JF: 2 NW Pols Misfire On Wilderness Vote

Wednesday, legislation resolving a number of wilderness issues in the country, and incorporating the collaborative compromise over Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands, was endorsed by every House member from the Northwest with only two exceptions: eastern Washington’s Cathy McMorris Rodgers (pictured) and Doc Hastings. It tells you a lot when McMorris Rodgers and Hastings vote against something every Republican member of Congress from Idaho supports. It tells you they are anything but moderates, of course. But it tells you more than that. The Owyhee compromise, one of Republican Sen. Mike Crapo’s biggest projects in the last several years, represents, as Crapo is first to say, a model for settling any number of controversies involving the use of public land. For eight years, conservationists, ranchers, Indians, local government officials and others have worked to pass legislation that gives each party enough of what they want that they consider themselves winners/Jim Fisher, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Did you support the addition of the Owyhee Canyonlands to Idaho wilderness designation? Do you further support the designation of the Boulder-White Clouds area in central Idaho as wilderness?