TRADING WILDERNESS FOR
JOBS AND RECREATION
The Yaak Valley Forest Council has been working to bring new wilderness to the Yaak for
at least two years. Congress has an unwritten policy that no wilderness
bill will pass without approval of the congressional delegation from
that area. When our congressmen stick their finger in the wind
they feel the hot breath of out of work loggers and stranded
snowmobilers. YVFC realized that the main stumbling block to new
congressionally designated wilderness is the approval of local
residents.
In due time, these environmentalists in the Yaak decided to find
some desperate folks who might agree to trade wilderness for jobs and
recreation. Presto! The Lincoln County Coalition
which has timber, recreation, business and local government represented
in addition to YVFC.
Some of our members have been attending the announced meetings of LCC and we have obtained an early
draft from them but most of their work seems to go on behind closed
doors. They have said that they plan to present the proposed
legislation to the public before it is sent to congress. How much
REAL opportunity the public will have to change the coalition proposal
remains to be seen.
Here is what we know to this point.
The jobs and recreation people have agreed to
congressional wilderness designation of approximately 30,000 acres
of a Yaak roadless area called Roderick. The Yaak
folks have agreed to allow snowmobiling in a small area called Northwest
Peaks. Some of the area that the snowmobilers wanted has already
been closed by another forest but there is still some good terrain
left. YVFC has also agreed to some stewardship logging in the
Wildland Urban Interface to reduce high fire fuels. This is not
really a concession since everybody agrees that these fuels need to be
cleaned out near residences. Congress has even passed legislation
encouraging and funding these efforts. So far, the jobs and
recreation people in the coalition haven't really got much for their
support of wilderness.
The biggest sticking point of all is that while
wilderness is guaranteed and permanent, the jobs and recreation parts of
the package are not. And they won't be as long as the
environmentalists think they can get their wilderness cheaply. If
the proposed bill does not contain strong language that places the jobs
and recreation parts of this bill on a superior or at least equal
footing with the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws,
the jobs and recreation folks will likely end up with nothing. In
addition to protection from ESA, the legislation needs to include some
way to insulate jobs and recreation from legal action by
environmentalists.
At this point LCC has not reached agreement on
guarantees for the non-wilderness part of this proposal. MFMU
fears that out of desperation the jobs and recreation stakeholders in
LCC will settle for less than they need and end up with little or
nothing.
In fact they could end up with less than they have
now. If LCC sends a message to congress that the folks in Montana
support more wilderness, Congress may decide to pass NREPA
instead of the LCC proposal and NREPA will cancel everything that the jobs and recreation folks are trying to accomplish
in LCC.
Montanans For Multiple Use has great empathy for the
non-wilderness members of LCC. They and people like them are our
kind of folks. We really hope they get what they need. But
we don't believe that negotiating from a position of weakness will get
them anything. Furthermore we don't support one small group
compromising the future of others. We believe the adoption of this
proposal and others like it will make it more likely for similar
proposals to be forced on others who may not want them. Therefore,
it is imperative that any concessions for wilderness be reciprocated
with multiple use benefits of equal value and certainty.
This is a map of the Three Rivers District which LCC
is focused on. Libby is at the lower right; the Roderick Roadless
Area is in the middle. Northwest peaks which will allow some
snowmobiling is un upper left. The gray areas are private or state
lands.
With the LCC plan most of the Roderick area would
become wilderness. The rest of the lands marked in brown would
remain roadless. With NREPA all of the brown would become
wilderness.
