Wilderness News

For 50 years, doctor helped protect U.S. wilderness, national parks

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:43:44 -0800

Edgar Wayburn, 103, a physician and five-time Sierra Club president who is credited with protecting more wilderness and parkland than any other American citizen, died March 5 at his home in San Francisco. No cause of death was reported.

Letter: Protect wilderness

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:44:48 -0800

I was happy to support wilderness protection at the recent field hearing for the proposal aimed at protecting local natural treasures like the Organ Mountains, Broad Canyon, and the Potrillo Mountains. More than 500 interested citizens attended, and as I listened to the many voices, one thing was clear: Community members want our precious public lands protected so that New Mexicans can forever enjoy these wild places.

Natural Resources panel takes up Colo. wilderness bill

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:45:44 -0800

A House panel will consider a bill this week that would designate about 850,000 acres of public lands in Colorado as wilderness.

H.R. 4289, from Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), would give a protected status to more than 30 separate areas in Colorado, including what DeGette terms "crown jewels" such as the Browns Canyon, Dolores River Canyons, Redcloud Peak, the Palisade and Bull Gulch.

"Many of the lands are endangered by drilling," DeGette's chief of staff Lisa Cohen said. "As Colorado continues to expand, the wilderness is shrinking."

Editorial: Grassland proposal sounds reasonable

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:57:16 -0800

The fight over 50,000 acres of land in Buffalo Gap National Grassland might seem irrelevant to those who don't follow the ins and outs of wilderness management.

But the land's uniqueness means that South Dakota either faces a great opportunity or is poised for a disastrous mistake.

U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., plans to introduce legislation to designate the area as federally protected wilderness.

Forest Service slowly embracing Tester plan to log 10,000 acres a year for 10 years

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:56:18 -0800

One of the most contested parts of Sen. Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is the plan to log 10,000 acres a year for 10 years.

When he testified on Tester's bill on Dec. 17, Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman told a congressional subcommittee "the bill would create unrealistic expectations on the part of communities and forest products stakeholders that the agency would accomplish the quantity of mechanical treatments required."

Letter: Let’s focus on what matters in Tester’s bill

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:58:15 -0800

Let's put behind us the recent unseemly and inaccurate charges that Sen. Jon Tester's bill on timber jobs and wilderness was crafted in secrecy. It's time to focus on what the bill will accomplish rather than try to paint some vague conspiracy that belongs in a pulp fiction novel.

Sen. Tester is to be commended for taking on timber jobs and wilderness designation in one bill after these issues have been stalemated in Montana's political wars for 25 years.

Tester’s Forest Bill Could be Pilot Project

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:42:52 -0800

DEER LODGE - The Obama administration could support the logging mandate proposed in U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's forest bill as a pilot project, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Speaking Saturday in Deer Lodge, Vilsack said the agency would consider Tester's bill as a trial run to see if it's effective in improving forest health and helping rural economies.

"We're going to continue to work with Sen. Tester to accomplish what the bill is supposed to do," Vilsack said. "There's a tremendous opportunity here."

Ag secretary Vilsack sees "tremendous opportunity" in forest bill

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:54:26 -0800

DEER LODGE - The Obama administration could support the mandate in Sen. Jon Tester's forest bill to log a set number of acres every year as a pilot project, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said here Saturday.

Vilsack, in a change of position for the administration, said some changes to the measure, which mandates a set number of acres be logged every year, could be tried to see how well it works.

Gem of the Week: Clear Fork

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:19:36 -0800

This is the fifth in a weekly series profiling the areas proposed by the Hidden Gems campaign for federal wilderness designation. The campaign, led by Carbondale's Wilderness Workshop, calls for about 380,000 acres to be protected as wilderness. Most of the land is in the White River and Gunnison national forests, and includes areas in Pitkin, Gunnison, Eagle and Summit counties. An act of the U.S. Congress is required to designate new wilderness.

Hidden Gems to split lands in strategic move

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:20:59 -0800

ASPEN, Colorado - A portion of the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign's proposal will be turned over to U.S. Rep. Jared Polis in the next "two or three weeks," Wilderness Workshop Executive Director Sloan Shoemaker said Thursday.

Proponents of the wilderness plan will split their proposal in order to get something in the hands of Polis this month, Shoemaker said. Polis and his staff will then determine if he will sponsor a bill to add the wilderness.