click here to read Northern Border Programmatic EIS Scoping Comments
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Gates of the Arctic Wilderness Threatened: Please Help (Alaska)! UPDATED 11/10 [Posted 3/10]
The National Park Service is working on amending the General Management Plan for Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Its “preliminary alternatives” are weak and need to be strengthened if Gates is to continue as a preeminent Wilderness.

Background: It was the central Brooks Range of northern Alaska that inspired Robert Marshall during his visits there in the 1930's, and influenced his thinking about wilderness and its value to human kind. Part of Marshall's vision was achieved with creation of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in 1980 which included 7 million acres designated as Wilderness. At the time Gates NP was heralded as anchoring the wilderness end of the spectrum of our nation's park lands.

At four times the size of Yellowstone NP, Gates helps protect the stunning central Brooks Range, northern boreal forests, and rolling tundra. Caribou, grizzly and black bears, moose, wolves, Dall sheep, and eagles are among the wildlife that live here. Six Wild & Scenic Rivers flow through the park—the Alatna, John, Kobuk, Koyukuk, Noatak, and Tinayguk Rivers—and it borders the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Noatak National Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, and Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge.

In the early 1980's wilderness advocates fought hard to achieve strong provisions in the General Management Plan to preserve and maintain the great wilderness qualities of Gates as Marshall knew them. Now, we find disturbing changes in how the NPS proposes to administer this iconic wilderness in the future.
__________________________________
The “preliminary alternatives” propose a range of concepts and zones that would degrade the wilderness character of Gates and defile Marshall's vision. In vaguely worded terms this document now out for review proposes for example: “more opportunities for those with less experience or less time” (Concept 3), “Limited permanent and temporary structures may be allowed” (Zone 3). Such provisions would seriously erode the wilderness qualities of Gates. It represents the incremental erosion of wilderness character that is all too common these days. It has no place what–so-ever in Gates. Furthermore, the NPS is inexplicably moving ahead with plans to install at least 4 automated weather monitoring stations within the Gates Wilderness, (and 5 more units in other Wilderness areas in northern Alaska) using helicopters for installation and annual maintenance. This action violates the Wilderness Act, which prohibits installations! (Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments on the NPS Arctic weather stations draft environmental assessment.)

• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's scoping comments
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments on Preliminary Alternatives

Earlier in the year WW weighed in on the scoping process for amending the general management plan. We urged the NPS to consider wilderness as the central theme when amending the general management plan. We asked that wilderness character be preserved and serve as the primary consideration for evaluating potential agency actions, that the plan adopt wilderness stewardship principles, that no new developments or structure be allowed, that private visitors take precedence over commercial interests when use is limited, that snowmobiles and motor boats be prohibited, that helicopter use be limited to emergency situations, and that natural diversity and ecological processes be left alone and allowed to evolve as they may.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments, prepared by our Alaska Chapter
• Click here to visit the Park’s website for more information on the General Management Plan amendment
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Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Blown Up (North Carolina): 11/10
Despite strong opposition from Wilderness Watch and other organizations, the Forest Service used dynamite and chainsaws to fell and dismember old growth trees in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness. In the North Carolina part of the wilderness is the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, named for the poet who penned "Trees" ("I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree"). The memorial forest is 3,800 acres of “perhaps the single most impressive growth of eastern virgin forest in the United States, with many trees hundreds of years old.” A hemlock woolly ageldid (an introduced pest) infestation has killed eastern hemlocks, which led the FS to decide it needed to make the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Trail Corridor “safe” by blasting about 150 of the trees to prevent them from falling on visitors.

Wilderness Watch urgently asked the FS, instead of exploding the trees, to respect the Wilderness Act, engage the public in education on the value of real Wilderness and to warn of the risks posed by visiting Wilderness, including the possibility of falling trees.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
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Building New History in Wilderness (Washington): UPDATED 11/10 [Posted 7/10]
Wilderness Watch recently alerted its members to the U.S. Forest Service’s (FS) newly constructed Green Mountain “Lookout” in the Glacier Peak Wilderness in Washington’s North Cascades (and also mentioned a number of other outlaw projects we’re dealing with). It was built with freight helicopters and power tools along with a healthy dose of arrogance. It’s actually not intended to serve as a lookout: the last time a person manned a lookout in the area was the early 1970s. No, this was built to be a visitor center of sorts, complete with its resident ranger leading nature hikes, and directly contrary to the legal mandate that there be no structures or installations in Wilderness.

