A real threat to wilderness: relevance

According to new data released from a USDA Forest Service survey, visitation to wilderness areas on the Shoshone National Forest has decreased from 14 percent to 3 percent since 1986. However, the majority of those who do visit wilderness (77%) were satisfied with their wilderness experience. This highlights one of the real threats to wilderness: relevance. With wilderness visitation declining in many parts of the country, this simply further highlights the need for the wilderness community to work together to ensure that the life sustaining benefits and values of wilderness are both understood and treasured by the public.

Read the full article from the Billings Gazette here: http://tinyurl.com/64nscrq

Wilderness Stewardship Challenge Grants Awarded

From the Montana Daily Inter Lake:

Two area organizations were among 21 nonprofit groups nationwide that received Wilderness Stewardship Challenge grants from the National Forest Foundation. More than $400,000 was awarded to support wilderness conservation.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation won for its “Pain in the Grass” proposal for noxious weed eradication in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

The Swan Ecosystem Center will receive a grant for its proposed Mission Mountain Wilderness Stewardship Partnership for the Mission Mountains Wilderness near Condon.

In 2004, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the U.S. Forest Service issued a Stewardship Challenge calling for all wilderness areas in the National Forest System to meet baseline management standards by 2014 — the 50th anniversary of the act. To meet this standard, wilderness areas are measured on 10 stewardship elements and must achieve 60 percent of the total available points.

Since 2004, the program has provided 1:1 matching grants to nonprofit partners for the implementation of on-the-ground conservation projects that directly benefit National Forest Wilderness Areas. This year, additional funding was available specifically for reduced-match grants to organizations with small operating budgets, providing the opportunity to support a greater diversity of projects and groups.

“Since the inception of the challenge, the National Forest Foundation has invested more than $2.5 million in the stewardship of National Forest Wilderness Areas,” says Bill Possiel, president of the National Forest Foundation. “Expanding the program to create opportunities for smaller organizations greatly increases the value of our investment by boosting the presence and capacity of those organizations within their communities and contributes to the advancement of the stewardship of designated wilderness areas.”

The many projects funded this year by the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge program will achieve invasive weed inventory and eradication, utilize volunteer wilderness rangers to inventory and rehabilitate impacted campsites, and reconstruct high-use trails.

For more information on the National Forest Foundation grants, visit: http://www.nationalforests.org/news/article/131/nff-announces-new-wilderness-grants

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Resuming Their Wilderness Stewardship Plan

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) is resuming their Wilderness Stewardship Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (WSP/EIS). The parks contain approximately 807,962 acres of designated wilderness (including the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness and John Krebs Wilderness).

To get involved in the process or to view the supporting documentation, please visit: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=33225

Howard Zahniser: Author of the Wilderness Act

Howard Zahniser was born on February 25, 1906, in Franklin, Pennsylvania. The son of a Free Methodist minister who changed churches every few years, he grew up in the Allegheny River region of northwestern Pennsylvania. He spent his teenage years in Tionesta, just west of what is now the Allegheny National Forest. It was here that he developed a life-long interest in nature and a love of literature. He attended Greenville College in Illinois where he received a degree in humanities. He taught school and worked as a newspaper reporter.

Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Act in 1956. An eloquent wordsmith, he chose the word "untrammeled" to characterize wilderness in the Act. Others questioned this choice, yet he was adament about its use as the right word to characterize wilderness.

"A wilderness...is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man..."

- The Wilderness Act.

To read more about Howard Zahniser, visit: http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=feature0504

The Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2011

Tennessee Wild, a broad coalition of conservation organizations, applauded Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker for reintroducing legislation to designate new wilderness areas on the Cherokee National Forest. This measure could result in the first new wilderness for Tennessee in 25 years.

“We are thrilled with the Senators’ continued commitment to see our special wild places protected,” said Jeff Hunter Tennessee Wild campaign coordinator. “The Cherokee National Forest is popular with locals and tourists alike. It helps sustain local economies here in east Tennessee as well as provide clean drinking water and important wildlife habitat.”

The Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2011, introduced May 24, will protect nearly 20,000 acres of public land, expanding five existing wilderness areas and creating the new Upper Bald River Wilderness Area. All of these areas were recommended for wilderness designation in the US Forest Service’s 2004 management plan.

Widespread support for additional wilderness in the Cherokee forest includes hikers, hunters, business owners, local lawmakers, members of the faith community, and others who endorse the bill.

“Only wilderness areas provide the opportunity for a complete getaway from the noise and stress of daily life. It’s increasingly difficult to hike, fish or hunt without hearing cars or chainsaws; wilderness allows us to experience the land as our forefathers did,” said Dawson Wheeler, owner of Rock Creek Outfitters in Chattanooga. “As a business owner I see the direct benefit wilderness provides to the local economy and the positive impact it has on real estate values and quality of life in surrounding regions.”

Hiking is a top activity in the proposed wilderness areas, which contain sections of the nationally popular Appalachian and Benton MacKaye trails.

“The Appalachian Trail Conservancy continues to believe that wilderness is the best protection available for the A.T.,” said Morgan Sommerville, regional director of the organization that protects the A.T. “We endorse new wilderness designations along the A.T. as long as enough volunteers are available to help maintain the trail. Happily, regarding the Big Laurel Branch Wilderness and Extension in the Cherokee National Forest, new volunteers are rising to the challenge.”

The proposed wilderness additions are also havens for sportsmen and sportswomen. Mike Campbell, a Chattanooga-based attorney, expressed support for wilderness: “As a hunter and horseman, I believe it is imperative to go and be where there are no vehicles, no roads, just trails and the quiet forest.”

Senators Alexander and Corker first introduced the bill last year. “Time ran out last Congress for this bill,” added Hunter. “We hope the legislation moves quickly this Congress to provide the safeguards these lands to richly deserve.”

Rupert Cutler Wilderness: Yesterday and Today - Monday June 6, 2011 - 6:30pm - Golden, CO

Come hear Rupert Cutler of Roanoke, Virginia, former Assistant Executive Director of The Wilderness Society during the Lyndon Johnson Administration (1965-69) and the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources during the Jimmy Carter Administration (1977–1980), speak about the protection of wilderness. He has been instrumental in wilderness stewardship issues throughout his career.

When: Monday, June 6, 2011 - 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: American Mountaineering Center, Golden CO

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