Conservation Northwest

2011 A Wild Year Coleman and Crystal Gartner, and have had to pare down our efforts to focus on core campaign objectives and tighten our belts even further to increase our efficiency and effectiveness with fewer resources. Forward to 2012 As we look forward to 2012 and beyond, we're hopeful for the Columbia Highlands Initiative vision to protect wildlife habitat and improve connectivity and safe passage for wildlife between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains. We will continue working with our timber industry partners to advance good forestry on the Colville National Forest, with ranchers who want to protect their way of life as well as important wildlife habitat, with local communities that want to protect jobs and wildlife, and with members of Congress as we pursue all feasible avenues for protecting the wildlands at the heart of our Columbia Highlands Initiative. We will also look for opportunities to improve the habitat and the social tolerance for the threatened wildlife, including lynx and wolves, relying on the Highland's diverse landscape to survive, thrive, and move. For more than 35 years, some of us have worked hard to see wilderness designated in the Columbia Highland's Kettle Range and Selkirk Mountains. With growing awareness across the state about the beauty and unique biological value of these wildlands, a new generation of wilderness advocates for the Columbia Highlands is stepping up to fill the shoes of those who came before. American politics and public opinion can change quickly as we've seen throughout the last decade, and the time will come when the politics are right for a wilderness bill and protective designation for deserving areas in the Columbia Highlands. Until then, we will collaborate, build good will, and find balanced solutions where we can. And as threats to wildlands shift, like the dramatic increases in off-road vehicle abuse, we will fight when we have to. As we charge ahead into 2012, our commitment to wilderness and the wildlife values of the Columbia Highlands remains stronger than ever. Watchdogging the forest We continued to collaborate on forest restoration projects on the Colville National Forest (CNF) in 2011 as part of the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition. We also monitored and documented ORV and ATV use, including illegal use on closed system roads, and helped survey routes for proposed temporary roads in the East Wedge adjacent to the Canadian border to support fuels reduction projects near homes. A wild roadless area southwest of the Kettle Crest and near the San Poil River. Thirteenmile Canyon is currently left out of the Forest Service's proposed recommendations for wilderness in the Columbia Highlands. Aaron Theisen Green: protected wilderness in all of WA. Red: current protected wilderness on the CNF. Gold: potential wilderness areas on the CNF. We monitored the South End Motor Vehicle Management project, which proposes to vastly increase authorized off-road travel in the south-central end of the forest. Former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth identified unmanaged recreation, including harm from OHVs, as a key threat to sustaining the nation's forests and grasslands. The other major threats are fire and fuels, invasive species, and loss of open space. "In late July of this year, my wife and I were hiking on a ridge east of Sullivan Lake, not too far south of one of the fingers of the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, when we heard the unmistakable cry of a wolf below us. We stopped and waited about five minutes before we heard another cry; there was no doubt it was a wolf. We had read about the importance of these predators to the health of mountain ecosystems. What a wonder; what a thrill to witness these freedom-loving creatures back in Washington State, and in an area being considered for wilderness designation. It was the best day of our summer hiking." —Thomas Soeldner, president of the Faith and Environment Network, Spokane Keeping the Northwest wild Winter 2012 9

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