U.S.-Mexico Border Wilderness Issues

A recently released report takes a look at interagency cooperation on US-Mexico Border Wilderness Issues.

The full report can be downloaded here: http://kirk_emerson.home.mindspring.com/Interagency_Border_Cooperation.pdf

Executive Summary

This report documents interagency cooperation at work on the U.S.-Mexico border to improve both security at the border and the protection of adjacent wilderness areas. Despite the challenges and conflicts that can make such cooperation difficult, there are numerous examples of how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agencies have been working together with the U.S Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and their land management agencies on our southern border.

This report summarizes the recent history of interagency cooperation with an emphasis on U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and federal land management agencies. It enumerates the different ways in which such cooperation occurs and illustrates this interagency cooperation through six case studies. The report is based on research conducted during the summer of 2010, including over 50 interviews with border security professionals, land management agencies, and border areas stakeholders.

Wilderness, Wild and Scenic River Stewards Receive Forest Service Awards

WASHINGTON, October 18, 2010 -- The USDA Forest Service recently recognized the outstanding contributions and accomplishments of six individuals and four groups regarding their stewardship of National Forest System wilderness and wild and scenic rivers.

"The exceptional efforts and leadership of these dedicated employees and colleagues will allow us to continue our legacy of quality wilderness management and the protection of wild and scenic rivers," said Tom Tidwell, the Chief of the Forest Service. "Their work will help ensure an enduring wilderness resource for future generations."

The 2010 National Wilderness Awards recognize accomplishments in the fields of education, research and leadership to keep Forest Service wilderness areas in their natural, wild state. Recipients include:

• Stephen Hendricks - Aldo Leopold Award for Overall Wilderness Stewardship Program. Hendricks, of Asheville, N.C., recently retired as the forest planner for the National Forests in North Carolina.
• The Wilderness Institute, University of Montana -Aldo Leopold Group Award for Overall Wilderness Stewardship for Wilderness Stewardship Challenge accomplishments in Idaho, Montana and North Dakota.
• Clem Pope - Bob Marshall Award for Individual Champion of Wilderness Stewardship. Pope, of McCall, Idaho, is the Wilderness Manager for the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, Payette National Forest, Idaho.
• Sitka Conservation Society, Sitka, Alaska - Bob Marshall Award for Group Champion of Wilderness Stewardship.
• Laurie Matthews - Wilderness Education Leadership Award. Matthews, of Challis, Idaho, is the Wilderness Program Manager on the Middle Fork Ranger District, Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho.
• Rusty Thompson - Traditional Skills and Minimum Tool Leadership. Thompson, of Entiat, Wash., is the Trail Program Manager for the Wenatchie Ranger District, Okanongan Wenatchee National Forests.
• White Mountain National Forest (New Hampshire) Wilderness Team - Traditional Skills and Minimum Tool Leadership group award for basic principles of wilderness stewardship. The minimum tool concept involves the use of traditional or primitive tools to keep wilderness areas in their natural, wild state.

The National 2010 Wild and Scenic River awards recognize stewardship accomplishments to promote and protect the Forest Service's Wild and Scenic Rivers Program, which currently manages 119 wild and scenic rivers. These rivers provide outstanding scenery, critical habitat for fish and wildlife, offer recreational opportunities, and sustain water resources for a growing population. Recipients include:

• The Huron-Manistee National Forests (Mich. - Outstanding Stewardship of River Resources.
• Mollie Chaudet - Outstanding River Manger. Chaudet, of Bend, Ore., is the wild and scenic river coordinator and NEPA litigation coordinator for the Deschutes National Forest, Ore.
• Amy Unthank - Line Officer/Staff Wild and Scenic River Leadership Award. The award recognizes her work as Regional Fisheries Program Leader in the Southwestern Region based in Albuquerque. Unthank is now the National Fisheries Program Leader in Washington, D.C.

A Lifetime Achievement Award will also be presented to Jackie Diedrich, the agency's National Wild and Scenic River Program Manager. Diedrich, from Portland, Ore., is recognized as an international leader for wild and scenic rivers and currently serves as the Council Chair for the federal Interagency Wild and Scenic Rivers Coordinating Council. The award recognizes her 33 years with the agency as a wild and scenic river steward of great insight and a champion of partner collaborations to benefit and preserve wild and scenic rivers.

The Forest Service wilderness program is a major component of the National Wilderness Preservation System which encompasses all federal land management agencies that manage wilderness areas. This system includes 756 wilderness units with more than 109 million acres. For more information, please visit www.wilderness.net. For more information about The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, visit www.rivers.gov.

The mission of the USDA Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The Agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to State and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

Contact:

Press Office
(202) 205-1134

Court ruling upheld on forest management outside Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

From the Duluth News Tribune

The Eighth District U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision saying the Superior National Forest management plan for forests around the perimeter of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness were properly developed.

The lawsuit, brought by the Sierra Club, had claimed that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act in revising the forest plan for the Superior National Forest. The group claimed the Forest Service failed to properly consider impacts of activities outside the BWCAW on the wilderness.

The case was dismissed in January 2009 by District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz. In its ruling filed Monday, the appeals court said the Forest Service “took the ‘hard look’ required of it” under the environmental policy act and that the “Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously” in developing a management plan for the area around the BWCAW.

Wayne Brandt, executive vice president of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association and Minnesota Forest Industries, said in a statement that the courts have made the correct decisions in upholding Forest Service policy for management of the BWCAW and surrounding lands that are open to logging.

