Well we have certainly seen this model many times in recent years. This wet, area of little known mountains (little known nationally) up against the Idaho/B.C. border is very important wildlife habitat.
Proposal for Colville [WA state] National Forest a collaborative effort. Spokesman-Review. By Becky Kramer.
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
This is an interesting story. I need to do more research about this proposal and the terrain in covers. I hate to be such a cynic, but the logging industry in Washington State has been a voracious consumer and it’s easy to be skeptical when there is a plan that they actually support. Hopefully it really is a good deal.
Northeast Washington is remote by lower 48 standards. North of I-90 the highways get windy and most people from West of the Cascades do not travel into the northeast part of the state. I live Puget Sound Area and it’s rare to talk to someone who isn’t a hunter that spends much time up there. It’s a 7-8 trek from Seattle to most points.
Beautiful country though. I fell in love with it after spending a couple of weeks in Newport for work. I drove the area as far North as Metalline Falls and took some time to myself in the Wilderness. There’s a level of solitude in the area that can’t easily be found in the Cascades. As a general rule within a three hour drive from Seattle your trail needs an elevation gain of at least 2,500 ft to start breaking away from the herd!
Daniel Berg,
I have backpacked the Salmo-Priest Wilderness. In fact the hike is in our book, Hiking Idaho (it straddles the WA/ID border).
It is very beautiful wet, big tree country with meadows and views up high. The Idaho portion, which is roadless, not Wilderness, needs to be Wilderness, but given Idaho’s brown politicians that is hardly possible.
In my mind the roadless country there I have experienced is so splendid maybe a compromise is a good thing, but not knowing the details that is just a guess.
I put up a page on this on my old web site http://www.forwolves.org/ralph/wpages/salmopr.htm
Beautiful pictures, I’ve been wanting to get up there with my fiance on a backpacking trip so she can experience the area as well. I will have to check out the book. I want to branch out more into Idaho on the backpacking trips I take even though it seems sometimes it could take a lifetime just to experience all the Washington has to offer.
This area is called Washington’s Forgotten Corner for a reason. The Colville- Kaniksu NF complex even has a rich administrative history. Notwithstanding it’s presence in the state of WA it was once administered by the USFS out of Missoula, instead of Portland for many years.
Aside from the population centered in Spokane much of the Forgotten Corner gets little use. I have hunted deer up there a few times, years ago. It truly is a long drive from Western WA, as the road system gives pretty slow access.
I hope whatever comes out of this keeps it wild and untouched as possible. The last great places are becoming so hard to come by and preserve. The devil will certainly be in the details as this evolves.