Managers Work to Restore Native Cutthroat Populations in Wilderness Lakes

Many parts of the west have seen a significant decline in native fish populations over the years, both in wilderness and in other areas. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently unveiled a plan to try and bring back native Westslop Cutthroat Trout to several lakes, including some in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The history on these lakes is interesting as some were stocked prior to the Wilderness Act with helicopter yet now the'll have to be stocked by more traditional means - pack string.

From the a recent article in the Missoulan:

"Historically in the South Fork, these were all fishless lakes," Boyer said. "But they were great fish habitat. So in the 1920s and '30s, they started stocking rainbows and Yellowstone cutthroats. They'd load them in milk cans and haul them in on mule trains. Later on, they'd use helicopters."

Boyer said because the Bob Marshall lakes were mechanically stocked before the area became federally designated wilderness in 1964, the state had an exemption to continue delivering fish by helicopter to all but Pyramid Lake. Volunteers from the Backcountry Horsemen's Association will deliver fish to that lake, which never saw helicopter activity before it became wilderness.

Read the full article here: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_2e1cc662-8b29-11e0-a202-001cc4c03286.html

September 3, 1964

In the Rose Garden, September 3, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson has just signed the Wilderness Act and hands pens to Mardy Murie (left) and Alice Zahniser. Their husbands, Olaus and Howard, had died during the final year of the long lobbying campaign. Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall leans over the president as members of Congress look on: Senator Frank Church behind Murie; Representative Wayne Aspinall behind Zahniser; Senator Clinton P. Anderson to the right of Aspinall and directly above the president; and Representative John P. Saylor, with glasses, standing closest to Udall.

Wilderness vs. population growth

From the Denver Post Op-Ed

Wilderness is a general term that includes: National Forests, National Parks, National Monuments, National Grasslands, and finally, designated Wilderness Areas created by the 1964 wilderness act. Our wild areas provide quiet places to experience solitude in nature, tourism benefits for nearby communities, and a variety of recreation opportunities such as boating, hiking, fishing and hunting.

The threats to wilderness:

1. Forest Fire Suppression

The National Interagency Fire Center reported the following on March 25, 2011: Year to date over the most recent 10 years, this year has seen more fires than all other years except for 2009 and 2006, and those 2011 fires consumed more acres of forests than in any year except 2006. These numbers are from just a snapshot in time but support the perception that fire news at least is on the upswing. Why do we now pay more attention to forest fires? I contend that it's largely because more and more people each year choose to live near or within forested areas, which are interconnected, with our national lands. When fire happens, homes are put at risk and firefighters spend their time protecting people and their homes rather than controlling a fire's progress.

2. Oil and Wilderness

Here in the west we have our full share of sensitive places to protect and the Roan Plateau near Rifle Colorado is the latest and perhaps the biggest. The Roan was owned and managed by the Department of energy until 1997, who then turned it over to the Bureau of Land Management with no protections in place. Initially the Department of energy wanted to develop an oil shale industry to extract the oil from the shale layers holding the oil and gas. Today the gas is apparently more valuable and can be extracted cost effectively. Opponents to drilling in any sensitive public land are speaking with a single voice. How can we allow an industry that has apparently taken chances with our environment at every turn, move heavy machinery and equipment into these areas with only their assurances that it will be alright after they leave.

3. Grazing and Wilderness

Cattle grazing on public lands were an undisputed part of the old west until the 1970s when new laws were instituted setting fees for grazing privileges. Grazing fees hit their highest mark in 1980 and have reduced on average since. The fees are supposed to be based on the economic value of the land. So far it has been Environmentalists against Ranchers, when these two disparate groups could work in harmony toward a common goal. That goal could simply be a healthy natural environment where neither group overuses any part of the wilderness. What each person and each group needs to decide is how much they are willing to sacrifice to achieve this goal.

4. Water Diversion

In Colorado there are already a couple dozen tunnels and ditches that transport water from the west slope of the mountains to the east. These diversions from west slope streams and lakes to those on the east now average over 500,000 acre-feet annually. The more water we take from the lakes and streams on the western slope the more risk to the fish populations, not to mention the wetlands habitat and the animals and birds that depend on that habitat. Water temperatures may increase, limiting the species that can survive in those waters and as flows decrease the dangers from drought are magnified, and fishermen and women will find somewhere else to spend their tourism dollars.

There are many more threats such as the pine beetle infestation, development nibbling at the edges of wilderness areas at the rate of 5,000 acres every day, and air and water pollution not directly related to drilling or other industrial use, but population growth fuels many of the pressures on wilderness.

