The White Clouds Wilderness compromise will be easy!

[JoseCuervo]

Hangar,

You needing caffeine??? The Scorpion 340 post was about 3 of your replies ago....

But, if you want to pass along a message to Ms. Mitchell, tell her I would be more than happy to join the ISSSA, as soon as she comes out with a statement saying she wants to protect the resources, not some historical use. Her stances on the Sage Grouse and on the OI lead me to believe that she is not a hunter, but just another gear-head....

 

[Muledeer4me]

" Merle does not need to explain anything to anyone about ATV's because he represents snowmobilers. How is this leadership looney?"


LOL,Sandra Mitchell is one smart lady and did a good job on the OI.
She understand's the assult on public lands from the WAY GREEN side and know's that people like Ithaca and Elkgunner are only looking to ban ALL MOTORIZED use .

I don't own or ride a snowmachine ,I only defend there right to ride.
Protecting resources does not mean you can't use them.
Using an ATV or Snowmachine does not make anyone less of a hunter or less of a supporter of game.
It's all in how and where they are used,and if anyone of you treehuggers would go to some of the meeting's you find out what these group's are doing.
ROLFLMAO Sandra Mitchell a gear head ,Elkgunner you crack me up.

 

[Hangar18]

The genius detective solves another one.

Thank you for telling us what the Honorable Senator Church was thinking about when he said that. He may also have been thinking about Blizzards, 600cc El Tigres and 500cc Polaris Centurian triples. Please tell us what he was thinking when he said "I intend to work in the future for opening designated parts of wilderness areas for snowmobile use."

The opposition to the sage grouse ESA listing has been explained, and you had no response.

Please explain how we are ripping and tearing it up. And what we are ripping and tearing up. Further explain why we have no regard for animals.

Merle does not need to explain anything to anyone about ATV's because he represents snowmobilers. How is this leadership looney?

I'll tell Ms. Mitchell at lunch tomorrow that your $20 is in the mail.

 

[Hangar18]

EG must be a Dodger fan...

 

[JoseCuervo]

The problem with compromise


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Thanks, but no thanks.

That was the message Rep. Mike Simpson delivered to a room packed with wilderness advocates who had testified on proposed boundaries for a Boulder White Clouds Wilderness.

Simpson chided the 150 to 200 people who showed up to listen and testify with a self-righteous lecture on compromise.

He said that early in his congressional career, people would come up to him and say, "Don’t compromise, Mike." He said he learned quickly that to refuse to compromise is to get nothing done. He cited the U.S. Constitution as a "great compromise."

Sure was. The problem is that there are compromises, and there are sellouts that masquerade as compromises. If President Abraham Lincoln had sold out in the name of constitutional compromise, black Americans would still be slaves.

The problem with any so-called compromise on wilderness lands is that the chance for a real compromise was consumed long ago by America’s torrid love affair with the gasoline engine. Areas today that have not felt the peel of a spinning wheel are tiny, tiny remnants of what was once wild and untouched country.

The Boulder-White Clouds area is one of those remnants. It’s like the last piece of pie in the dish. Most of the pie is long gone, consumed by industrial appetites. But industrial appetites are not easily sated, and they now covet the last piece of pie—the high lakes and the rocky ridges.

Consider. Of 192 million acres of National Forest Lands, 35 million acres are wilderness, and 6 million are proposed wilderness. Just 33 million are unroaded. Yet, in the name of compromise, Rep. Simpson would have us hand over large chunks of the last piece of pie—the last 6 million acres—and call it fair.

It’s not fair.

Nor is it reasonable compromise to call for Boulder-White Clouds boundaries that don’t even include the Boulder Mountains.

It’s not fair to treat as truth the argument that motorized users are being locked out of most wild places.

It’s not fair to the bear, deer and elk that live in peace in the Champion Lakes area to be annexed into a new national Mecca for meddlesome machines.

It’s not fair to give $1 million to a state agency devoted to motorized uses, while converting the easiest family hiking trails to speedways.

Simpson warned that nothing but finding common ground between hikers and motorized users will fly in Idaho.

That should be easy, Congressman. The only real common ground is under everyone’s feet. Anything else is a sellout to political convenience.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Simpson says he'll tweak wilderness plan
The Associated Press

KETCHUM -- U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson said Wednesday he will likely expand the area designated as wilderness in his proposed legislation to create a new federal wilderness area in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains.

The modifications will be based on comments the Republican congressmen heard last week during two days of hearings in central Idaho. None have been finalized, he said, but up to another 100,000 acres could be set aside for preservation when the new draft is released next month.

"You have to balance off what you can include in changes and how that will upset the balance in the entire bill and the support for it," Simpson said.

Simpson said he would decide in August whether to hold another round of public hearings, based on the feedback to the final draft.

While Congress is scheduled to adjourn by Oct. 1, Simpson remained optimistic about prospects for the bill. He said even if it is not passed this year, much progress will have been made to put it on a fast track in the next Congress.

In the meantime, Simpson said, he will continue to accept written comments on the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act.

Simpson has called his original proposal a preservation and economic stimulus plan for central Idaho. It designates 294,000 acres of wilderness in the Boulder-White Clouds area but keeps the Germainia Creek trail cutting between the Boulders and White Clouds open to motorized users, who have opposed past plans because they shut the trail down. Motors are banned in wilderness areas.

It put some areas popular with motorized users like the Fourth of July and Frog lakes in wilderness, while others favored by conservationists are left out of wilderness boundaries.

The plan would also transfer more than 1,000 acres of federal land to Custer County and would authorize a buyout of ranchers' grazing allotments affected by the proposal.

Last week, Simpson hosted town hall meetings in Ketchum, Stanley and Challis. The opinions were strong and varied. Some people said the legislation failed to adequately protect enough land, while others said it locked motorized users out of too much territory.