Clinton’s wilderness legacy
Idaho’s senators and congressmen are livid about
President Clinton’s order that could result in preservation of two-thirds of the
nation’s remaining roadless forests.
Last week, the president directed the U.S. Forest Service to develop a
long-term protection plan for the nation’s roadless areas. Proposed regulations would
be subject to review and comment by the public.
Good for Clinton. Too bad about the Idaho delegation’s blood
pressure.
The president is forcing the nation to look at protecting the last of
its wilderness.
The minds of Idaho’s senators and congressmen have been made up
for a long time anyway. They cringe at the idea of more wilderness, preferring instead to
call for more roads and more timber cuts to subsidize the remaining 2,500 timber jobs in
the state.
The wilderness debate in Idaho has been on hold since the
2.4-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness was created in 1980.
Subsequent efforts to set aside additional wilderness— including land in the
Boulder-White Cloud Mountains and the Pioneer Mountains near Ketchum—subsequently
failed.
Since then, the bulldozers and chainsaws have been eating away at some
of Idaho’s most beautiful roadless areas. The bulldozers have been held off in some
areas only by desperate and temporary guerrilla legal actions brought by desperate
conservation groups.
The president could and should resolve the debate before more wild
lands are lost.
If he succeeds, Idaho could see 9.4 million acres of roadless areas
protected from road building, logging and mining in addition to an existing 4 million
acres of federally designated wilderness.
Nationally, about 60 million acres of the 192 million acres of federal
forest are free of roads. Clinton’s order could protect 40 million acres.
Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia sniped, "The
president’s trying to be Teddy Roosevelt."
This is an insult? The Democrat in the White House should be ashamed of
following in the footsteps of a Republican president who loved the outdoors?
Roosevelt protected 132 million acres by designating them as national
parks, national monuments and wildlife refuges.
The real question for history will be whether Presidents Roosevelt and
Clinton protected enough national forest from the inroads of civilization.
We hope the president is serious and that he leaves the nation with a
lasting legacy of protected wilderness.
