Wilderness News

Local hikers and outdoors enthusiasts are invited to join like-minded individuals throughout the nation in celebrating National Trails Day on Saturday.

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance will mark the day with a walk and picnic at the Bar Canyon Day Use area in the Organ Mountains. NMWA's Wilderness Protection Organizer Nathan Small, who is also a member of the Las Cruces City Council, said families are also encouraged to visit one of their favorite wilderness areas.

I applaud the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce as our principal advocate for busi­nesses in Las Cruces and Doña Ana County. However, I am in total opposition to its support of a pseudo-wilderness program being pushed by a minority of our residents, who happen to be agricultural members of the chamber.

The chamber should have unhesitatingly endorsed the Citizens' Wilderness and Nation­al Conservation Area Proposal for the Organ Mountains that makes Las Cruces so distinctive. This proposal has the support of a vast majority of Las Crucens.

Introduction of the Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act in Congress is great news. When this bill passes Congress and is signed by the President, some of our most spectacular lands and sensitive and precious rivers will be protected. This bill is a compromise and will not completely satisfy everyone but it is great step forward in protecting lands that we hold dear. Wilderness protection for these lands is a wonderful legacy. Thank you, Senator Boxer and Congressman McKeon and all who worked to make this happen.

Two-thirds of Clark County voters support protecting additional public lands in Nevada, according to a recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies.

Conservation groups Friends of Gold Butte and Nevada Wilderness Coalition, who commissioned the poll, said they will use the results to lobby elected officials to push their plan for federal wilderness and conservation protections of the rugged Gold Butte region of the Virgin Mountains, which is in the southeast corner of Nevada, just west of the Arizona border.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., made good on his promise, made last week in Bend, and introduced legislation Thursday to create a nearly 30,000-acre Badlands wilderness area east of Bend.

The senator also proposed, in separate legislation, a new Spring Basin wilderness on more than 6,800 acres overlooking the John Day Wild and Scenic River.

Here's the full news release announcing the two bills:

Montanans live in a land of astonishing beauty; we have endless opportunities to enjoy the mountains, rivers and plains for which our state is famous.

Our public lands harbor abundant populations of fish and wildlife that support a growing outdoor industry and draw sportsmen and recreationists from across Montana and the nation. Some of these lands also contain oil and gas reserves, which can help address Americans' ever-growing need for fuel, if developed responsibly.

In Oregon's southwest corner, far from the Willamette Valley, lies the Copper Salmon region. It's so rugged, so remote, that most valley residents will never visit the area.

And that is exactly why it deserves federal protection as the Copper Salmon Wilderness.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation in April to create the wilderness. A similar bill awaits action in the Senate.

Adjacent to the Grassy Knob Wilderness, the area is part of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

As Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen gazed in awe Friday at the magnificent Wild Sky Wilderness Area they and others had worked so long and hard to create, they did so from a distance. Unfortunately, many Puget Sound residents hoping to visit the nation's newest wilderness probably won't get much closer for the next few years.

When veteran logger Don Hamann talks about the future of a profession whittled down in recent years by a growing economy and environmental restrictions, he beams with optimism.

"There is an incredible opportunity out there," he said. "Not only an opportunity but an incredibly important task that needs to be done.

"Part of it is educating people, particularly the next generation, to do the work and understand the need," said the Butte Falls resident.

"There is lots and lots of work out there."

Highways and dams came in waves through the 1950s and '60s, choking rivers and cutting into mountainsides.

A few believed that the way to stop this was to put soles onto sand.

Fifty years ago, a few dozen men and women set out on the coast of Olympic National Park for a hike that would alter the history of the state and nation.

In "The Hike that Saved the Coast," a free presentation at Peninsula College Friday night, two of the women on that wind-washed outing in August 1958 shared their fond memories, and a still-bright belief in the value of wilderness.