Wilderness News

SALT LAKE CITY - A public lands conservation proposal involving Piute County is inching forward, envisioning the possible creation of two new wilderness areas in this small county covering just 763 square miles.

In an update presented Thursday to board members of the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, associate director John Andrews said the wilderness areas would be in the western section of the county in the Tushar Mountains and the Rocky Ford area on the east fork of the Sevier River.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson hasn't given up on making central Idaho's Boulder Mountains and White Cloud Peaks a wilderness area.

The proposed Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act would create three wilderness areas totaling 332,775 acres. Ten years in the making, it has yet to pass Congress.

Hikers are invited to come with the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign to ascend Mt. Thomas, south of Eagle, on Sunday, Aug. 8.

Mt. Thomas is over 12,000 feet in elevation and is one of the high points on Red Table Mountain above Sylvan Lake. The hike is moderate, nine miles in length, and includes 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

Dear Editor:

The hike over to Crested Butte was a bit of a novelty for hardy folks, and the trail at times not very obvious. The paper had more than one article on people who got lost hiking over and had to spend a cold night under the stars. Basque sheep herders tended their flocks past Crater Lake, and elk and bighorn sheep were a common sight.

With little time and less cooperation left in the 111th Senate, lawmakers are hoping to move dozens of stalled public lands conservation bills by wrapping them into a single piece of legislation.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee has sent more than 60 bills to the floor this session that would create new national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries.