Daily Wilderness News Clips

Gov. Bill Richardson announced today his support for on a bill that would protect more than 350,000 acres of land in Doña Ana County, including the Organ Mountains.

The Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, which is sponsored by U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, D-N.M., will be considered Thursday by a subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs.

A small group of Colorado environmentalists - including mountaineer Aron Ralston, who became famous in 2003 for freeing himself by using a dull pocketknife to sever his arm after it became trapped under a fallen boulder during a backcountry hike - called for more protection of Colorado land during an event in Denver Tuesday morning.

Led by Environment Colorado, the environmentalists asked representatives of Sen. Michael Bennet's office to push for federal wilderness designation for parts of the San Juan Mountains, the White River National Forest region and Browns Canyon.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will hold a hearing this week on a bill that would protect more than 350,000 acres of land in Doña Ana County, including the Organ Mountains.

The Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, which is sponsored by Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., will be considered by a subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs.

The Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee plans will meet Thursday to review bills that would put land in New Mexico and Oregon off-limits to energy developers and timber companies.

S. 1689 would designate approximately 250,000 acres in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico as federally protected wilderness and incorporate an additional 100,000 acres as national conservation areas.

Congress created instant wilderness nationwide 45 years ago when it passed the Wilderness Act, but the recipe for conserving public land today is akin to slow cooking, with more ingredients needed to satisfy varying tastes.

That's what advocates of a new conservation plan that would protect Montana's famed Rocky Mountain Front say.

"The name of the game now is collaboration," said Bill Cunningham of Choteau, a Bob Marshall Wilderness Area outfitter who has been involved in wilderness debates for decades.

Supporters of three proposals for Wilderness, including the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign, submitted about 13,500 comments in support of their plan to U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall on Tuesday.

Environmental activists yesterday called on Colorado lawmakers to support legislation that would grant new wilderness protection to more than 1,894,000 acres of Colorado wildlands.

Meanwhile, opposing groups say that some of the proposed wilderness protection legislation would hurt Colorado's economy at the worst possible time.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, pitching his large forest bill to a packed room at the courthouse here, said it needs to both create more logging and more wilderness area in order to get enough political support to pass.

Tester said his plan will break through years of gridlock over logging by mandating Forest Service action. And it will add 600,000 acres of Montana wilderness - while sacrificing a very small percentage of motorized areas and trails, the Democrat said.

Supporters of a bill to place millions of acres of Utah wilderness off-limits to commercial development, energy drilling and motor vehicles say the proposal may finally have the political muster to pass after decades of failed attempts.

Montana's Sen. Jon Tester gave a presentation on a controversial forest bill here that packed in supporters and opponents of the wilderness-for- logging measure, and drew strong responses from both sides.

More than 350 people showed up at the Beier Auditorium on the University of Montana Western campus Saturday to hear directly from Tester about his bill. The visit came after months of criticism from wilderness opponents that Tester was trying to ram the bill through without hearing from people who live in the county most affected by the bill.