WILDERNESS REPORT #48
June 8, 2001

A bi-weekly update on the happenings in the Wilderness movement brought to you by the Wilderness Society's Wilderness Support Center.

Please let us know about the recent activities and accomplishments of your Wilderness campaign. Keep in mind that this is a Wilderness specific update. Contact the Wilderness Support Center at: (970) 247-8788,
mailto:wsc@tws.org or visit our website at http://www.wilderness.org/ccc/wsc/

CONTENTS:

NEVADA SENATORS OUTLINE SOUTHERN NEVADA LANDS PROCESS WILDERNESS PLANNING
MEETINGS TO BE HELD IN NORTH CAROLINA, OTHER SOUTHEAST STATES STAGE SET FOR FIGHT OVER THE FUTURE OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS NEW JERSEY'S HOLGATE WILDERNESS THREATENED

NEVADA SENATORS OUTLINE SOUTHERN NEVADA LANDS PROCESS
Background:
Just beyond the urban sprawl of Las Vegas lies some of Nevada's best wild places: Red Rocks, the Desert Sheep Range, Lake Mead National Recreation Area. From the Petroglyphs in the Virgin Mountains to the Native American sacred site of Spirit Mountain and from Joshua tree forests to the sandstone canyons of the Spring Mountains - these wonderful places are found right in the backyard of Las Vegas should be protected as Wilderness.

Since 1990, the Las Vegas valley area has led the nation in metropolitan growth. Between 1990 and 2000 its population has nearly doubled. Between 1990 and 1996, urban areas have grown by 238 percent, and the open space
consumed by sprawl increased by 50 percent. Yet, within sight of Las Vegas are numerous pristine natural areas, where people can go to escape the city, find refreshing solitude and drink in expansive views.

Unfortunately, increasing urbanization has placed pressure on these unspoiled areas in the form of housing development, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles, vandalism of natural, historic and prehistoric treasures and the construction of power-line corridors.
Currently Mt Charleston is the only area in all of Southern Nevada that is protected as Wilderness.

Conservationists in Nevada have launched a campaign to protect wild areas in Southern Nevada as congressionally designated Wilderness. Citizens have inventoried and mapped southern Nevada's wilderness quality lands.

Citizens and conservation groups have developed a Wilderness Proposal for Southern Nevada's Mojave Desert Region. The citizens' proposal calls for the permanent protection of southern Nevada's wild lands. The citizens'
proposal seeks Wilderness Designation on lands managed by the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Update:

Last Thursday, Nevada's U.S. Senators John Ensign (R) and Harry Reid (D) held a press conference in Las Vegas to announce a process that will likely lead to a major land bill for Clark County, Nevada. After receiving dozens of requests for legislation dealing with public land in southern Nevada, the Senators announced their intention to address the issues in one major bill as instead of addressing the issues individually.

Senators Reid and Ensign stated that the potential legislation would address infrastructure needs, recreation, and conservation. The senators have made it clear that the proposal would include a wilderness component.

The land bill will be crafted following a series of meetings with stakeholders, including the Nevada Wilderness Coalition, in Las Vegas.
Lands legislation could be introduced in the U.S. Senate before the end of this session of Congress.

For more information contact:
Jeremy Garncarz, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, 702-650-6542
mailto:jgarncarz@earthlink.net http://www.nevadawilderness.org

John Wallin, Nevada Wilderness Project, 775-746-7850,
mailto:john.wallin@wildnevada.org http://www.wildnevada.org

Brian O'Donnell, Wilderness Support Center, 970-247-8788
mailto:bodonnell@frontier.net http://www.wilderness.org/ccc/wsc

WILDERNESS PLANNING MEETINGS TO BE HELD IN NORTH CAROLINA, OTHER SOUTHEAST STATES

The Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (SAFC) and Appalachian Voices are co-sponsoring two upcoming meetings to begin planning a wilderness campaign for North Carolina. The first, a scouting meeting, is slated for
June, and will bring conservation leaders from throughout the state to Asheville, NC to begin assessing the political landscape, special areas, and conservation groups' campaign readiness. SAFC will be helping to organize follow-up trainings and provide other support to advance wilderness in the state.

Another 'scouting' meeting was held last month in Virginia, and follow-up organizing will take place this summer. Similar meetings will be held in other states in the southern Appalachian region this summer and fall, including South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.

A generous grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation combined with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts and other foundations will help fund the efforts of groups like Appalachian Voices and other grassroots groups throughout the southeast and support SAFC and the work they are doing to assist wilderness campaigns in the region.