The agency would have gotten away with this egregious breach of wilderness ethics and law had not a Wilderness Watch member and former wilderness ranger discovered the project on his own. You see, FS officials plotted it in private, avoiding public process or participation, thinking they might sneak their unlawful activities under the radar. What is it about the law’s mandate that there be “no structure or installation” built in Wilderness that the Forest Service doesn’t understand?
• Click here to read the rest on our blog

[UPDATE, 11/10]: Wilderness Watch has filed a Complaint in federal district court in Washington State. In our complaint we asked the court to rule this structure illegal and order the Forest Service to remove it. We'll keep you posted. WW is represented by Pete Frost of Western Environmental Law Center.
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WW Urges Restoration of Lone Peak Wilderness Through Breaching Silver Lake Dam (Utah): UPDATED 11/10 [Posted 2/10]
Wilderness Watch is urging the Forest Service (FS) to restore a piece of the Lone Peak Wilderness by breaching the Silver Lake Dam to its natural level. The dam was built 100 years ago for irrigation purposes, enlarging the original 5.6-acre Silver Lake to its current 13 acres, and abandoned in 1960 following construction of the Silver Lake Flat Reservoir. The dam has been determined by a Utah state water engineer to be a “moderate hazard” that will eventually fail without stabilization, so the FS, in its Silver Lake Dam Stabilization Project, is proposing to “use drilling and blasting to lower the lake’s spillway by six feet from the crest of the dam and to plug the outlet works with concrete.” The proposal includes the use of an excavator, a cement mixer, and a helicopter. Wilderness Watch criticized the FS’ plan because it unnecessarily relies on motorized equipment, and because it stabilizes the lake at a higher than natural level and will continue to alter the natural hydrology. The FS and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources want a bigger lake in order to provide an artificial fishery. We reminded the agency that this structure is prohibited by the Wilderness Act, and should not to be maintained, and also cited FS policy that supports breaching the dam.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments
• Click here to read the FS scoping letter

[UPDATE, 11/10]: Wilderness Watch, joined by the Utah Environmental Congress, won its appeal of the Wasatch-Cache-Uinta National Forest decision to airlift heavy equipment into the Lone Peak Wilderness to "stabilize" the Silver Lake Dam. We supported breaching the human-made dam, but opposed the Forest Service's decision to use motorized equipment and to leave the lake at an artificially high level in order to maintain a non-native fishery (the lake is naturally fishless). In overturning the forest supervisor, the Regional Forester wrote the decision rationale "does not articulate why the authorization for motorized equipment and mechanical transport is necessary to meet the minimum requirements for the administration of the area as wilderness."
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Perseverance Pays Off in the Emigrant Wilderness (California): 10/10
A poorly conceived trail project in the Emigrant Wilderness in California was recently modified as a result of persistent efforts by Wilderness Watch’s Central Sierra Chapter. The steep and rough primitive trail, consistent with the wilderness setting, accesses a relatively remote part of the Wilderness immediately adjacent to Yosemite National Park. From 1997 to 2004 Wilderness Watch repeatedly raised concerns and requested more detail about a proposed “reconstruction” project that would have fundamentally changed the area’s wilderness character.
• Click here to read the rest on our blog
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Commercial Outfitter DEIS Fails to Protect the Pasayten (Washington): 10/10
The Forest Service (FS) recently issued a long-awaited “Pack and Saddle Stock Outfitter-Guide Special Use Permit Issuance Draft Environmental Impact Statement” (DEIS) for the Pasayten and Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wildernesses. Wilderness Watch let the FS its DEIS fails to comply with the Wilderness Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In the DEIS, the Forest Service proposes to more than double the amount of commercial pack stock use in the Pasayten, and to substantially increase commercial pack stock use in the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth. This, despite documented damage from already too-high use levels in these areas, particularly in the Pasayten. In addition, the DEIS proposes to amend the forest plan standards for barren-core areas at outfitter camps from the current standard of 400 sq. ft. to up to 5,000 sq. ft. So much for “minimum impact” or “no trace” ethics!

