Daily Wilderness News Clips

Dear Editor:

We, as human beings, have managed to decimate or move out whole populations of animals: the buffalo, for instance, the grizzly bear, the lynx.

It is our responsibility to be stewards of the land and to fend for wildlife. We must take care of the wildlife population as we do our children; the animals cannot fend for themselves against our constant encroachment upon the beautiful and wild landscape in which they live; this wild landscape which is also so important to us to restore our souls and to connect with the earth in its wild state.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Boulder) is clearly trying to head off health care town hall-style lynch mobs at the pass by getting out in front of the broiling rhetoric over the proposed "Hidden Gems" wilderness plan.

The proposal is still being drafted - and seeking a congressional sponsor - but basically proponents hope to lock up more than 400,000 acres of the White River and Gunnison National Forests, as well as some nearby BLM land, with a wilderness designation that would prohibit wheeled traffic, road building and development of any kind.

The effort to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and designate the Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Rivers as federally-protected Wild and Scenic continues in Washington, D.C.

The Senate's Public Lands and Forests subcommittee held a hearing Oct. 29 on the subject, which was raised by legislation submitted by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

A similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.

Murray submitted testimony to the subcommittee supporting the expanded the bill.

The Obama administration lent its support to a measure to expand protections for an Oregon river and to several other pieces of public lands legislation yesterday.

The administration supports S. 1369, which would designate segments totaling about 21 miles of the Molalla River in Oregon as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, said Katherine Stevenson, the National Park Service's assistant director of business services.

The LCF City Council voted unanimously Monday in favor of a resolution supporting wilderness and wild river designations for the San Gabrial Mountains.

The resolution was authored and placed before the council by the San Gabriel Mountains Forever conservation group.

The U.S. Forest Service has already recommended to Congress that 21,414 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains be designated as wilderness area, according to a report submitted to the council. The San Gabriel Mountains Forever group is asking Congress to designate an additional 9,100 cares as wilderness.

Rajneeshee camp gets Church and Federal makeover

A Christian-based summer camp run by Young Life is working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on a land swap that incorporates a former site of the Rajneeshee commune.  The land exchange is part of a federal effort to create two new wilderness areas in central Oregon near the small town of Antelope, Oregon.

I wanted to escape the increasingly cold weather, so this week's excursion took me into the largest state park in California: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The park has over 600,000 acres that contain 500 miles of dirt roads, abundant wildlife and miles of hiking trails.