Wilderness News

I have noted with interest the letters to the editor and the debate surrounding the Hidden Gems Wilderness proposal.

I would like to add a unique perspective to the discussion. I have been flying over the West for more than 20 years doing aerial conservation work and watching the profound changes on our landscape, including the dulling of Utah's azure blue skies by power plants' emissions; the industrialization of landscapes by oil and gas drilling; the clear-cutting of our forests; and ORV (off road vehicle) tracks in the middle of fragile deserts and mountain wild lands.

A Christian-based summer camp in Antelope is working on a land-swap deal that could create two new wilderness areas and make about 15,000 acres of popular hunting grounds accessible to the public.

Young Life's Washington Family Ranch, about 40 miles northeast of Madras, often has hunters wandering onto its property. The ranch surrounds land owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

In Colorado's Vail Valley Monday, famous mountain climber Aron Ralston says he explored most of the land that would become protected wilderness under the Hidden Gems proposal.

He spoke in favor of Hidden Gems during a press conference Monday at Fly Fishing Outfitters in Avon.

Ralston was the first person to climb all of Colorado's 14ers solo in winter. He fell into the national spotlight in 2003 when he was forced to cut off the lower part of his arm because it was trapped under a boulder during a mountaineering trip in Utah.

A checkerboard of federally owned parcels within the boundaries of the Young Life Washington Family Ranch east of Antelope is fueling talk of a trade.

"We're working on a very large land exchange between Young Life, a few other private landowners and the BLM," Forrest Reinhardt, a Young Life youth pastor who represents the Washington Family Ranch, told the Jefferson County Commission Oct. 14.

Think of wilderness, and common images that come to mind are towering, ice-shrouded mountains, skyscraper forests, or spectacular waterfalls.

Not many think of grasslands. More should. Our species came of age when our ancestors in the deep past came down from the trees, stood up on the grasslands, and looked afar to take the measure of their world. Grasslands have supported us in many ways ever since.

On Oct. 30, 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a landmark bill that protected many of the outstandingly scenic portions of the southern Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee from timber harvesting, mining and road building.

Rep. Salazar introduces wilderness bill

The bill would add more than 60,000 acres in the San Juan Mountains.

A bill that would protect more than 60,000 acres of wilderness in Western Colorado was introduced Friday by U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo.

The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Bill would protect large areas of U.S. Forest and Bureau of Land Management land in San Miguel, Ouray and San Juan counties, at the request of local governments. Among the lands are Mount Sneffels and Wilson Peak; two of the state's fourteeners - mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation.

I would like to thank the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front for the time and effort that went into a series of public meetings which were recently held in Great Falls, Helena, Choteau and Augusta. Hundreds of Montanans attended these meetings and had opportunities to ask questions and comment on the proposed Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. It was an undertaking that should be commended.

U.S. Rep. John Salazar on Thursday introduced a bill that would add wilderness designations to more than 60,000 acres in the San Juan Mountains.

The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act would protect 61,682 acres in San Miguel, Ouray and San Juan counties. He said the bill emerged through cooperation with local governments.

"These are the lands which define the character and spirit of our great state and nation, and as such, it is my honor today to introduce the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Bill," Salazar said in a news release.

Salazar presents 62,000-acre San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act

Congressman John Salazar , D-Colo., introduced the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday in Washington, paving the way for more protection of more than 60,000 acres in the Telluride region.