Some background on the Pasayten: Located in Washington, on the Canadian border and adjacent to the Stephen Mather Wilderness, the 529,000-acre Pasayten Wilderness is home to the largest population of lynx in the Lower 48 and is essential to grizzly recovery in the North Cascades. It provides habitat for numerous other threatened and endangered species such as wolves and wolverines. The Wilderness has 150 peaks over 7,500 feet in elevation, hundreds of lakes and streams, and 600 miles of trails.

For more information:
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments on the DEIS.
• Click here to read “The 1999 Report on the State of the Pasayten Wilderness” by Martha Hall (sponsored by North Cascades Conservation Council and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, and documenting many issues which are still occurring).
• Click here to read a column by Birch Berman, who ran an outfitting business in the Pasayten for 25 years.
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A Foul Plan for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Minnesota): 10/10
Wilderness Watch, along with several other conservation groups, voiced its concerns over a proposed snowmobile trail—the South Fowl Lake Snowmobile Access Project—adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota. These include:
• Locating the snowmobile trail on the cliff above Royal Lake in the BWCAW will create noise impacts to wilderness, however the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) fails to adequately analyze such impacts due to faulty testing methods and its failure to consider effects on wilderness character;
• The poor precedent set by appeasing illegal motorized use as stated by “the intent of this new trail is to replace the old illegal trail;”
• The DEIS’s bias for the Preferred Alternative supported with inadequate/inaccurate impact descriptions for the other Alternatives;
• The failure to address the impact on rare and endangered plants, and the likelihood of spreading invasive weeds;
• The failure to address the noise and habitat impacts on rare and endangered animals such as the Canada Lynx;
• And, the DEIS’s failure to analyze the ineffectiveness of trail closures in preventing ORV use.
Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
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Help Protect the Natural Soundscape of Zion Wilderness and National Park (Utah): 8/10
Zion National Park needs your help in crafting an appropriate Soundscape Management Plan for its Wilderness Zone, which comprises 90% of the Park (84% is designated Wilderness and 6% is proposed Wilderness). Its preferred wilderness noise standards are too weak and fail to protect Wilderness values such as solitude, quiet, etc.

This is not just a fight over excessive and mounting aircraft noise. It is a fight to ensure that the National Park Service (NPS) takes and retains a leadership role in preserving our parks. We need an outpouring of public comments urging the Park Service to assert its legal responsibilities under its Organic Act and the Wilderness Act and to follow its own management policies. This Management Plan has the potential to be precedent-setting, so please make your voice heard.

• Take Action Now!
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Wilderness Watch Advocates Removal of Cable System from Half Dome in Yosemite Wilderness (California): 8/10
The National Park Service (NPS) is conducting an environmental assessment to determine a long-term management strategy for the cable system on Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The EA will address safety, the visitor experience, preservation of wilderness character, including biophysical resource protection. The NPS recently instated an emergency interim permit system to limit the number of visitors using the cables on this famous rock, to address safety concerns due to crowding. [The limit applies Friday through Sunday and during federal holidays and allows 400 people/day (Saturday and holiday use now averages 800 people/day with peak numbers reaching 1000).]

