Wednesday, October 5, 2005

There is an alternative to CIEDRA

Guest opinion by Carole King


Carole King has lived for 24 years along the Salmon River northeast of Stanley. Best known as a singer and songwriter, Ms. King is a longtime dedicated advocate for public lands and wilderness.

While claiming that the Idaho Conservation League "does not officially support CIEDRA," Central Idaho Director Linn Kincannon is working to rally support for Rep. Mike Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development Act, HR 3603, that would designate a wilderness area in the Boulder-White Cloud mountains. Kincannon writes in the Sept. 29 Mountain Express: "The trails in the area have been used by motorcycles for over 30 years, and the Forest Service has not curtailed use or closed trails in all that time."

But under existing law, they still can. However, CIEDRA will permanently foreclose the Forest Service's ability to make such decisions. No conservation advocate should be supporting a bill that does that.

Kincannon asks, "What alternatives do opponents of the bill offer?"

The answer is HR 1204, the Rockies Prosperity Act. Formerly known as NREPA, the Rockies Prosperity Act designates all 500,000 acres of the Boulder-White Clouds as wilderness. Rockies Prosperity has 184 bipartisan cosponsors in addition to the lead sponsor, Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., for a total of 185 bipartisan House members, including 18 Republicans, one of whom is a committee chairman, who want to save it all.

CIEDRA has one co-sponsor.

Supporting CIEDRA is like agreeing to give away two of your children to save one. If you love wilderness, why would you not fight to save it all? If you're really looking for the best opportunity in 25 years to protect wilderness in the Boulder-White Clouds, Rockies Prosperity is your bin. CIEDRA is not.

To proponents of wilderness who say that CIEDRA is the best we can do, that Rockies Prosperity will never pass, I say, you're wrong. Rockies Prosperity will pass. It win pass sooner with the active support of wilderness advocates in our community who, by supporting CIEDRA, are breaking faith with the heroes who gave us the Wilderness Act and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. We've been handed down a legacy. We need to honor and protect that legacy, not only because it's right intrinsically, but because it's right for our local economy. Years of Forest Service visitor registration logs show that 95 percent of the use in the Boulder-White Clouds is non-motorized. Supporting a bill that will increase motorized use in the Boulder-White Cloud mountains is wrong for the land, wrong for the wildlife, wrong for the visitors and residents of this community, and wrong for the economy.

Stop thinking that CIEDRA is the best we can do. There's a mid-term election next year. The Congress that Americans elect next year may well be more friendly to the environment. We always knew that NREPA, now Rockies Prosperity, would be a long hike. Don't sell our Boulder-White Clouds short. Don't stop at the false summit of CIEDRA. You know where the real summit is. Keep hiking. We'll get there, sooner, together. Say "No" to CIEDRA. We can do better.




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