Daily Wilderness News Clips

It's 6:30 in the morning in the Stanley Basin and we are glassing a freshly-whitened valley surrounded by sage hills. Air temperature is 20 ° F. The small herd of elk we just passed breathe steam in the cold air, and snow is drifting out of the sky even as clouds rise to reveal the newly glazed Sawtooths. Way out, a brown critter moves disjointedly across a meadow. I want it to be a wolf, as do the half-dozen folks with me, but it morphs into a Sandhill Crane.

Sen. Mike Crapo has organized meetings for this week to reconcile the concerns raised by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter about the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill.

Crapo's staff will work to see what can be done about state lands, invasive species and Fish and Game issues raised in a letter from Otter. The bill's supporters are hopeful they can do enough to satisfy Otter, even though he opposes all new wilderness in Idaho.

"A bill that would protect more than 60,000 acres of public lands and unending vistas in the region is plodding through Washington, D.C., with all deliberate speed " slow and steady.

The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act moved through the House's Natural Resources Committee last week and soon will pop up for a full House vote. U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., introduced it last year.

More than 72,000 acres in Pitkin County have been removed from the Hidden Gems campaign's push to expand Wilderness areas in western Colorado as a result of compromises with various user groups, according to a lengthy summary that will be presented to Pitkin County commissioners next week.

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.

A bill that would create and expand wilderness areas in Southwestern Colorado is headed to the floor of the U.S. House. Rep. John Salazar's San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act cleared the House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday. It would add protections to over 60,000 acres, and designate 33,000 acres as wilderness, including additions to the Mount Sneffels and Lizard Head Wilderness areas.

The Obama administration yesterday endorsed a Senate bill to create a large wilderness reserve in central Idaho.

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Interior and Agriculture department officials testified in support of the bill (S. 3294), which proposes designating almost 333,000 acres of land as wilderness.

Environmental groups are encouraged after a U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing on a bill that could add 50,000 acres of new South Dakota wilderness. The Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests is considering Sen. Tim Johnson's proposed bill, the Tony Dean Cheyenne River Valley Conservation Act, which would designate as wilderness land in the Indian Creek, Red Shirt, and Chalk Hills areas of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in southwest South Dakota.