In our scoping comments, Wilderness Watch urged the NPS to restore the area’s wilderness character by removing the cable system. We let the Park Service know we appreciate its efforts to address issues created by the cable system, including its incompatibility within designated Wilderness. We noted that the cable system is unnecessary to preserve the area as Wilderness and it conflicts with the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on structures and installations. We added that the cable system diminishes the area’s wilderness character by altering its natural, undeveloped condition and greatly decreasing opportunities for solitude. We encouraged the NPS to remove the cable system using non-motorized/mechanized tools and transport, and to determine an appropriate use level to preserve the area’s wilderness character. This is a good example of how a different perspective, one that accepts Wilderness on its own terms, is required to protect Wilderness.
• Click here the read Wilderness Watch’s comments
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Proposed Bighorn Sheep Study within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Raises Concerns (California): 7/10
Wilderness Watch has weighed in on a proposed study in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that would involve capturing 40 endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep using helicopters and “net-guns.” We let the National Park Service know of our deep concerns with the proposal, including: 1) significant adverse effects to wilderness character (e.g., mechanized intrusion, noise, loss of solitude) due to the use of helicopters within designated wilderness; 2) there is no evidence that the project itself is necessary to meet minimum requirements to preserve the area as wilderness; 3) even if the project were necessary to preserve wilderness, the proposed actions are not the “minimum tool” for achieving the project’s objectives, and therefore are inconsistent with the requirements of the Wilderness Act; 4) direct injury to critically endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn, including the death of at least some individuals; and 5) significant adverse sub-lethal and/or indirect effects to Sierra Nevada bighorn, such as decreased long-term survival of captured animals, behavioral changes such as avoidance of key winter range, etc. In our scoping comments, we suggested alternative approaches that would respect wilderness, while promoting better habitat conditions for bighorns.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch’s comments
WW Battles Against Wolf Collaring Project in the FC-River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho): Updated 7/10 [Posted 2/10]
Background:
In another effort at predator control, Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) proposed as many as 20 helicopter landings in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FCRNRW) to radio collar up to 12 wolves. A similar plan from IDFG was defeated in 2006, but the state agency landed a helicopter at least once last winter to collar a darted wolf, and believes it has “the legal authority” to land in the FCRNRW even without Forest Service approval. Given the State’s history, the project could help target wolves for extermination.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the FS's Scoping Letter

Unfortunately, in December 2009, the Forest Service (FS) approved IDFG's request, despite the fact that the decision conflicts with the Wilderness Act, the majority of public comments opposed the plan, and in granting permission, the FS is excusing IDFG's prior unlawful Wilderness intrusions.

Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups filed a preliminary injunction brief in the U.S. District Court in Idaho to stop IDFG. The case was heard on 2/18/10. Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill denied our request to stop the helicopter landings. In his ruling, he stated that the use of helicopters will help wolves, whose presence helps protect wilderness character. But he also stated, "The Forest Service must proceed very cautiously here because the law is not on their side if they intend to proceed with further helicopter projects in the Frank Church (sic) Wilderness." His ruling failed to address the issue of how the use of helicopters is the minimum required to preserve the area as Wilderness.

Along with the other plaintiffs, Wilderness Watch moved for a summary judgment motion, which was heard in July 2010. Although Judge Winmill ruled the case moot, as the special use permit had terminated, some good things came out of the hearing.

Laurie Rule of Advocates for the West represented Wilderness Watch. Ms. Rule highlighted the Wilderness Act’s statutory language and underscored that, regardless of IDFG's goals, the Forest Service failed to show that helicopter landings to collar wolves are necessary to maintain wilderness character.

It seemed Judge Winmill understands our concern that he "lowered the bar" (in his words) for helicopter landings in support of so-called research that’s not necessary to preserve wilderness character. He gave the impression that he cares about the Wilderness Act and wants to get it right. In his order, Judge Winmill strengthened his earlier cautions about the incompatibility of helicopters in Wilderness, and he warned the FS it will have to do an EA or EIS on any future projects that involve using a helicopter in Wilderness.
• Click here to read the Ruling
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New Forest Service Rules Allow Commercial Filming in Wilderness: 6/10
Following controversy over Idaho Public Television's request to film in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, the Forest Service has released interim Wilderness filming rules. The agency initially made the right decision in denying the request, recognizing the station's commercial nature and the Wilderness Act's prohibition on commercial enterprise, but then bent to political pressure and granted the permit. The FS's new interim rules, effective for the next 18 months, essentially allow commercial filming in Wilderness as long as the Forest Service approves of the film's message. However, the content of the message has no relevance in determining whether the activity is commercial, nor is content-based speech regulation an appropriate role for the Forest Service. Indeed, an agency spokesperson basically conceded in a radio interview (starting about 1/3 of the way through) that the new policy is a total sham when asked if the new rules would allow James Cameron (of Titanic and Avatar fame) to shoot his next film in the Bob Marshall Wilderness—the answer was “yes”!

