Now that two Idaho wilderness bills are officially dead for the year, the Republicans behind the proposals are planning how to get ideas crafted during the Bush era to pass through a Democratic Congress and White House.
Sen. Mike Crapo's Owyhee Canyonlands plan to protect 500,000 acres of wilderness and help ranchers in Owyhee County was one of more than 100 provisions in a sweeping lands bill now delayed until January. And Rep. Mike Simpson's proposal to protect 319,000 acres in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains in Central Idaho never even got a start in the Democratic-controlled House.
"You never rule it out," Simpson said this week. "Weird things happen in the last days of session, but it looks unlikely right now."
Both Simpson and Crapo are confident they'll do better in 2009 - but though they'll pick up new allies on some aspects of their bills, they'll see new pressures as well. Each bill is built on a fragile coalition of traditional land users, conservationists and local governments - but each has been attacked by conservatives concerned about property rights and by the environmental left.
New people - and environmental advocacy groups - will have more power, but appeasing the new majority could cost Crapo and Simpson the Republican and Western support they worked to cultivate.
Still, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Monday he would bring the giant lands bill back to the floor in January under a Senate rule that allows it to go forward without new committee meetings.
Crapo said the bill likely would have had the votes to pass this year, but a filibuster threatened by Republican Sen. Tom Colburn of Oklahoma would have killed most of a week that the Senate needed to address the economic situation.
But Crapo said he expects the bill will have even more support in the new Congress. And his own coalition of ranchers, environmentalists, local officials, outfitters and others also remains committed, he said.
"You never want to jinx yourselves but I have great confidence in this work product," Crapo said.
The leader of The American Land Rights Association, a private property coalition that opposed the comprehensive lands bill, said Monday he would support the Owyhees bill if it were to be reintroduced separately.
"But for now, it must not be supported as part of the omnibus package," said Charles Cushman, executive director of the group.
The Owyhee Public Land Management Act would protect 517,000 acres of prime sagebrush habitat as wilderness, where motorized use is not allowed. It also would designate 315 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers that run through the desolate area's deep, verdant canyons, which are carved into spires, benches and colorful chasms. The bill would release more than 200,000 acres of wilderness study areas back to multiple-use management.
In addition, several thousand acres of public lands managed by the BLM would be traded for ranch lands adjacent to wilderness areas. The federal government would buy other lands outright.
The bill has the support of Reid and other Democrats.
"All parties recognize the balance of power swings back and forth," Crapo said. "The bottom line is these kind of land management decision don't make it unless they have bipartisan support."
Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act never got a hearing before the House Resources Committee.
Its chairman, West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall, had expressed opposition to wilderness bills that include land transfers.
Simpson attempted to negotiate with Rahall's staff but got nowhere. He removed a provision from his Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill that would have given Custer County 94 acres of public land near Stanley that it could sell for development.
Now the only SNRA land that would be transferred is a small parcel to the city of Stanley for low-income housing. Instead, Custer County would get $3 million in cash and nearly 5,000 acres outside the SNRA, under the new bill.
Those land transfers are part of the reason the bill, which has the support of the Wilderness Society and the Idaho Conservation League, is not backed by the Sierra Club and a vocal group of former SNRA managers. Carole King, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who has a ranch in the White Clouds, also opposes the bill and is a longtime supporter of Democrats.
Scott Phillips, who is a leader of the Sawtooth Sierra Club chapter and the former SNRA managers, said it was unlikely Simpson could rewrite the bill to get his groups' support.
"Unless there were substantive meaningful improvements to the bill, and that means no public land giveaways, no overemphasis on motorized corridors and the water rights need to be left in the hands of the federal government," Phillips said.
Simpson is still hopeful he can reach an agreement with Rahall. And now he has an ally in the Democratic ranks of the House, Rep. Walt Minnick, who will take office in January.
Minnick has pledged to support both Simpson and Crapo in any way he can to get the bill passed.
"Potentially, that could be helpful," Simpson said.
