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Plan keeps timber industry, environmental concerns in mind
A proposal to designate 215,000 acres of new wilderness areas in the Colville National Forest is drawing support from a broad coalition of forest users.
The rolling highlands of Northeast Washington are home to grape ferns, lady slipper orchids, burnt-orange flameflowers - and scratch-dry ponderosa pine that timber companies really want to log.
The wild country from the Kettle Range to the Selkirk Mountains offers a corridor linking Washington's elusive lynx with other carnivores in Montana. But it also offers uber-popular spots for riding dirt bikes, jeeps and all-terrain vehicles.
The Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act. There are many worthwhile reasons why this legislation should be approved, not least among which is the undeniable fact that wilderness and National Conservation Area (NCA) designations are good for Doña Ana County businesses and the local economy.
Coloradans have long chosen a way of life full of hard work and independent thinking.
As global events and economies increasingly affect our way of life in western Colorado, it becomes ever more important to stay active in planning for our lands and resources.
I am one of the many local citizens who have long awaited the momentous step U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson recently took: introducing legislation todesignate 48,000 acres of wilderness within the Buffalo Gap National Grassland.
When I was a kid, my dad often took me camping out at Indian Creek. It wasn't your typical cozy Black Hills forest campground with tent sites and lavatories.
The stark, wide-open, raw beauty of the wild prairie and badlands awed me in a completely different way. Its ruggedness and powerful silence left a lifelong impression on me.
I am honored to write today as the new President of the Board of Directors for the Warren-based non-profit organization Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW). Though other organizations seek to eliminate logging in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) and oppose all oil and gas activities, FAW seeks instead to foster cooperation among seemingly opposing interests to protect additional areas in the ANF as wilderness while respecting the need to ensure a sustainable, economically viable future for the entire region.
San Juan County residents who don't want Sen. Bob Bennett's land bill to die have formed a grassroots organization, Friends of Cedar Mesa, to keep citizens in the loop while wilderness-designation discussions hang in limbo.
Mark Meloy, a retired river ranger for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, says Friends of Cedar Mesa seeks to let the citizens' voice be part of any wilderness or other conservation protections for the region in southeastern Utah.
Many of us have heard the opinion expressed many times in Lincoln County that we have enough wilderness already. As a longtime wilderness supporter, I have learned that people who state this opinion often have little idea of how much wilderness we actually have.
Most folks are surprised to learn that only about 2 percent of Lincoln County is presently protected as wilderness, which is the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a new book featuring photography of the Blue Ridge Mountains might offer quite an earful - which is exactly the goal of a conservation group presenting the book to the public at East Tennessee State University Thursday.
The book, titled "The Blue Ridge: Ancient and Majestic," features photography by Johnson City resident Jerry Greer and essays by Jonesborough resident Charles Maynard. It highlights the natural beauty of the world's oldest mountains, stretching from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
A bill designating almost 350,000 acres in Do-a Ana County as wilderness and conservation areas was unanimously approved by a Senate committee Wednesday.
The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, sponsored by New Mexico's U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, allows some public use - such as hunting and grazing - while protecting the granite peaks of the Organ Mountains and the volcanic cinder cones of the Portrillo Mountains from development.