The Wilderness Act bars commercial enterprise, including filming, because the Act’s framers saw the benefit, indeed the need, to protect Wilderness from being viewed and used as a commodity, and from having its management compromised by economic interests. Upholding this aspect of the law may not always be politically popular, and might sometimes seem like taking things to extreme, but a “bright line” is necessary, and it’s the job of the federal land management agencies to make sure they uphold the law.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's Op-ed on the commercial filming, published in the Idaho Statesman.
• Click here to read the Op-ed on our blog.
• Click here to read an article on the new rules.
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A Chance to Remove a Dam in Wilderness (Montana): Updated 5/10 [Posted 6/09]
The Forest Service is proposing maintenance work on the Fish Lake Dam in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, citing its responsibility to comply with federal dam safety laws and regulations and to protect national forest lands. However, the Fish Lake Dam presents an extraordinary opportunity to restore a piece of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to a condition that existed prior to its degradation by humans. Wilderness Watch believes the proposed project is incompatible with Wilderness, as it seeks to maintain a non-conforming structure in Wilderness using motorized equipment. The Forest Service should re-evaluate its plans for the area and consider breaching or removing the dam to restore the area's wilderness character. Click here to view comments submitted by Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Clearwater. Send your comments supporting dam breach/removal to:
Charles T. Oliver
Darby District Ranger
712 N. Main St.
Darby, MT 59829
• Click here to read the USFS Scoping Letter

[UPDATE, 5/10]:

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Wilderness Watch Urges FWS not to Approve Communication Tower in Cabeza Prieta Wilderness (Arizona):

Updated 3/10 [Posted 2/10]

Click here

*Please note, this is a large pdf file—3.9MB

[UPDATE, 3/10]:

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Wilderness Watch Voices Concern Over Water Tank Maintenance in Kofa Wilderness (Arizona): Updated 3/10 [Posted 12/09]
Despite concern from Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) (in partnership with the Arizona Game and Fish Department), is planning to conduct water tank maintenance in early April at the High Tank #3 guzzler. Concerns and comments expressed by us and others caused the FWS to delay the Kofa Wilderness project by about three months, but the scheduled date still falls within the critical bighorn sheep lambing time, which could negatively affect this species, which the tank ostensibly serves. The project involves the use of a helicopter and a gasoline-powered cement mixer. There are also some questions regarding the agency’s notification of the proposal. Wilderness Watch only found out about it after being alerted by a member who saw it posted on Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society’s website—a full week before it was announced to the rest of the public.

In our comments we noted that the proposal violates the FWS’s duty to protect the Kofa’s wilderness character, and requires a proper NEPA review given its impacts.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
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Wilderness Watch Challenges Fish Stocking in California: 2/10
Wilderness Watch joined other conservation groups in litigation challenging California's fish stocking and hatchery management program, following the release of its EIR, which is the State's equivalent of an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The primary legal claims are that CA Department of Fish and Game violated the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by: 1) too narrowly stating the program's purpose and need, thereby limiting its review to exclude issues like impacts to wilderness character; 2) improperly using the mid-2000s as the environmental baseline against which the impacts of the alternatives are evaluated, which incorrectly leads to fewer findings of significant impacts; 3) failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives to both the inland stocking and hatcheries program, including an alternative that ends fish stocking in Wilderness; 4) illegally deferring mitigation to later planning efforts; 5) ignoring potentially significant impacts, particularly to aquatic invertebrates; and 6) failing to evaluate the cumulatively significant impacts of stream and lake poisoning projects throughout CA to remove previously stocked fish.
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NPS Plans to Build Cabin in Katmai Wilderness (Alaska): 2/10
The National Park Service (NPS) is expediting public comments on an ill-advised proposal to construct a 20-ft. by 12-ft cabin at Swikshak Bay in the Katmai Wilderness in Alaska. NPS has set the deadline for comments on March, 3, 2010 so it can utilize funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (economic stimulus bill). The project’s environmental assessment (EA) can be viewed at: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkId=13&projectId=25601.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
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Wilderness Watch Weighs in on Yosemite's Merced River Plan (California): 2/10
The National Park Service (NPS) released a plan for the Merced Wild and Scenic River in California in August 2000. Following several lawsuits and litigations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided on March 27, 2008 that the plan needed to be revised. Wilderness Watch recently submitted scoping comments to the NPS. Our comments recommended removing the High Sierra Camps and restoring the sites, or, at a minimum, requiring the camps be used and managed in a manner compatible with the surrounding wilderness. We also recommended limiting stock use, and phasing out all commercial developments in and near the Merced River corridor and commercial services in the wilderness.
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Wilderness Watch Weighs in on Proposed Expansion of Water Developments in Cabeza Prieta Wilderness (Arizona): 11/09
At the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness in Arizona, the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is proposing to expand three guzzlers for Sonoran pronghorn, using helicopters and motorized equipment. We appreciate efforts to protect and recover Sonoran pronghorn, but those efforts also need to honor the wilderness. We believe the proposed project, including the construction of the original waters in 2003 and 2005, runs afoul of the Wilderness Act. The Act prohibits structures and installations unless necessary to meet the minimum requirement to administer the area for the purpose of the Act, which is to preserve the area's wilderness character. The Act similarly prohibits the use of motorized equipment, such as helicopters, generators, jackhammers, etc., which are all contemplated as part of this action.