Contact:
Amy Belanger, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, 828-252-9223,
mailto:amy@safc.org www.safc.org (http://www.safc.org)
Than Axtell, Appalachian Voices, 828-862-3863, mailto:appvoice@aol.com

STAGE SET FOR FIGHT OVER THE FUTURE OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS

Background:

Former President Clinton in his last year of office created a number of national monuments including, The Grand Canyon-Parashant, Agua Fria, Ironwood Forest, Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the California Coastal and Carrizo Plain monuments in California and the Upper Missouri River Breaks monument in Montana. The future of many of these special places was debated for years prior to their designation. Despite this history and the attempts of the Clinton Administration to hold listening sessions on many of the monuments, local lawmakers have and continue to criticize the process by which the monument's were created. Some of the biggest critics of the process have been Arizona's Governor Jane Hull (R-AZ) and U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Idaho's Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Montana's Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT). All of these members are currently engaged in efforts to roll back many of the monuments protections.

Update:

This past week Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) cast the first legislative stone at our Monuments and the Antiquities Act, introducing legislation designed to limit the Presidents authority to declare National Monuments while making many of the monuments President Clinton designated in his last year of office subject to congressional approval. Know as the "The National Monument Fairness Act of 2001," Simpson's bill drew immediate fire from conservation and historical preservation groups across the country. In a joint statement the conservation community strongly opposed the bill stating:

".The bill's fatal flaw is the provision that "sunsets" all new national monuments over 50,000 acres within two years of designation unless Congress approves it. This stipulation would defeat the very purpose of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and prevent expeditious presidential actions to protect significant public resources. Once this two-year withdrawal period expires, the bill would leave the land in question subject to development threats.

As currently configured, the Antiquities Act maintains appropriate roles for both the President and the Congress in the protection of important federal land resources. It allows the president to act quickly, and it also maintains Congress' ability to designate National Monuments, change monument boundaries, direct resources for monument management, redesignate monuments as national parks, and even to abolish monuments..."

Conservation groups vowed to fight the bill. Signers of the statement included: Defenders of Wildlife, National Parks Conservation Association, The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Grand Canyon Trust, US Public Interest Research Group, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Society for Historical Archeology, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and Scenic America.

Leaders expect that more legislative attacks will be coming shortly with Utah's Representative Hansen reportedly set to introduce an energy bill and other western lawmakers looking at adding riders to the House Interior Appropriations bill as it moves forward.

Contacts:

Dave Alberswerth, The Wilderness Society, 202-833-2300
mailto:dalberswerth@tws.org

Michael Carroll, Wilderness Support Center, 970-247-8788
mailto:michael_carroll@tws.org

NEW JERSEY'S HOLGATE WILDERNESS THREATENED

Background:

Amid the hustle and bustle of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, there are few wild places to experience solitude and wildlife in their natural habitat. The Holgate seashore on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge provides visitors a spectacular experience to birdwatch, fish, and relax free from the sounds, smells,
and wildlife harassment caused by off-road vehicles, common on other beaches.

This congressionally designated Wilderness area, on Long Beach Island, was st aside to host thousands of shorebirds that migrate and feed along the coast of New Jersey. The area is so critical that from April through August the Wilderness is completely reserved to allow piping plovers, a federally threatened species, time to nest and migrate. Moreover, this area remains a prime area for migrating shorebirds through the fall months. Close to 300 bird species have been sighted there, including Atlantic brant, American black duck, and brown pelican.

Unfortunately, illegal dune buggies and other off-road vehicles are violating Holgate beach's Wilderness status. In New Jersey, only 2 percent of the land is protected as Wilderness, while more than two dozen beaches allow beach
buggies and other off-road vehicles to drive along the shoreline. On Long Beach Island alone, off-road vehicles
are allowed on nearly 18 miles of beaches -- only 2.5 miles of undeveloped beach in the Refuge are off limits to vehicles.

Update:

Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 896) to change the boundary of Holgate Wilderness to allow beach buggy and other off-road vehicle use. The bill would undermine Holgate's Wilderness
protection simply to legitimize an illegal activity.

************************************************** **************
TO UNSUBSCRIBE: If you want to remove yourself from this mailing list,
send the following message to <lyris@lists.wilderness.org>: "unsubscribe wilderness-support" (in the body of the message, without quotes). This message must be sent from the account receiving this message.

TO SUBSCRIBE: If you have been forwarded this message and would like to subscribe to the list, send the following message to <lyris@lists.wilderness.org>: "subscribe wlderness-support" (in the body of the message, without quotes).

FEEDBACK: If you ever need to get in contact with the owner of the list, (if you have trouble unsubscribing, or have questions about the list itself) send email to <wsc@tws.org>.

GENERAL INFORMATION: The Wilderness Support Center is a program of The Wilderness Society. The Center seeks to help people protect wild places by working in collaboration with grassroots wilderness groups to build
effective, successful wilderness campaigns that will ultimately lead to the addition of millions of acres of our public lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Founded in 1935, The Wilderness Society works to protect America's wilderness and to develop a nation-wide network of wild lands through public education, scientific analysis and advocacy. Our goal is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, wildlife, beauty and opportunities for recreation and renewal that pristine forests, rivers, deserts and mountains provide. To take action on behalf of wildlands today, visit our website at http://www.wilderness.org