Society for Wilderness Stewardship Brings on New Board Member - Sue Gunn

The Society for Wilderness Stewardship recently added new board member Sue Gunn! Sue, current Restoration Campaign Director for Wildlands CPR, brings years of wilderness experience to the Society and is an excellent addition to the board. "Sue is just the kind of board member that the Society needs to help the organization achieve its goal of professionalizing the discipline of wilderness stewardship," said Ben Lawhon, Vice Chair of the Society's board.

Sue has a PhD in isotope geochemistry and conducted research in igneous petrology for the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA for over a decade. Her doctorate fieldwork was conducted on the Cretaceous granites of southwestern Montana and the research for her MS was in a remote area of Baja, CA. Her undergraduate degree is in Political Science with an emphasis on constitutional law.

Sue has an extensive policy background and worked for a decade in Washington DC as the director of Budget and Appropriations and later the director of the the National Parks Program for The Wilderness Society. She moved to Olympia, WA in 2006 to get closer to big wilderness and has worked on water and environmental issues. Sue is currently the Restoration Campaign Director for Wildlands CPR and the campaign coordinator for the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative.

Mountain climbing group backs Polis, Salazar wilderness bills

The Access Fund, a national climbing advocacy group, recently announced its support for a pair of proposed bills that would designate more than 121,000 acres of federal lands in Colorado as wilderness and another 99,000 acres as special management areas.

The Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, who represents Eagle and Summit counties in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, would create more than 88,000 acres of new wilderness.

The San Juans Mountains Wilderness Act, sponsored in the House by Democratic Congressman John Salazar, who represents the 3rd Congressional District, and in the U.S. Senate by Democrats Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, would create more 33,000 acres of new wilderness in Southwest Colorado.


The Access Fund, which lobbies to “keep climbing areas open and conserve the climbing environment,” represents more than 2.3 million rock climbers, ice climbers, mountaineers and bouldering enthusiasts around the country.

“The Access Fund is happy to join with recreation and conservation groups across the state to support these public land conservation initiatives that preserve backcountry climbing and recreation opportunities,” Access Fund Executive Director Brady Robinson said on the group’s website.

“We support all types of climbing experiences, from the remote wilderness peaks to urban crags and bouldering areas. The opportunity to climb in protected wilderness areas is a key value that many climbers cherish. We hope our Colorado membership will contact their federal legislators in support of these proposals.”

New wilderness area proposed for North Fork Mountain, West Virginia

From the Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., has introduced legislation that would create a new 6,042 acre wilderness area encompassing a stretch of North Fork Mountain in Grant County.

The proposed North Fork Mountain Wilderness is a scaled-down version of a wilderness proposal for the Grant County peak that was deleted from last year's Wild Monongahela Wilderness Act. The 2009 wilderness package created three new wilderness areas and added wild land to three existing areas, bringing wilderness status to an additional 38,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest.

The earlier version of the proposed North Fork Mountain Wilderness included 9,200 acres.

"A third of the initial area was dropped to make the area more appealing to certain user groups," said Mike Costello of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition.

Costello said the new wilderness proposal would leave Redman Run Trail and most of the North Fork Mountain Trail open to mountain biking. It also would ensure that the Division of Natural Resources' trout-stocking program in the adjacent, angler-popular North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River would be unaffected.

The views from atop North Fork Mountain have been described as "the best scenery in the East" by Outside magazine, and the North Fork Mountain Trail was labeled "the most scenic trail in West Virginia" by Backpacker magazine.

The sheer sandstone cliffs atop the mountain provide nesting sites for peregrine falcons and habitat for the Allegheny woodrat, a species of concern due to plummeting populations in the region. Several caves that penetrate the mountain shelter hibernating bats, including several threatened or endangered species.

"A lot of the local businesses that cater to tourism have gotten behind a wilderness designation for the area," said Costello.

When North Fork Mountain was initially proposed as a wilderness area in 2004, U.S. Forest Service planners gave it their highest rating for "natural integrity."

Mollohan, who lost his re-election bid in May after 14 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, "has been a champion of public lands during his tenure," said Costello. "This is something he wanted to do before he left Congress."

Mollohan's Monongahela Conservation Legacy Act has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.

Asheville Conservationist Stephen E. Hendricks Receives National Wilderness Award

ASHEVILLE — Stephen E. Hendricks, of Asheville, was awarded the 2010 Aldo Leopold Stewardship Award, to be presented Thursday in Washington.

The U.S. Forest Service has given the award for the past two decades for excellence in wilderness stewardship.

It is named in honor of Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service employee in the 1920s, recognized as one of the nation's greatest conservationists and the father of the American wilderness.

Hendricks, a recently retired 32-year Forest Service employee, served as planner/landscape architect for the National Forests in North Carolina for the past eight years.

Prescribed burn long overdue in Texas Wilderness

From KETK NBC.com
Monday, October 11, 2010 - 4:32am

Nacogdoches---

The Daily Sentinel is reporting; wilderness areas are specially designated tracts of the national forests.

The largest in Texas is called the Upland Island Wilderness and is located about an hour south of Nacogdoches.

Nearly three years of arguments over the Upland Island's management will conclude in a public meeting Oct. 20 in the Angelina National Forest supervisor's office in Lufkin.

For many years, the main point of contention in wilderness areas has had a philosophical and legal basis.

Some argued that the land should be left to natural processes and never managed. Others thought that natural processes, namely fire, had been eliminated and should be mimicked by human management. For nearly 40 years, the opponents of prescribed fire had their way. But if the Forest Service and various private conservation proponents finalize their agreement in Lufkin, that will change this winter.

2010 Wilderness Awards

On Oct. 14, 2010 the US Forest Service National Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Awards Ceremony will be held in Washington DC. Without a doubt one of the most important wilderness recognition events nationally. The Society is keenly aware of the role wilderness stewards play in ensuring the life-sustaining benefits and values of wilderness. We'll post the winners once announced.