We let the FWS know of our concerns with their proposal, including:
• the project's significant impact to wilderness and its violation of the Wilderness Act;
• that the project may lead the FWS to develop other tanks in the Wilderness or pursue other activities under the guise of bolstering the pronghorn population;
• that the proposal fails to consider an alternative to using helicopters;
• that the FWS prepare either an environmental analysis (EA) or environmental impact statement (EIS) that looks at all of the related pronghorn recovery activities (i.e. irrigating the refuge to grow more forage, construction of other water tanks, proposed translocations, etc.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the FWS Scoping Letter
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Wilderness Watch Comments on Apostle Islands Draft General Management/Wilderness Plan (Wisconsin): 10/09
The Gaylord Nelson Wilderness covers 80% of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, and at 33,500 acres is the state’s largest. The islands have cliffs, sea caves, and some of the most pristine beaches in the Great Lakes region. Wilderness Watch’s comments emphasized two primary concerns related to preserving wilderness character: administrative use of motorized/mechanical equipment and management of historical structures. Our comments also supported many of the excellent concerns expressed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the NPS Draft Plan
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Wilderness Watch Opposes Chainsaws/Logging in Sandia Mountains Wilderness (New Mexico): Updated 10/09 [Posted 3/09]
Wilderness Watch opposes the Forest Service's proposal to use chainsaws to cut thousands of trees in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness in New Mexico. We urge you to write a short email opposing their proposal.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read the USFS Scoping Letter
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments

[UPDATE, 10/09]: We've received good news that the Forest Service (FS) has decided not to log the Sandia Mountain Wilderness to make it safe for visitors! This had been proposed for 80 miles of trails, to deal with insect and disease-killed dead trees, which the FS claims presents a hazard to visitors. Instead, to inform the public about potential hazards, the FS has been using news releases, trailhead signage, and a revised trails brochure and Forest website. This approach they've adopted is the approach suggested by Wilderness Watch.
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Camera Data Shows Bighorns are not Using Kofa Wilderness Guzzlers (Arizona): 9/09
Remote cameras installed to detect bighorn sheep use at two controversial man-made water developments constructed in the Kofa Wilderness in 2007 suggest the tanks have completely failed to provide water for bighorns. The cameras, installed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the McPherson and Yaqui Tanks, captured photos of mule deer, hawks, doves, vultures, coyotes and bobcats, but not a single bighorn drinking from the tanks in the two years since their construction...
• Click here to read the rest of our press release
• Click here to view a few images taken at the tanks
• Click here to read an article from the Arizona Daily Star
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WW Supports FS Pemigewasset Wilderness Bridge Removal Project (New Hampshire): Updated 9/09 [Posted 6/09]
A controversy is brewing over a Forest Service proposal to remove an unsafe and unnecessary bridge in New Hampshire’s 45,000-acre Pemigewasset Wilderness. White Mountain National Forest’s (WMFN) Pemigewasset Wilderness Bridge Removal Project seeks to address public safety concerns and at the same time, enhance the wilderness character in the Pemigewasset. The proposal to remove, rather than replace, the deteriorating bridge shows a commitment by the WMNF to uphold the intent of the Wilderness Act, our country’s most visionary land protection law. Wilderness Watch believes the Forest Service is doing the right thing for Wilderness and acting in accordance with the law...
• Click here to read the rest of this Op-Ed published in The Citizen of Laconia

