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Copyright © 2003 Express Publishing Inc.
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For the week of December 24 - 30, 2003

News

Frank Church-
RNR-Wilderness
management
decision signed


"Our decision strikes a balance between competing demands expressed by many people. It addresses Americans’ needs and desires for use and protection of this wilderness and the mandate we have for managing wilderness resource values."

LESLEY THOMPSON, Salmon-Challis National Forest former acting supervisor


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

With the signing of a record of decision in late-November, public land managers established a 10- to 15-year blueprint for managing the largest wilderness area in the continental United States.

The decision for the 2.4 million acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area in the heart of Central Idaho governs backcountry travel and floating its Wild and Scenic Rivers. It is subject, however, to a 45-day appeal period that expires Feb. 1.

The decision amends the forest plans for the Boise, Bitterroot, Nez Perce, Payette and Salmon-Challis national forests and consolidates the wilderness management plan into a single document.

"Our decision strikes a balance between competing demands expressed by many people," said Lesley Thompson, Salmon-Challis National Forest acting supervisor. "It addresses Americans’ needs and desires for use and protection of this wilderness and the mandate we have for managing wilderness resource values."

The process leading up to the signing of the document took nine years during which 3,500 people commented.

The Forest Service created a stir in 1998 with release of a draft environmental impact statement. The overwhelming majority of comments from the public indicated that the range of alternatives was too narrow and that all five proposed alternatives restricted use below current management plan levels.

The Forest Service worked with various groups on a supplement that was released in 1998, with six additional alternatives. In 2000, wildfires burned 500,000 acres in the wilderness and diverted the focus from the planning effort to fire recovery efforts through 2001.

In March of this year, the forest supervisors of the four forests with management responsibilities for the wilderness area met to streamline the planning process.

"They determined that we were trying to make too many decisions with too many alternatives in the EIS," said Wilderness Coordinator Ken Wotring. "The supervisors narrowed the number of decisions to be analyzed in the final EIS and reduced the number of alternatives. Many of the decisions that were eliminated from the final EIS will be decided under other existing authorities."

The result was a smaller document that focused on programmatic or general decisions rather than site specific decisions.

The preferred alternative, which was finally selected in the record of decision, reduces potential for growth in float boat use on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Salmon, while maintaining current use levels. It increases noncommercial jet boat use on the Salmon. Four backcountry landing strips on Big Creek will be maintained for emergency use only.

The management plan incorporates an adaptive management and monitoring strategy, said the wilderness area’s managers. A revised monitoring program is designed to focus on visitor use and experiences, campsite conditions and general resource conditions.

For floaters, the new management decision also establishes variable trip lengths for each river that are designed to allow commercial and noncommercial parties to choose party sizes with a corresponding length of stay that varies between six and eight days, with smaller groups allowed to stay longer.

Additionally, self-issued permits for noncommercial float boat use of the tributaries of the Middle Fork and Salmon rivers will be required. The permits will allow boaters to exit from Big Creek onto the Middle Fork and from the South Fork of the Salmon onto the Salmon without an additional permit for the larger rivers.

 

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