The 2010 census reported the current population of the U.S. at 308 million people and growth is projected to reach the one billion mark by 2100. Right now our population density of 84 people per square mile is one of the lowest in the world, ranking us alongside The Bahamas, a group of watery islands and Brazil, home of the expansive Amazon Jungle.

Major cities are home to 90 percent of the population in both of those countries leaving vast natural areas free of development. It's different here in the United States and specifically Colorado, where 75 percent of our population lives in suburbs or rural areas. The way we are planning and building for growth is the chief threat to wilderness.

Mike Kephart lives in Denver. EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.

National Park Service Director Takes Chair Of North American Wilderness Committee

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis has taken over as chair of the North American Wilderness Committee, an international organization focused on boosting wilderness conservation.

The committee is a coalition of seven U.S., Canadian, and Mexican federal land management agencies. It was established to "foster collaboration to ensure conservation, management and recovery of North American wilderness and other protected land- and seascapes; contribute to conserving the ecosystem integrity of wilderness in North America; help stakeholders achieve effective, efficient, and mutually beneficial wilderness conservation in North America; and foster communication regarding the management, conservation, and sustainable use of wilderness," a Park Service release said.

“This is an opportunity for the National Park Service to continue its leadership role in worldwide conservation and preservation,” Director Jarvis said. “National parks were America’s best idea, and that idea is one of our finest exports. We share habitats and species with our neighbors in Canada and Mexico and we face common challenges. This North American Wilderness Committee will help us face those challenges together.”

The committee came to being in late 2009. During its first 18 months of its work focused on transboundary cooperation, training, networking, ecosystem services, marine wilderness and monitoring. In the year ahead, agency staff plans to "cooperate and collaborate around issues of climate change, connectivity and monitoring, and the values of protected areas," the release said.

The other American committee members are Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management; Greg Siekaniec, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and; Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

The Mexican and Canadian committee members are Mariana Bellot Rojas, director general, Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas, Mexico; and Alan Latourelle, chief executive officer, Parks Canada Agency.

Desolation Wilderness permits now available online

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (AP) --

Visitors to California's popular Desolation Wilderness Area near Lake Tahoe now will be able to make overnight permit reservations online.

The U.S. Forest Service says it no longer will accept permit reservations over the phone, through the mail or by fax. The agency also will no longer mail reserved permits.

The 64,000-acre wilderness area is located in both the agency's Eldorado National Forest and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

The number of people allowed daily in various zones of the wilderness is regulated during the summer by a quota system.

Fifty percent of the quota in each zone is available for advanced reservations between Memorial Day weekend and Sept. 30.

The remaining quota is available on a first-come, first-served basis at permit offices on the date of entry.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/20/state/n182320D28.DTL#ixzz1NHAun9hS

Proposed legislation threatens wilderness - Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act

Published on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 12:08 AM PDT

Christopher Lancette
From the Kern Valley Sun

The Wilderness Society recently condemned the introduction of a bill by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that would roll back existing protections and place at risk tens of millions more acres of wilderness-quality but unprotected National Forest and BLM public lands.

“This is the biggest attack on wilderness we have seen in the history of The Wilderness Society,” Wilderness Society policy analyst Paul Spitler said of the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act.


“This proposal flies in the face of values Americans hold dear with respect to stewardship of our public lands. It also flies in the face of nearly 50 years of legislation designating new wilderness areas. Your favorite places where you love to hunt, fish or hike? Gone. Protection for our drinking water and habitat for wildlife? Gone.”

If passed, this legislation would open wilderness-caliber lands to destructive threats, including oil and gas development, uncontrolled off-road vehicle use and other unchecked development. It would essentially prohibit the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management from managing pristine lands to protect their wilderness values.

“I want to stress that there has never been enough funding for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to to hire adequate personnel to monitor and provide adequate on-site surveillance of our wilderness area and our precious resources,” added Kernville resident Robin Little.

“The Congressman (McCarthy) should talk to Forest Service and BLM people who do their best to keep an eye on these folks and see first hand the unbelieveable damage they do when they blaze their own trails throughout the forests,” she said. “Talk about cost? Again, unbelieveable. Rebuilding these damaged areas is not good use of our taxes. We would appreciate hearing what the estimated cost of opening up Wilderness areas for multiple use purposes would be,” Little said.

“That this proposal comes from the Republican leadership in Congress makes it more alarming,” Spitler said. “An attack of this magnitude does not represent the vision of Theodore Roosevelt or all the other great Republican leaders who love our public lands.”

In an April 18 op-ed piece, the Bakersfield Californian attacked the proposal writing, “Perhaps most alarming, the bill essentially declares, ‘OK, that's enough wilderness.’ By prohibiting future administrations from protecting wilderness-caliber lands with special designations, the bill essentially closes the door on any further land-use changes relative to wilderness protection – except to move them out of protected status.”

