Idaho Mountain Express: Monument proponents need to tell the truth

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Monument proponents need to tell the truth

    Brian Ellsworth’s July 9 Other Views column displays the deception and misinformation being spread by proponents of a Boulder-White Clouds National Monument.
   Noting his love for the Boulder and White Cloud mountain ranges, Ellsworth says, “The time is now to add some sort of long-term protection to the Boulder-White Clouds …” Let’s examine this statement.
   First, the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains are already protected by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. What’s more, the SNRA provides the mountains better protection than that offered in the national monument proposal. For example, mining claims within the SNRA can be bought without an owner’s agreement. Why replace current SNRA protection with a monument that offers less?
   Further, the monument proposal would replace the existing goals, management process and managing agency of the SNRA with similar goals, the same management process and the same managing agency. If proponents think there’s a problem, how does keeping things the same change anything?
   Long-term protection? It’s false to suggest a national monument would be more permanent than the SNRA. Either could be overturned by an act of Congress that is signed by a president.
   Responsibility for all this rests with the Idaho Conservation League and The Wilderness Society. A recent example: ICL literature left at people’s doors in Blaine County says the Boulder-White Clouds are at risk from mining. That statement is untrue. The Boulder-White Cloud Mountains are protected from mining by the SNRA.
   On many occasions, people have pointed out these and other falsehoods to the Idaho Conservation League and The Wilderness Society, yet the organizations persist. Clearly, they’ve decided success depends on a campaign of deception and misrepresentation to fool people into thinking the Boulder and White Cloud Mountains are not protected.
   If monument proponents can’t sell their idea with the truth, they should drop it.
John Kelley
Sun Valley

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