Wilderness Commentary

After more than five years of dialog, persuasion, and inspired cajolerie, advocates of wilderness protection in northwestern California won a stupendous victory last fall with the passage of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, more commonly and intimately known as the Wilderness Bill.

It has been nearly a quarter century since members of the Lewis and Clark County Commission were invited to testify at congressional hearings on Montana wilderness legislation. Successive commissions have urged congressional cooperation to conserve the outdoor legacy of Lewis and Clark County. Yet our commission recommendations as well as those of the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service remain unresolved.

In December, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Office of Parks and Recreation presented a proposal - years in the making - to reconfigure snowmobile trails and use in the Adirondacks.The 404-page plan, called the Snowmobile Plan for the Adirondack Park, hasn't fully satisfied either constituency, and it is a long way from implementation. But feelings on both sides of the issue run high. The Post-Standard asked a snowmobiling advocate and an environmentalist to present their sides of the debate.

Thirty-five years ago, President Richard Nixon signed a little-heralded law of lasting importance for Arizonans. As a sophomore at Scottsdale's Saguaro High School, I played a small role. The law signed Feb. 15, 1972, forever protected Pine Mountain Wilderness 100 miles north of Phoenix. This is national forest land, along the Mogollon Rim, Pine Mountain being the most prominent landmark.

Some keep the Sabbath going to church; I keep it staying at home, With a bobolink for a chorister,And an orchard for a dome. Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;I just wear my wings, And instead of tolling the bell for church,Our little sexton sings.God preaches, - a noted clergyman, -And the sermon is never long; So instead of getting to heaven at last,I'm going all along! - Emily Dickinson

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Monday told a group of outdoor recreation executives that he was at least temporarily shelving the state's roadless forest petition because of legal uncertainties regarding the issue.Since last year, the governor's office has been crafting a petition that would establish new management guidelines for Utah's nearly 4 million acres of inventoried roadless forest.

The U.S. Forest Service is about to put the finishing touches on its wilderness plan for Allegheny National Forest -- 500,000 acres of woods, trails, streams, wildlife, oil, gas and timber in northwestern Pennsylvania.The plan, which contains a section on wilderness protection that must be approved by Congress, will determine for at least 15 years how competing interests will coexist on such public, yet jealously guarded, land. For that reason, no one has ever mistaken the forest for the peaceable kingdom.

In a federal courtroom, Greg Adair looks like someone who might be more comfortable dangling from a 3,000-foot granite wall than sitting at the plaintiff's table.The long hair, the rock-climber physique and the suit and tie just don't seem to mix. He is an uneasy legal warrior for a place where people from around the globe stop to gawk -- Yosemite Valley.

In Postcards From Ed, a welcome volume of Edward Abbey's thoughts and dreams, hopes and fulminations, the distinguished Terry Tempest Williams writes, "I miss you. We all do." She is not alone. Charles Bowden, Abbey's friend and fellow author, observes that "Ed taught us to see the Southwest as something else besides real estate to butcher. And now we have to see it without him."

This summer, I visited Indian Creek Proposed Wilderness in Buffalo Gap National Grassland. This area is part of a 71,381-acre proposal put forth by the South Dakota Grasslands Wilderness Coalition.The view into Indian Creek was breathtaking. I believe wilderness is a gift to us and must be treated with respect.The best way to preserve it is with a federal wilderness designation. This would be a great asset to Rapid City and the Black Hills region, not to mention our state. It would be America's first national grassland wilderness.