Daily Wilderness News Clips

Supporters of designating 342,000 acres as federal wilderness in western Colorado are urging Rep. Jared Polis to introduce a bill to start the process.

Proponents say more than 3,000 voters and residents have signed a letter of support for the Hidden Gems Wilderness proposal in Eagle and Summit counties. The proposal includes public land in Pitkin and Gunnison counties, too.

Businesses, including the Aspen Skiing Co., have endorsed the Hidden Gems plan. The Eagle County commissioners and the town of Breckenridge are among the local governments supporting it.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, will propose additional language to the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act currently being reviewed in the U.S. Senate.

The language, according to a letter drafted by the congressman on July 2, would preserve the state of Idaho's right to land helicopters and use motorized vehicles in the bill's three proposed wilderness areas, so long as the purpose is to manage wildlife.

A bill that would create the nation's first national grasslands wilderness in southwestern South Dakota may hinge on the support of a handful of ranchers who are concerned with how such a designation would impact their rights to graze on public lands.

Sen. Tim Johnson's (D-S.D.) proposal to give 48,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland the highest level of federal protections enjoys strong support from the Forest Service, American Indian tribes, and hunting and environmental groups who recreate in the area's sweeping prairie landscapes and rugged buttes.

Desert-dwellers are making a pitch to President Obama as his "America's Great Outdoors Initiative" listening tour stops in the Golden State this week. They want to stress that the desert has much more to offer than what most people see from their car windows.

Monica Argandona, Southern California Conservation Director for the California Wilderness Coalition, says many people mistakenly think of the desert as a big wasteland.

Sen. Jon Tester isn't giving up any ground on the four provisions he included in the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. The Montana legislator reiterated last week that logging will not be stripped from the final version of the bill, which he introduced nearly a year ago.

Besides timber, other provisions cover wilderness, recreation and restoration.

"In the end, if we're missing those components, the bill will not move," Tester said during a telephone interview on Thursday. "We need to get it passed. That's why we're working so hard to do it."

It has been annoying to watch the preservation of the most diverse and beautiful land in Doña Ana County be hijacked by the canard that our safety and the security along our border with Mexico will be threatened, especially since passage of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act would make our borders safer.

A senate bill that would turn about 940,000 acres along Route 66 east of Ludlow into a national monument is currently being scrutinized in the U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

In the meantime, more than 60 elected officials, cities and business leaders have given their endorsement to the California Desert Protection Act, including Barstow Mayor Joe Gomez.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and a couple of Pitkin County commissioners will saddle up this week to take a look at lands in the Thompson Creek area, outside of Carbondale, that the congresswoman has proposed as Wilderness.

The unusual, horseback site visit is expected to include DeGette and some of her staff, and commissioners Jack Hatfield and George Newman.

A low carpet of greens and browns helps soften the landscape, the erosion that's carved steep wedges leading to gravel-filled creeks, where chalky waters flow like a melted vanilla malt.

Above the ever-present rush of the wind, nature resonates.

A bumblebee stumbles into the air from a butter-colored prickly pear blossom. A lone black-tailed prairie dog chatters away at interlopers. A prairie chicken bursts from its cover in a manic frenzy of squawk and feathers.

From a low branch on a lone cottonwood, a Western meadowlark sings.

The first time they sat down together, they brought their agendas with them. Their goals were rigid. Gridlock was expected.

As one group member confessed, talking about collaboration is the easy part. When it comes time to actually give something up - to sacrifice something important - collaboration often goes out the door.

Yet the players at the table that day survived the spirited session. By talking things through, the horsemen, mountain bikers and conservationists realized they had more in common than not. Their goals, while slightly different, weren't that far apart.