Background on the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act

Rep. McCarthy’s bill would:

1. Remove existing legislative protections from millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management “Wilderness Study Areas.”

2. Remove existing protections on tens of millions of acres of unroaded national forest wild lands by terminating a decade-old policy that protected those places.

3. Repeal recent BLM policy that assures the agency will identify and protect lands harboring wilderness values when it prepares its land use plans.

4. Prohibit future administrations from ever protecting the wilderness characteristics on tens of millions of acres of wilderness-caliber lands.

A federal judge awarded $1.95 million to the family of a young boy killed in a 2007 bear attack

This could have a huge ripple effect across all federally managed lands, and wilderness in particular where sometimes potential dangers (animals, weather, rock fall, wild rivers, etc.) are part of the experience.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

A federal judge on May 3rd awarded $1.95 million to the family of a young boy killed in a 2007 bear attack.

Samuel Ives, 11, was camping in American Fork Canyon with his mother, step-father and brother when he was ripped from his family’s tent and killed by a black bear on the night of June 17, 2007.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said the U.S. Forest Service was required to warn the family that a dangerous animal was on the loose in canyon after reports that a bear had opened coolers and slashed through a tent in the area earlier that day.

Ives’ family "proved by a preponderance of evidence" that the Forest Service owed them a duty "to warn them about the earlier incident, whether the warning was oral, by posting signs on the gate of Timpooneke Road 56, and/or by roping off the specific campsite," Kimball wrote.

The boy’s grandmother, Sharon Ives, said Tuesday that her family was "thrilled" with the ruling and happy to put the lawsuit behind them.

"It’s hard enough to lose somebody in a violent manner," she said, "but to have to keep going through it and reliving it — it’s a nightmare."

Sharon Ives said Sam’s parents filed the lawsuit "to prevent this from happening to anybody else."

"Sam was always concerned about everybody else and we thought he would want this," she said. "Money doesn’t bring him back. We think about him every day."

Read the full article here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51744749-78/family-bear-forest-ives.html.csp?page=1

GPS fails again...

As more and more wilderness visitors rely on GPS units to guide them, the traditional skills of map and compass are being lost.

From a recent article in Times of India:

Travelers in the western US should not rely solely on technology such as GPS for navigation, authorities said, after a Canadian couple were lost in the Nevada wilderness for 48 days.

Albert Chretien, 59, and his wife Rita Chretien, 56, sought a shorter route between Boise, Idaho and Jackpot, Nevada during a road trip from British Columbia to Las Vegas.

Rita Chretien drank water from a stream and rationed meager supplies until hunters found her on Friday. Albert Chretien has been missing since March 22, when he went to seek help.

The Chretians mapped the route on their hand-held GPS, an electronic device tied to global satellites and commonly used for navigation.

Law enforcement and search and rescue officials said that too many travelers are letting technology lull them into a false sense of security.

"There are times when you need to put the GPS down and look out the window," said Howard Paul, veteran search and rescue official with the Colorado Search and Rescue Board, the volunteer organization that coordinates that state's missions.

Sheriff's offices in remote, high-elevation parts of Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming report the past two years have brought a rise in the number of GPS-guided travelers driving off marked and paved highways and into trouble.

The spike has prompted Death Valley National Park in California to caution on its web site that "GPS navigation to sites to remote locations like Death Valley are notoriously unreliable."

When two roads diverge in Western lands, take the one more traveled, authorities said.

"You've got people driving into the middle of a field because a machine showed a route that was shorter and quicker -- which it ultimately is not," said Rob DeBree, undersheriff in Albany County in southeastern Wyoming.

Searching for travelers who veer off an interstate highway in a county the size of Connecticut can be costly, time-consuming and dangerous for rescuers, he said.

Jerry Colson, sheriff of neighboring Carbon County, issued a broad appeal this winter to stay on paved roadways after several motorists consulted GPS devices for shortcuts and plowed into snowdrifts on roads to nowhere.

Authorities said such incidents show there is no substitute for common sense.

"Your machine may tell you the quickest route but it might not take into account there are impassable canyons between you and your destination," said Daryl Crandall, sheriff of Owyhee County in southwest Idaho.

Kevin McKinney, detective sergeant with the sheriff's office in Elko County, Nevada that is heading up the search for Albert Chretien, said motorists risk hardships on the patchwork of primitive roads in the wilds of northern Nevada where technology is ineffective.

"This country is as rugged and as unforgiving as you can get," he said.