With the possibility that CIEDRA may get another hearing in the house recourses committee, there have been many variations of who supports this controversial bill. It was good to see that Congressman Mike Simpson did not try to make believe that the recreation community supported this barrel of pork this time.
I just read an opinion published by the Idaho Statesman by Clayton resident Kathy Richmond, who is on the executive committee of the Sawtooth Group of the Northern Rockies Chapter of the Sierra Club. It was refreshing to see that even someone with her extreme views can occasionally get some facts correct. Everything she said about how CIEDRA was pushed through Congress last time was absolute fact.
On the other hand there was some very misleading information, such as motorized vehicles harassing wildlife. There are absolutely no credible scientific studies to support this allegation. Her comment on "taking away the solitude of hunters, hikers, and horseback riders," well that is entirely the decision of these user groups as there are far more square miles of backcountry available to those users than to motorized recreation.
She stated that 36,647 miles of roads and trails are motorized in Idaho. Maybe so, but I know as an outdoor enthusiast I prefer and should have the right to enjoy the awesome Idaho Backcountry and not be segregated to roads and highways. Just a very small percentage of those miles are backcountry trails.
It seems most folks agree, no matter what platform they stand on, that CIEDRA is wrong. The only people that don't seem to get it are the ones with their noses in the pork barrel. So, to the Custer County Commission, even though there are overwhelming facts that prove the people do not want it , and to Simpson, who seems to have made this a personal vendetta against the people of Idaho, it is time to put an end to this insanity.
Dan Hammerbeck
Boise
