Wilderness News

Last year, mostly out of curiosity, we spent several days hiking in the proposed Rock Creek Wilderness Area. The Rock Creek Area is the largest roadless areas and one of the most primitive areas in the Big Horn National Forest outside of the Cloud Peak Wilderness. We encountered stunning canyons, parks with beautiful vistas, jagged rock spires, pristine creeks, and old-growth aspen and pine forests.

In "New tactic in land wars: compromise" (Tribune, Aug. 26), Alta Mayor Tom Pollard said Rep. Jim Matheson's Wasatch Wilderness and Watershed Protection Act of 2010 was "kind of jammed down our throat." This couldn't be further from the truth.

Over the course of two years, Matheson and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon held more than 15 stakeholder meetings.

The last great underappreciated epic river in the Lower 48, the Owyhee weaves through Idaho's southwestern sage steppes, cutting deep canyons into cliffs of volcanic rhyolite. Surrounded by an ocean of three million acres (1.2 million hectares) of sagebrush desert, the Owyhee, as locals call the whole region, is rich with songbirds and sage grouse leks, ancient archaeological sites, and ruined homesteads.

The recent brouhaha over national monuments is certainly creating a lot of attention and a lot more confusion. So much so, that national BLM director, Bob Abbey, recently accepted an invitation to come to Malta next month to help explain the situation.

We live in the midst of the world's tallest forest. Chances are we will live to see sweeping changes in how it is managed. These statements are both worth examining in detail. Is it mere bragging to say our forests are the biggest? And if it's true that the Pacific Northwest coastal forest ranks as an asset of planetary significance, will we lose all involvement in how it's managed? Will saving trees become even more of an impediment to industrial forestry?

For centuries, the American spirit of exploration and discovery has led us to experience the majesty of our Nation's wilderness.  From raging rivers to serene prairies, from mountain peaks slicing the skyline to forests teeming with life, our Nation's landscapes have provided wonder, inspiration, and strength to all Americans.  Many sites continue to hold historical, cultural, and religious significance for Indian tribes, the original stewards of this continent.  We must continue to preserve and protect these scenic places and the life that inhabits them so they may be rediscovered and

The first questioner at Sen. Jon Tester's Monday public forum in Missoula wanted to know how the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act was coming along.

"My wife and I just drove over through Lincoln, and there's crystal-clear evidence we need to manage in a different way," Tester said of the beetle-killed acres of forest. "We need to give the Forest Service some different tools to work with."

Sometimes, it's best to stop and listen, to have a conversation instead of a duel.

And as my colleague Chris Smart wrote in Thursday's paper, the bile that has festered for years among land lovers and land users (not mutually exclusive) may have evolved into a more reasonable way of negotiating.

To wit: Sen. Bob Bennett's wilderness bill would preserve 256,000 wilderness acres in Washington County even as it opens a lot of land elsewhere for commercial development.

Four influential environmental groups are endorsing the new wilderness proposal put forth by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis that seeks to protect 170,000 acres of public lands in Eagle and Summit counties.

The Mount Hood National Forest will severely limit off-road vehicles in the woods under a decision announced this week. Responding to a Forest Service directive to get a handle on the noise, damage and intrusive nature of four-wheel-drive rigs and dirt bikes in the nation's forests, Mount Hood is limiting drivers to four areas.