Wilderness/Roadless
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Here is more on the big victory, slapping down the Bush Administration’s new grazing regulations. Rocky Barker goes on to tie it with the recent Bush defeat on the roadless issue ruling. One point about the headline — ” Cowboys and loggers.” Cowboys and loggers are the employees. Like so many of us, they are…
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Freudenthal: Keep Thomas’ proposal alive. Before his death, senator worked on Wyoming Front bill. Billings Gazette. By The Associated Press. Hopefully for the great scenery and wildlife in the area, this plea will turn out to be more than an nice sentiment upon the death of Senator Thomas.
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Far-reaching roadless legislation introduced in Congress. By Jason Kaufmann. Idaho Mountain Express. The bill, which affects the entire United States, not just Idaho, would make President Clinton’s roadless area protection rule into law, thus voiding President Bush’s weaker protection of roadless areas administrative action. The bill would not change the current use or non-use of…
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A story today says the reason for the lack of controversy is that only the uncontroversial stream segments were included in the legislation. Bill leaves out some waters. By Whitney Royster. Casper Star-Tribune environmental reporter. At the present only part of one river in Wyoming is in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. That…
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This is the first time in memory that I recall a Wyoming member of Congress wanting to do anything like this. Many of these streams are already mostly protected by virtue of being in designated Wilderness Area (regarded as near perfect protection anyway), but the Wilderness Act has a little known provision that has never…
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Rocky Barker has written about the Owyhee Initiative in the Idaho Statesman: Letters from the West: Owyhee coalition still standing
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Just weeks after a snowmobiler was almost killed by an avalanche in Jewel Basin in Montana’s Swan Range, closed to snowmobiles, the Forest Service wants stiff penalties for those riding illegally in Wilderness and other closed areas. The increasing number of rescues and fatalities of these illegal riders is both dangerous to rescuers and expensive.…
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Representative Mike Simpson is reintroducing his Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act and Senator Mike Crapo his Owyhee Canyonlands bill. Both measures failed in the last Congress, although Simpson’s CIEDRA came close to being sent to Bush’s desk. Here is the story in today’s Idaho Statesman.“Simpson, Crapo again push their wilderness bills. Lawmakers say…