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Wildlands & Wildlife:
Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: H.R 3603
Sponsor: Rep Mike Simpson (R-ID02)
Legislative Session: 2006

            The bill designates just over 300,000 acres of wilderness in the Boulder White Clouds area of Central Idaho.  Key concerns include the give-a-way of lands within the Sawtooth NRA, lack of adequate water rights protection, ORV issues and the codification of ORV trail incursions into prime habitat.

Privatization of Public Lands:

                 CIEDRA would give away over 5,000 acres of Forest Service and BLM-managed lands, including lands within the congressionally protected Sawtooth National Recreation Area (Sawtooth NRA).  These specials places include elk wintering grounds and important salmon spawning waters within the Salmon River watershed near Stanley, Idaho.  CIEDRA would open these lands to large-scale development and destructive motorized recreation.

                 These land sale provisions are fiscally irresponsible.  Over the last 30 years, nearly $65 million from American taxpayers have been invested to protect and preserve the Sawtooth NRA.  CIEDRA would reverse this policy and go so far as to give away land within the Sawtooth NRA, which was purchased with federal tax dollars, for $341,000 in 1989.  CIEDRA would set a dangerous precedent of removing protections on public lands and selling those lands to enrich developers, despite the strong opposition of local residents.

Wilderness Quality Lands:

                 CIEDRA also fails to protect nearly 130,000 acres of wilderness quality lands.  Conservationists in Idaho have long advocated for the protection of wildlife habitat and the wilderness values of the lands found in the Sawtooth NRA.  These lands should be protected from the threats of off road vehicles and encroaching development.

Clean Water Protections:

                 The streams and rivers of the Sawtooth NRA must be protected for the fish and wildlife that depend on them, especially spawning salmon.  Normally, federal lands such as the Sawtooth NRA are afforded federal protection of instream flows.  However, in 2000 the Idaho Supreme Court stripped the Sawtooth NRA of its clean water protections, while the State of Idaho continues to issue new water rights, further degrading instream flow protections and water quality. 

                 CIEDRA should reassert instream flow protections for the Sawtooth NRA.  Instead, the bill expressly denies a federal water right under current Idaho law for Wilderness areas and is silent as to the new Boulder White Clouds Management Area.  Without federal clean water protections the Salmons River and its tributaries will be degraded.  The impact on local salmon recovery could be disastrous.

Illegal Off-Road Vehicle Damage:

                 CIEDRA would priority use to motorized recreation, within a newly designated 540,000 acre Boulder White Clouds Management Area, which would in effect subvert the conservation purposes of the Sawtooth NRA.  To encourage off-road motorized use, vital contiguous wildlife habitat and wilderness quality lands would be divided into multiple parts.  CIEDRA would codify significant ORV trail incursions into prime wildlife habitat and pristine watersheds.

                 The bill also adopts a “no net loss” requirement for motorized trails.  This provision would prevent Sawtooth NRA land managers from being able to close motorized trails, irregardless of the threats to wildlife and public safety. 

Status

Contact

Myke Bybee                           

Associate Washington Representative

Arctic, Fish & Wildlife Habitat

202-675-2389                         

myke.bybee@sierraclub.org