Wilderness Commentary

Congress is closer than ever to passing a wilderness bill that would protect one of Idaho's greatest assets forever. As a native of Idaho, a teacher and student of science, a mountain biker, fisherman, backcountry skier and river runner, I am very pleased with the proposed Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness bill. Some concerns have been raised about the loss of recreational opportunities. Thirty-five miles of trails would be closed to motorcycles and one good mountain bike ride would be sacrificed as a trade-off for more than 330,000 acres of wilderness that will long outlive us.

Dear Editor:

I drove two hours from Aspen to Edwards via Cottonwood Pass in Eagle County, probably part of your district, to speak strongly on behalf of the proposed Hidden Gems. Though I have flown over a large part of the proposed Hidden Gems with Bruce Gordon of Ecoflight, I was able on the ground to see all of the north side of Basalt Mountain and much of Red Mountain, all part of the proposed Hidden Gems plan.

I want to thank U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker for introducing the Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2010 to protect wilderness in the Cherokee National Forest. They are true champions of Tennessee's great outdoor and wild places.

Over the past months numerous businesses, organizations and community leaders and hundreds of their constituents have called on them to protect wilderness in the Cherokee National Forest.

Idaho is known for her vast open spaces, snow-capped mountains and long, clear rivers. The Boulder-White Cloud Mountains are at the heart of this great state. The importance of these mountains and the surrounding area cannot be overstated.

As an avid fly-fisherman, whitewater rafter and outdoorsman, with a family who revels in Idaho's natural beauty, it is greatly important to me to protect this treasure so that my two daughters can enjoy it for years to come.

Senate takes a key step toward creating new wilderness

Contrary to the belief of tea party enthusiasts, the Devil's Staircase is not the entrance to the Capitol building in Washington D.C. It's an astonishingly beautiful and remote waterfall surrounded by 30,000 acres of wild land in the Oregon Coast Range, between the Smith and Umpqua rivers.

I'd like to share some thoughts from Tom Wessels' book, "The Myth of Progress." These thoughts are relevant to the Hidden Gems Wilderness area proposal being made to preserve public lands for our future.

I support this proposal because I believe we need to preserve, protect and support the last great places that can genuinely be called natural, for the present and the future.

Everyone agrees that Idaho is special, but the question is, "how do we keep it special?" A few weeks ago I went on an incredible river trip down part of the Owyhee Canyonlands. Sen. Crapo's Owyhee Initiative helped bring together very diverse interests to protect that landscape as it is today.

Now I hear that Sens. Crapo and Risch and Reps. Simpson and Minnick are sponsoring a similar approach in the Boulder-White Clouds.

I have been fortunate to backpack into the Boulder Chain lakes on multiple occasions. What I witnessed in that back-country setting - fly-fishing beside Sapphire Lake and climbing an unnamed peak to watch the sun set over a handful of mountain ranges - really embodies that which makes Idaho unique.

And now Idahoans have legislation - this time supported by each member of our congressional delegation - that will protect the Boulder White-Clouds for generations to come.

Perhaps you have hiked along part of the Benton MacKaye Trail, the nearly 300-mile-long footpath extending from Springer Mountain in Georgia, through some of the most beautiful wild country in the Tennessee and North Carolina mountains, to Davenport Gap on the northern edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This volunteer-built trail honors MacKaye, whose vision resulted in creation of the world-famous Appalachian Trail.

Sen. Bob Bennett rightly takes pride in last year's Washington County lands bill, which brought competing interests to the table and earned their support to protect permanently 256,000 acres of wilderness. Now, as the end of his term approaches, Bennett is working in San Juan County to craft similar comprehensive legislation.