We encourage visitors to the Pemigewasset Wilderness and citizens throughout the area to lend support to the Forest Service’s efforts to enhance this unique area. Send your comments—
by letter: Pemigewasset Ranger District
ATT: John Marunowski
1171 NH Rte 175, Holderness, NH 03245
by fax: (603) 536-5147, ATT: John Marunowski
or by email: jmarunowski@fs.fed.us
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the USFS Scoping Letter

[UPDATE, 9/09]: In a victory for Wilderness, we received notice recently that the White Mountain National Forest has decided to follow through with its plan to remove this bridge. The Decision Memo states, “As development pressures continue to increase in the Northeast, the value of a wilderness of this size, if it is managed more closely to the intent of the Wilderness Act, will increase…There would no longer be a substantial structure to remind visitors that man’s work extends deep into the middle of the Pemigewasset Wilderness… This decision reflects a desire for an enhanced wilderness experience for generations to come.” We applaud this decision to help re-wild the Pemi.

The bridge has been dismantled and the Forest Service is now looking for volunteers with dog sleds and/or horse teams to help pack out the big materials. If you’re interested, please contact John Marunowski at 603.536.6106.

• Click here to read the USFS Decision Memo
• Click here to view photos of the bridge being removed
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Let it Rust in Peace (Montana): 7/09
Wilderness Watch opposes the Forest Service's proposal to use a helicopter to remove pieces of an airplane that crashed in 1938 in the Big Prairie area of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. We urge you to write a short email by 7/31 opposing their proposal.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read the Forest Service's Scoping Letter
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• View photos of the wreckage
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Oppose H.R. 2809, Which Would Amend the Wilderness Act: 6/09
Sponsored by Rep. Lamborn (R-CO), H.R. 2809 would to grant "members of a recreation organization acting as an organized unit and regardless of their number...the right to cross wilderness areas on established trails without restriction..." for day use. The genesis of the bill is likely related to a group called the "Roundup Riders of the Rockies," a group of wealthy horsemen who conduct a massive, catered, ride each year involving hundreds of horses, catered camps, music, etc. They've tried to use Wilderness many times, but have been told no, with the exception of a 2007 ride through the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. That trip was approved by the Forest Service Region Two regional forester, despite much internal opposition.

We encourage you to contact your member of Congress to urge his/her opposition to this legislation. For information on how to contact Congress, scroll to the bottom of our Wilderness in Congress page.
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Congress Takes Up the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act: 5/09
George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch, was invited to testify on behalf of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (H.R. 980).
• Click here to read George's testimony, heard on 5/5/09
• Click here to see what you can do
• Click here to view an archived video and get more information on the Subcommittee On National Parks, Forests And Public Lands Legislative Hearing On H.R. 980
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Wilderness Watch Supports Removing Deteriorating Cabins in South Baranof Wilderness (Alaska): 3/09
Wilderness Watch supports the Forest Service's proposal to remove two deteriorating structures in the South Baranof Wilderness of Alaska. We urge you to write a short email in support of this proposal.
• Take Action Now!
• Click here to read the USFS Scoping Letter
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DOJ Withdraws Proposed Rule on Mobility Devices: 1/09
Several months ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released proposed rules to adopt accessibility standards under the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 (ADA). Key provisions under the rule included a definition for "wheelchair" and the use of "other power-driven mobility devices." Both provisions could have had a direct bearing on Wilderness and other wildlands. Wilderness Watch recently learned that the DOJ has officially withdrawn these proposed rules. Prior to the DOJ taking this action, the Obama administration had placed a hold on all pending new regulations. The DOJ can resubmit to OMB, but has not yet stated their intention to do so.
• Click here to read the DOJ's Proposed Rules
• Click here to read Wilderness Watch's comments
• Click here to read the OIRA Conclusion of EO 12866 Regulatory Review (DOJ withdraws its proposed rules)
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