Columns

CIEDRA, How Much Wilderness is Enough?

Posted on: July 20, 2007

By Adena Cook

Congressman Mike Simpson’s Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) is actually a Boulder-White Cloud Wilderness Bill, although the word “Wilderness” doesn’t appear in its title. The bill designates 318,765 acres of wilderness in three sections, Hemingway-Boulders, White Clouds and Jerry Peak. All are already protected by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA).

Idaho currently has just over 4 million acres of designated wilderness in 6 units, the massive Frank Church River of No Return (FCRONR), the Selway-Bitterroot, the Sawtooth (already a wilderness component of the SNRA), the Gospel-Hump, Hells Canyon, and Craters of the Moon. The first of these, the Selway-Bitterroot, was designated in the original 1964 Wilderness Act and the last, the FCRONR, in 1980. The FCRONR is the largest contiguous wilderness in this country outside of Alaska.

So, how much is enough? Wilderness advocates tell us that we need more and cite the fact that none have been designated since 1980 as a justification. It is like we have a quota and have failed to meet it! This is a figment of their imagination. We have already designated the best of our really qualified wildlands. They claim more lands need “protection”, yet our current wildernesses are ravaged by wildfire and more trails vanish every year due to neglect. This is protection?

Idahoans want their wildlands to be protected. They place a high value on scenic beauty, wildlife, challenge and the spiritual renewal that those wildlands offer. They also want to be able to access them and recreate on them. This means good management for fish and wildlife, the ecosystem, and for people. The SNRA provides that.

Wilderness is not about recreation and it is not about fish or wildlife. Wilderness is only about retaining its wilderness character, a place where nature rolls the dice and one of its biggest is fire. Recreation is permitted, but only the most primitive forms and only to the extent that it doesn’t compromise its wilderness character and integrity. That’s fine. I agree with over 4 million acres of it in Idaho. But that’s enough.

What CIEDRA does emphasize in its title is economic development and recreation. These provisions may or may not ever happen. Congress must appropriate the money first in separate legislation. CIEDRA only authorizes but does not appropriate a penny of its $13.5 million in give-aways and project funding. Two things in CIEDRA are certain however: 1) 5,693.47 acres of valuable public land will given away, some of it to be sold for development, and 2) 318,765 acres of public land will become federally designated wilderness.

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