Conservation Northwest

Getting wilder Derrick Knowles Columbia Highlands wilderness director, derrick@conservationnw.org Derrick Knowles Columbia Highlands wilderness director, derrick@conservationnw.org RECOMMENDING WILDERNESS Colville National Forest On treks like the famed Kettle Crest Trail, northeastern Washington's Columbia Highlands offer some of the finest wilderness experiences in the state. But the Kettle River Range and Selkirks Mountains are exceptionally significant not only for recreation. Wildlands here provide room to roam between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains for an incredible array of wildlife, including grizzly bears, moose, mule deer, mountain caribou, lynx, bighorn sheep, and wolves. For 35 years, local citizens have worked tirelessly to protect the Columbia Highlands' remote, wild peaks and unprecedented wildlife habitat. In a recent proposed forest plan for the Colville National Forest, the Forest Service is at last coming to agree with them. This summer, the agency offered a proposed revised plan for the forest, including wilderness recommendations. The recommendations are a significant step towards eventual permanent protection by Congress for some of the wildest country in Washington. For wilderness protection, the agency has recommended 101,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat: Abercrombie Mountain, the Salmo Priest Wilderness Additions, and much of the Kettle Crest including Hoodoo Canyon. Unfortunately, the recommendations left out many of the roadless areas we are proposing in our Columbia Highlands Initiative—including Thirteenmile Canyon in the Kettle River Range. Thirteenmile features giant ponderosa pines and low-elevation canyon habitat, and serves as a secure bridge of habitat for wildlife moving between the Kettle Crest and wild country to the west in the Okanogan Highlands. It also connects to other roadless lands to the north in the Kettle Range. The agency's recommendations also ignore sizeable chunks of qualifying roadless lands on the Kettle Crest, leaving them vulnerable to uranium mining, logging, and ORV trespass through the 15- to 20-year life of the Thirteenmile Canyon's ponderosa pines are some of proposed forest the biggest in the state. © James Johnston plan. All are critical components of any serious wilderness system for the Colville National Forest. This summer, people in northeast Washington and around the state responded, all together sending in more than 1,000 letters and emails 18 Hall Mountain, fertile wildlife habitat, should be added back into wilderness recommendations. Aaron Theisen urging wilderness protection for several hundred thousand more acres of deserving wild country. Wilderness protection for the crown jewels of the Colville is one of the highest wildlife and wildlands conservation priorities in the Northwest. So how do we get there? The public comment process was a historic opportunity to move the wilderness ball forward through the Forest Service's forest planning process. Next, Congress needs to step in to permanently protect these lands as wilderness. Conservation Northwest has kept our eye on that ball, despite the political challenges of moving forward conservation objectives in such remote and politically conservative terrain. We continue to adapt and make gains for wildlife and habitat through our Columbia Highlands Initiative. As part of the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, we've worked collaboratively with timber companies and local communities, gaining successful forest projects that generate timber while protecting roadless areas, old growth, and habitat for rare and endangered wildlife. Still, increasingly polarized politics and ongoing opposition from a few entrenched special interests have so far kept the long-awaited wilderness bill from moving into Congress or anywhere near the President's pen. Additional opportunities for public comment on the forest plan are expected when the Forest Service releases their final draft for review in late 2012. In the meantime, whether you were one of the hundreds of people who attended public meetings, wrote personal letters at Conservation Northwest sponsored events, or submitted comments to the Forest Service via email, it is time to take a next step. Let Senator Maria Cantwell know that protecting the wild country and wildlife habitat of the Columbia Highlands is a conservation priority for all of us here in Washington. Send Senator Maria Cantwell a message today, asking her to permanently protect wilderness in the Columbia Highlands. Learn how—visit conservationnw. org/wilderness Fall 2011www.conservationnw.org

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