WESTERN WILDLANDS

Montana Coalition Seeks Wilderness, Economic Development

By Headwaters News, 1-31-06

County officials seek economic development. Environmentalists want to save roadless areas. Snowmobile associations want to ensure continued public access. Federal lawmakers are interested in carrying legislation to Congress to create a wilderness in their state, something that hasn't happened in decades.

If you’re thinking these seemingly unrelated issues together make up the controversial Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) that Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson is fighting to get through Congress, you’d be mistaken.

No, they are the components of a new plan touted by a Montana coalition of intereted parties that run the gamut from Lincoln County commissioners to snowmobile associations to environmental groups, and the land they’re hoping to bring some multi-use sensibility to lies within their Montana county.

Michael Jamison’s article in the Missoulian mentions only in passing that the bill might be the only wilderness bill to come out of Montana in decades, but given that the proposal has been submitted to Montana’s congressional delegation, it appears the plan may be the foundation for a new, proposed Wilderness Area in the Treasure State.

The Lincoln County Coalition’s proposal envisions roadless areas that will remain wild habitat for creatures, stewardship logging projects for forest health, and access for both motorized and nonmotorized recreation aficionados.

If federal funding can be obtained, the group foresees local interests buying working forest lands for community members to both play and work in.

The plan’s proponents acknowledge that they have a long way to go before their draft plan becomes a working reality, but they’re excited about the prospects for making it so.

To ease the passage of their proposal, they may want to take a look at the route Silmpson’s bill has taken through Congress and some of the roadblocks and obstacles it has encountered.

The Idaho Statesman ran two opinion pieces on CIEDRA over the weekend, one from Simpson himself defending CIEDRA and one from Janine Blaeloch, the director of the Western Lands Project in Seattle, who has criticized the lack of specificity the Act has when it comes to identifying just what lands and how many acres are affected under the Act.

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