US Fish & Wildlife Service In Lawsuit Over Wilderness Management

From the Courthouse News Service:

(CN) - Two rainwater collectors in an Arizona desert refuge built to help an ailing bighorn sheep population may have to be dismantled, the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday. The federal appeals panel in San Francisco revived a lawsuit brought by several environmental groups against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which in 2007 built the Yaqui and McPherson water structures in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness, a 600,000-acre desert refuge.

Wilderness Watch, the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and three other groups say the 13,000-gallon tanks violate the federal Wilderness Act, which prohibits, with a few exceptions, the building of structures in a designated wilderness area. The groups claimed in a lawsuit filed just after the collectors were built that the agency had failed to meet the requirements for an exception.

Congress designated most of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area in 1990, while only 18 percent of the land is a wildlife refuge subject to the "arguably less restrictive" federal Wildlife Act, the ruling states.

The area is in a sparsely populated, isolated and extremely rugged corner of the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona, and it has been a recognized haven for bighorn sheep since at least 1939.

The sheep population in the area remained fairly stable at around 700 sheep since the early 1990s, but there was a marked decline in the estimated population in 2003. Three years later, a survey estimated that there were only about 390 sheep in the area - a population loss of 30 percent to 50 percent in about 20 years.

Fish and Wildlife found that the water scarcity, mountain-lion predation, translocation, hunting and disturbances by hikers could have all contributed to the population drop.

Ultimately, it decided to build the two water catchments to more evenly distribute the scant 7 inches of rainfall that falls in the area annually, and to avoid moving Kofa sheep to other areas.

Read full article here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/12/21/32787.htm

Glacier Bay National Park - A Wilderness Quandary

NPS File Photo

Managers in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska are trying to gather key information on salmon populations in one of the park's popular rivers, the Bartlett River. The river has seen a two-fold increase in fishing pressure in the past decade, and park managers are concerned about the potential impact on the fishery. The National Park Service has been studying fish populations in the river for many years but the traditional method of having a person stationed at a remote location and counting fish isn't a very efficient or in some cases, an effective, option. Therefore the NPS is considering the use of SONAR to get more accurate data, and to be more efficient with data collection in times of turbid water and low light conditions. Sounds like a great solution, right?

Not so fast. The location where the NPS would like to use SONAR is in federally designated wilderness, and it's possible that this kind of technology isn't compatible with the park's management plans.

From a recent article in National Parks Traveler Magazine:

The park is proposing a four year study (2011-2014); the equipment would be put in place from June through October and removed the rest of the year. The sonar device would be installed about two miles upstream from the locations where most angling activity occurs, so few visitors would be aware of the equipment's presence.

This seems to be a pretty straightforward idea, but the site for the proposed study is located in designated wilderness. As a result, the park will complete an Environmental Assessment (EA) analyzing potential effects of the installation, and the staff is currently inviting public comments.

A park spokesperson noted, "Potential issues to be discussed include wilderness quality and character, impacts to Coho and sockeye salmon, impacts to visitor use and quality of experience, concerns over equipment maintenance and operation, and protection from wildlife." The EA will also analyze other alternatives to use of the sonar equipment.

To read the full article, visit: http://tinyurl.com/3yrarnc

To read the NPS proposal, visit: http://www.nps.gov/glba/parknews/bartlett-river-sonar-proposal.htm

Wilderness Volunteers - Giving Something Back

A recent article in the Marin Independent Journal recounted a volunteer experience facilitated through the non-profit organization, Wilderness Volunteers. Without volunteer stewards, many of the critical projects undertaken on public lands, and in wilderness in particular, would never get accomplished. Motivation for spending your time doing volunteer work in the woods runs the gamut from "I love wilderness", to "I just want to give back", to "working on the land is good for my soul." Without volunteers public lands would suffer. It's a simple fact.

From the article:

Not everyone can wrap his or her head around the appeal of spending a week in the Utah wilderness ripping out invasive Russian olive trees and paying for the privilege. Fortunately there are enough people who are eager to do that and similar service projects to make Wilderness Volunteers -- a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 and dedicated to organizing volunteer service to America's wild lands -- a success story.

Read the full article here: http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_16859096

Mules - The Wilderness Supply Train

BUFFALO FORK GUARD STATION, Mont. -- The rain is pouring down hard enough to soak through "waterproof" boots. Snow and low clouds shroud the surrounding mountaintops. Across this vast and uninviting landscape of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness north of the Wyoming border, Bob Hoverson and Mark Pengelly lead their string of pack mules up the Buffalo Fork trail, the mules' hooves making sucking sounds in the deep mud.

It's just another, wetter day at the office for the members of the Ninemile pack train.

