Conservation Northwest protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies, vital to a healthy future for us, our children, and wildlife. Since 1989, Conservation Northwest has worke
Issue link: http://conservationnw.uberflip.com/i/122778
Predators and prey Derrick Knowles Wilderness director, derrick@conservationnw.org Columbia Highlands Initiative Sportsmen see benefit to working together Lightning in the Kettles, Columbia Highlands. Photo © James Johnston The response from most hunters and anglers since we launched our Columbia Highland's Initiative last summer has been overwhelmingly positive, including the excerpted editorial below, which ran in the November 2010 issue of Northwest Sportsman Magazine along with a full article on the initiative. A new poll of voters in northeastern Washington found 57% supported a balanced approach to managing the Colville National Forest, which includes wilderness protection. Poll results showed support that crossed partisan lines and the rural/urban divide—including hunters and ranchers. Support from sportsmen is really not all that surprising, given that our balanced proposal for the Colville National Forest includes habitat protections in the form of new wilderness areas, a conservation area that will benefit fish and wildlife, including the mule deer, whitetail, elk, moose, bear, native redband trout, and other species sportsmen pursue, as well as proposals for increased thinning and forest restoration that can benefit habitat for big game. The proposal also protects existing backcountry access for hunters looking to get away from the crowds without closing roads or limiting motorized access in places that are open today. Habitat conservation is the key to abundant and healthy fish and wildlife populations, and the issue that can unite sportsmen and environmental interests whenever we take the time to work together. How orange and green can work together—and win "The proposal was hammered together by timbermen, conservationists, ranchers, recreational users and others to keep the sawlogs coming, cattle grazing and protect wildlands in Northeast Washington. "Years in the making, the vision includes setting aside 214,000 acres as wilderness, and that has predictably raised the loudest hue and cry. On one hunting site, the debate focused on environmentalists locking up even more of Washington and how that would make it more difficult for some to access. True, but that overlooks the overall concept that will benefit wildlife, local communities, and hunters. 14 "An area twice the size of wilderness would remain actively logged and another 400,000 acres would be managed for restorative timber harvest. The balance of the forest, some 200,000 acres, would fall under recreation and conservation area statuses. "Congress and the President must approve bills for the wilderness, recreation and conservation areas, forest managers the rest before it's a go and I hope they do. In this day of overly polarized debate, the initiative's collaborative approach and somethingfor-almost-anyone scope should earn their support. It shows red and blue, orange and green, country and city can really work together despite the blathering blowhards on the extremes who make it seems as though there's nothing but a vast gulf between the sides. "You may recall a quote by the author E. Donnel Thomas I ran in our January issue: 'When wildlife advocates work together, wildlife wins; when they bicker, wildlife loses.' "I'm extending that: When renewable resource advocates work together, renewable resources win; bicker and they lose. "With this model, our woods, wood product industry, wildlife and wilderness all win." Andy Walgamott — Spring/Summer 2011www.conservationnw.org