Daily Wilderness News Clips

Rep. Jared Polis says he's optimistic that a consensus can be reached on a proposal to designate more than 340,000 acres of Colorado land as wilderness, despite constituents' concerns and competing interests.

After a series of public meetings, Polis hasn't found a balance between recreationists and those advocating wilderness over the Hidden Gems Wilderness proposal. And he says he'll take his time.

"This is our land. Let's figure out how we can use it," the freshman Democrat said.

While it's a compromise, the latest version of the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill can still use refinement, some members of Idaho's congressional delegation say.

Rep. Mike Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo, Idaho Republicans who back the measure, acknowledged during a hearing Wednesday that it is far from perfect. And Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who sits on the Senate subcommittee now considering the bill, said "there are still some pending issues that are going to need, perhaps, some more of that collaborative process to reach this consensus."

Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) today unveiled the latest iteration of his sweeping wilderness bill, restoring provisions that would guarantee at least 100,000 acres of logging and forest restoration projects on federal lands but lifting previous language that limited how long the Forest Service could take in reviewing such projects.

After nearly a decade of labor and compromise, sweeping legislation that protects hundreds of thousands of acres as wilderness in Idaho's Boulder-White Cloud mountains is headed for a Senate hearing this week.

The Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act goes back to Congress on Wednesday, but this time with what some say is a significantly greater chance than in years past. For the first time, the bill's champion, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, has the support of Idaho's entire congressional delegation.

A Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee Wednesday will meet to review a bill that would block hardrock mining in parts of Nevada and a pair of wilderness bills concerning lands in Idaho and South Dakota.

S. 3313 from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would block new mineral development on 640 acres of Clark County, Nev. The bill would block the proposed Sloan Hills rock quarry near Las Vegas that has been the subject of local controversy.

Three citizen-crafted proposals to expand Colorado's wilderness acreage could increase the state's wildest lands by more than 1 million acres, marking one of the most sweeping pushes to protect Colorado's wilderness.

After a decade of planning, environmental groups are pressing for the highest level of protection on several dozen parcels across the state, as population growth and encroaching development threaten wild lands.

Utah public lands being considered for possible wilderness designation concern Coloradans, judging from the number of Colorado license plates in the area every spring, said Terri Martin, of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

"A lot of people in Grand Junction consider the red rock desert to be their backyard and visit those lands, and want them protected for their future and their children," Martin said.

Concerns about border security in southern New Mexico have prompted members of the state's congressional delegation to revamp a proposal to set aside more than 560 square miles as wilderness and a national conservation area.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both D-N.M., introduced the legislation last year, seeking to protect the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces and the Potrillo Mountains, located just north of the Mexican border in southwestern Dona Ana County.

Their measure would create a 259,000-acre wilderness area and 100,000-acre conservation area.

While clean drinking water became a priority this week for Oakley and Lindon residents as they boiled water contaminated by floods, it's always on the mind of Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

Matheson, along with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and a U.S. Forest Service official, addressed the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday. The trio spoke on legislation expanding watershed protection in the Wasatch Front canyons, saying it is a shared priority.

U.S. Senators Lamar Alexandar and Bob Corker, both Tennessee Republicans, introduced Wednesday a bill to designate an additional 20,000 acres in six areas of the Cherokee National Forest as protected wilderness.

Two of the expansions, totaling 1,314 acres in Polk County, are the Big Frog Wilderness (348 acres) and the Little Frog Wilderness (966 acres) areas.