Read the full article here: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_be7f682b-9afd-55c2-a1e8-60a2e1c910bc.html

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute - Resources for Wilderness Stewards

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute is the only Federal research group in the United States dedicated to the development and dissemination of knowledge needed to improve management of wilderness, parks, and similarly protected areas. Located on the University of Montana campus in Missoula, the Leopold Institute was formally established in 1993 by the U.S. Forest Service and is administered by the Rocky Mountain Research Station. The Institute operates under a Memorandum of Understanding among the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service. Managers and scientists from these agencies play an active role in developing Leopold Institute programs and priorities. The Institute provides a national center for scientists from different disciplines and backgrounds to address the wilderness research needs of land management agencies and organizations.

See what's new at the Leopold Institute: http://leopold.wilderness.net/whatsnew.htm

Resolution Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Weeks Act Approved by the U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON – On Nov. 29, 2010, a resolution authored by U.S. Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Weeks Act (S. Res. 679) was approved by the U.S. Senate. In addition to celebrating the law’s centennial anniversary, the bipartisan resolution provides deserving recognition to the law’s author, John Weeks, a Massachusetts Congressman born in Lancaster, New Hampshire. It also recognizes that the acquisition of the first 7,000 acres of White Mountain National Forest was made possible using the authorities provided by the Weeks Act. Lastly, the resolution acknowledges the work and cooperation of local conservation groups, businesses, industrialists, and the tourism industry to ensure passage of the original law, and encourages further collaboration and continued support for the White Mountain National Forest.

Read more here: http://gregg.senate.gov/news/press/release/?id=DE652846-4B68-41C0-86D9-7DF89C818482

For information on wilderness areas on the White Mountain National Forest, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/white_mountain/recreation/wilderness/

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 50th Anniversary

Pine Beetle Wars

The Black Hills of South Dakota, the Black Elk Wilderness in particular, is just one of any number of areas in the western US that has a significant pine beetle infestation. The issue of how to manage damage from beetle kill is no small task, especially when federally designated wilderness is brought into the discussion. Land managers across the western US are wrestling with the pine beetle and what do about it, in addition to other threats to wilderness.

The mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae, is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of western North America from Mexico to central British Columbia. It has a hard black exoskeleton and measures about 5 millimeters, about the size of a grain of rice. Mountain pine beetles inhabit ponderosa, lodgepole, Scotch and limber pine trees. During early stages of an outbreak, attacks are limited largely to trees under stress from injury, poor site conditions, fire damage, overcrowding, root disease, or old age. As beetle populations increase, the beetles attack the largest trees in the outbreak area.

A recent article in the South Dakota Rapid City Journal explores the issues surrounding the pine beetle both inside and outside of wilderness.

From the Rapid City Journal:

The fight is over in the Black Elk Wilderness. The beetles won.

And they’re winning all through the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve, a 35,000-acre tract of relative isolation that includes the 13,000-acre Black Elk and the state’s highest point at Harney Peak.

That ravaged piece of high-country landscape is the epicenter of a plague of mountain pine beetles that is eating its way across the Black Hills. It is a biological version of a wildfire that could for generations change the face of this island of forest rising up from the surrounding plains.

The patches of rusty-brown pine trees that mark the destructive path of the beetles are appearing everywhere. Once limited to a few patches of dead or dying trees in the high country, they are now apparent from the highway near Crazy Horse, along the road to Rochford and on the ridges of Spearfish Mountain.

“Just about anywhere you go in the forest these days you can throw a rock and hit a beetle tree sooner or later,” said Kurt Allen, an entomologist for the U.S. Forest Service in Rapid City. “In my travels around the Hills, I’ve seen it just about everywhere.”

Read the full article here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_aeb883cc-0034-11e0-a6a5-001cc4c03286.html

The Society for Wilderness Stewardship to play key role in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act

As many of you are already aware, history was made on September 3, 1964 - when President LB Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, thus establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System. The 50th anniversary of this important legislative triumph is approaching quickly in 2014, and as a result, a planning team of wilderness-affiliated non-governmental organizations and the four wilderness-managing federal agencies is currently being assembled to plan the activities for this once-in-a-lifetime wilderness anniversary celebration.

The initial goals for the 50th Anniversary Planning Team are to bring the wilderness community together to celebrate and steward wilderness, and to help the general public become more aware of the many benefits and values of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Society for Wilderness Stewardship's Program Committee Chair has been asked to serve as the 50th Anniversary Planning Team's Co-Chairperson and has willingly accepted this position. The planning team meets monthly via teleconference and working committees, that will accomplish the bulk of the on-the-ground work for the 2014 celebration, which is currently being formulated.

The American people have supported wilderness since its inception, as the NWPS has grown from its original 9.1 million acres to over 100 million total acres in less than fifty years. Let's all take the unique opportunity of the 50th to come together as wilderness advocates, to do whatever is needed to make the 50th Anniversary Celebration an experience for the ages, and to use this distinctive event to propel us into a new time of shared stewardship and sincere collaborative wildlands management.

For more information on becoming involved with one of the 50th Anniversary working committees please contact the planning team Co-Chair

redroadone@aol.com