Wilderness bill protects central Idaho land

WASHINGTON – The House approved a series of bills Monday to protect national forest land in the West, including a measure to designate 492 square miles in central Idaho as protected wilderness.

In exchange, the bill transfers about 4,000 acres of Idaho public lands to six surrounding counties to sell, manage or develop into housing.

In all, the bills would create nearly 670,000 acres of wilderness and protect 47 miles of wild and scenic rivers in California, Idaho and Oregon, as well as ban drilling in northern New Mexico’s Valle Vidal. The House also passed legislation to establish National Heritage Areas in several states, including New Mexico, Utah and Nevada.

The so-called Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, the brainchild of Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, carved a bitter rift in the environmental community, with some conservation groups touting the bill as the first realistic chance to protect wilderness in Idaho in more than three decades and dozens of others tarring it as a wholesale giveaway of public land.

“The nature of compromise is to move people to the middle,” Simpson said on the House floor. “And we can say here that we like more things than we don’t.”

An opponent, Janine Blaeloch of the Western Lands Project in Seattle, said the conveyance of public lands will result in clusters of new homes on the wilderness fringe.

The 520,000-acre buffer zone where motorized recreation use would be capped at current levels is nothing more than a noisy speedway ringing the pristine wilderness area, she said.

“They are pushing this as grand compromise,” she said. “But what they are really doing is endangering public land, endangering wilderness and setting a horrible precedent.”

Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League and a supporter, called negotiations over the deal “a tightrope,” but said ultimately the measure is “an Idaho solution for Idaho wilderness.”

The bill designates three new federally protected wilderness areas in the rugged mountains of the Sawtooth and Challis national forests: the Ernest Hemingway-Boulder Wilderness, the White Clouds Wilderness and the Jerry Peak Wilderness.

It would also add 600 acres protected from development to the existing Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

Also, the U.S. Department of Interior would release from study 130,000 acres of public land that had been earmarked as potential wilderness, allowing federal land managers to issue permits for mining, logging or other commercial uses.

The bill, and several other wilderness measures, passed under a suspension of House rules Monday, a maneuver that roiled opponents. The parliamentary move, often reserved for noncontroversial measures, prohibits amendments and streamlines voting with a quick voice count.

Singer Carole King, who has lived near Stanley, Idaho, on the fringe of the proposed wilderness area for 25 years, accused Simpson of manipulating House rules to coax a hushed vote on the contentious measure.

“There are zero business days between the announcement of this and the vote,” she said.

The bill now moves to a Senate panel chaired by Idaho GOP Sen. Larry Craig, who has not taken a position.

Craig’s spokesman said the senator will schedule subcommittee hearings in September, but a full Senate vote is unlikely before the November elections.

“No it’s not a slam dunk at all,” said spokesman Dan Whiting. “The minority has big concerns on this bill.”