Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Simpson’s bill needs work


The Idaho Mountain Express article on Rep. Mike Simpson's recent trip into the Boulder and White Cloud mountains and his effort to pass a "wilderness" bill left readers with the mistaken impression that wheelchairs are prohibited in Wilderness. That is simply not true. Current law allows for wheelchairs in Wilderness. That's as it should be.

What shouldn't be allowed are all the exceptions to wilderness law with which Simpson has larded CIEDRA. He wants the Boulder-White Clouds to be Wilderness in name only. He wants Wilderness riddled with ATV corridors and over-built, non-motorized trails. He wants Wilderness open to widespread motorized use by state and federal agencies, with wild habitats and wildlife populations manipulated and shaped by managers rather than the forces of nature, as set forth in the Wilderness Act. If you like your Wilderness tame, you'll love CIEDRA.

That's why a vast array of Idaho and national conservation groups that support sound Wilderness bills rallied to stop CIEDRA in the last Congress, and why CIEDRA isn't gaining traction this time around. Simpson might want his constituents to think he's making progress when he tells the Mountain Express that CIEDRA "stands a legitimate shot at becoming law before year's end," but the only likelihood it will pass is if Simpson reaches out beyond his tiny band of hand-picked supporters and local officials, and agrees to work with the broad array of wilderness and conservation groups inside and outside Idaho that have expressed concerns about CIEDRA—something he has thus far refused to do.

George Nickas

Executive Director

Wilderness Watch

Missoula, Mont.




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