For the week of May 21 - 27, 2003

ICL celebrates 30th year

Environmental group reviews successes, ongoing problems

---

By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

The environmental movement in Idaho is alive and well, but a myriad of forces are threatening the state’s wildlife and public lands.

That was the general message put forth at the Idaho Conservation League’s annual Wild Idaho! Conference, held last weekend at the Redfish Lake Lodge near Stanley.

The conference—which this year celebrated the organization’s 30^th anniversary—was marked by a mix of optimism and caution in establishing an effective environmental agenda for years to come.

Former Gov. Cecil Andrus—a four-term governor of Idaho and Secretary of Interior during the Carter administration—delivered a keynote address Saturday that called on the organization’s leaders and members to continue his efforts to protect wilderness areas in Idaho.

"There are some areas that should be left just as God created them," he said.

Andrus, 71, said he believes that Idaho has approximately 4 million acres of public land that should be added to the state’s existing 4 million acres of federally designated wilderness. He noted that 9 million acres of roadless Idaho forest lands qualify for inclusion in potential wilderness areas.

"Nobody’s going to remember who protected wilderness," he said. "But people will say, ‘Thank God somebody cared.’"

Central to the issue, he said, is that pristine open space and quality rangeland is disappearing at a rate of thousands of acres each day. "Unspoiled land is disappearing at an accelerated rate."

However, efforts to protect unspoiled lands face tough opposition, he said. As an example, the Bush administration’s Interior secretary, Gayle Norton, recently declared that 250 million acres of land nationwide that had been set aside as wilderness study areas will not be actively considered for wilderness designation.

The key to effective legislation, Andrus said, is compromise. "You can’t just plant your feet and say, ‘The hell with you," he said.

He noted that he was labeled early in his political career as an environmentalist but always considered himself a "common-sense conservationist."

Mining and timber harvesting should be allowed on some public lands, but legislators should also recognize that wild areas have an inherent value and monetary value—chiefly from the lucrative outdoor-leisure industry that they foster.

"You don’t find many picnic tables, or elk or deer, in an open pit mine," he said.

Times have changed though, Andrus said, since 1980, when the Carter administration protected 103 million acres in Alaska in one sweeping piece of environmental legislation, called the Alaskan Lands Bill. "It is something that will never be equaled again."

Andrus noted that he does not believe Idaho legislators would be able to get designation for 4 million acres of wilderness in the state in one piece of legislation. "I think we’ve lost our chance to do it in one fell swoop," he said.

As for developing legislation to designate the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains as wilderness, Andrus said the area is "deserving of protection," but all interest groups should be considered in the process. Yet, he added that he does not believe wilderness areas and motorized vehicles are compatible. "I don’t see how you can make it work for both."

Overall, Andrus preached that environmentalists need a "constancy of advocacy"—a sort of unrelenting but reserved passion—to preserve Idaho’s natural bounty.

Like Andrus, several other speakers at the event said the policies of the Bush administration have created a difficult atmosphere for environmental initiatives.

Chris Wood, vice president of Trout Unlimited for conservation programs, said Bush’s "Healthy Forests Initiative" to reduce the amount of flammable timber in forests could pose some new problems affecting water quality and wildlife habitat management in the West.

The plan focuses too heavily on the elimination of fuels and ignores some side effects of cutting in environmentally sensitive areas, he said.

Laird Lucas, executive director of the legal firm Advocates for the West, said Idaho faces numerous environmental threats, including some from state and federal agencies.

He said governmental agents have sought to kill predators of the sage grouse—including foxes, badgers and coyotes—in Idaho’s "Sagebrush Sea," the vast plain of sagebrush that covers the southern portion of the state. Also, federal agents have sought permission to spray vast amounts of insecticides—which are harmful to wildlife, birds and people—over public lands to kill Mormon crickets.

Martin Hayden, vice president of the environmental law group Earthjustice, said environmental legislation is under attack now more than at any time since 1990.

He said a one-time block of moderate Republicans in Congress has diminished substantially, alleging that the current Congress is "like the Federal Express of corporate interests."

In addition, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have effectively taken environmental issues out of the newspaper headlines—and the public eye.

Yet, some environmental legislation is making it through Congress, he said, including three Western wilderness bills last year. "Things can happen," he said.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.