Congress meets in "lame duck" session this week, and it is important to speak out against the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act. This fatally flawed bill would carte blanche give away 5,120 public land acres to municipalities and counties. These are not "Idaho lands" for Idaho politicians to dispose of. They are national public lands owned by the citizens of the nation.
There are huge negatives with CIEDRA. Giving away prime fisheries and elk habitat, Sawtooth National Recreation Area parcels adjacent to Stanley for luxury homes and other commercial development is abhorrent. It would reverse 34 years of exemplary land management progress that has protected irreplaceable Sawtooth foreground views. Since 1972, $65 million in taxpayer dollars have been prudently invested in SNRA scenic protections. CIEDRA would negate much of this hard-won success.
CIEDRA is a hodge podge of unmanageable moving parts. Grazing "buy outs" have been taken out. Water rights would improperly be transferred to the state. Commercial outfitters would be granted exclusive levels of use. Locked in place motorized corridors would bisect three islands of wilderness. The bill is fiscally unsound, an unfunded mandate, and would severely dilute the visionary 1964 Wilderness Act.
CIEDRA would create many more land, fiscal, and societal problems than it solves. As former SNRA head ranger Carl Pence (1987-1992) aptly stated: "What the SNRA needs is bold leadership and Congressional support." What it does not need is to be sliced and diced and compromised to death with pork-barrel nonsense. I ask that you phone Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, immediately at (208) 334-1953 in Boise or e-mail his key Washington, D.C., aide, Mike Freese, at Mike_Freese@craig.senate.gov. Urge the senator to say no to CIEDRA. Privatization of public lands and waters is unacceptable. Let's keep the SNRA intact. It's up to you to protect the bedrock integrity of your precious public land. The time is now.
Scott Phillips
Hailey
