After eight years of planning, negotiating and compromising, Rep. Mike Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) died a silent death when the 109th Congress adjourned in early December.
But the legislation, which would designate 319,900 acres of the Boulder and White Cloud mountains north of Ketchum in exchange for a series of concessions, will be resurrected when the 110th Congress convenes in January.
"We hope to see this through completion in the next congress," Lindsay Slater, Simpson's chief of staff, said shortly after Congress adjourned Dec. 8.
The bill was hotly contested over the past year, mainly for the 5,000 acres of public land it proposed to gift to Custer County and its municipalities.
The concessions polarized the environmental community, spurred emergency meetings in Stanley and indirectly ignited a feud between two of Idaho's most senior Republicans.
Despite the prospect of securing Idaho's first new wilderness in 26 years, many environmentalists—both national and local—couldn't get past the land giveaways.
Others in the environmental community admitted the concessions were hard to swallow but argued that the act of designating wilderness will only get tougher in the future.
Simpson scrambled to attach CIEDRA to another larger piece of legislation when Congress reconvened for its lame duck session in early December.
"It's not moving; nothing's moving," Slater said Dec. 6, two days before Congress adjourned.
Hindering Simpson's efforts was a fellow Idaho Republican, Sen. Larry Craig, who demanded that the bill's concessions be delivered up front. Many believed Craig's actions prevented the bill's passage.
"If you don't want more wilderness just come out and say it," Simpson told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., has said that the bill's concessions "cheapened" the wilderness designation process.
Rahall is expected to chair the House Resources Committee when the Democrats take over control of Congress next year.
"I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place," Simpson told the AP in December. "The more I move to what Larry Craig will accept, the more I move from what Nick Rahall wants. The more I move to what Nick Rahall will accept, the more I move from what Larry Craig wants."
The Idaho Conservation League and other pro-CIEDRA environmental groups are optimistic Rahall's leanings will force Simpson to slash some of the land giveaways if he wants to have any chance of passing his bill.
But Slater said that is unlikely because the bill is so intricately molded by compromise.
"It's kind of like walking a knife edge," Slater said in early December. "It's difficult to change one thing because of the outcome on something else."
