Keep castles out of the SNRA
As the premiere unofficial angel to Idaho’s sprawling
and magnificent Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the Sawtooth Society is
committed to preserving and enhancing the area’s wilderness character.
Since its founding in 1979, the society has been a
commendable and indispensable helpmate to the U.S. Forest Service in
lobbying for federal funds as well as in raising private resources for
recreational features in the SNRA.
So why is the society now opposing new Forest Service
rules and guidelines that clearly parallel its own objectives?
At the heart of the curious confrontation between the
Sawtooth Society and the Forest Service are rules that would limit the
size, style and number of family dwellings inside the SNRA.
The specific proposal that has the society up in arms is a
plan favored by the Forest Service to limit dwelling sizes between 1,800
square feet for structures close to public access areas and 5,000 square
feet for structures deep in the SNRA away from public view.
In addition to square footage restrictions, the plan also
calls for ranch-style designs. It calls for use of materials that will
preserve the area’s mountain ranching ambience. The rules are strict,
but should prevent the construction of modern castles whose
"statements" belong somewhere else.
The danger of the Sawtooth Society’s opposition and its
implied demand for more relaxed standards in the SNRA is a boom in
construction of large, expensive homes¾ leading to real estate
speculation and erosion of the very character the society claims it seeks
to protect there.
Lest it lose the following it has so carefully built up,
the Sawtooth Society should abandon a course that appears to be a cousin
to the appeals of real estate developers to open public preserves for
run-of-the-mill development.
