Bonner County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday calling for the U.S. Congress to designate the Idaho portion of the Scotchman Peaks as a wilderness. This is another milestone in an effort to protect a worthy spread of  mountain real estate northeast of Lake Pend Oreille. “The Scotchmans is a perfect area for wilderness,” said Cary Kelly, chairman of the three-man board. “There’s not a lot of timber that could be used because of the soil composition and terrain and no big mining interests. There’s not really any opposition other than from the element that doesn’t want any federal rules on our forests.” The entire 88,000-acre wilderness area proposal straddles the Idaho-Montana border in the Kaniksu and Kootenai national forests/Rich Landers, Outdoors. More here.

Question: Are you surprised that the Bonner County commissioners are backing wilderness designation for Scotchman Peaks?

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