THE Easrsrne Group
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Group One: THE NORTHERN IU Alaska ~ <, 1 Port Houghton-Cape Fanshaw 2 East Kuiu 3 Cleveland Peninsula 4 Upper Tenakee Inlet British Columbia 5 Great Bear Rainforest 6 Randy Stoltmann Wilderness Group Two: THE OwL REGION Washington 7 Pompey 8 Paradise Creek 9 Little Huckleberry Mountain Oregon 10 Salmon-Huckleberry 11 Hardesty Mountain 12 Smith-Umpqua Divide 13 Mount Bailey 14 Copper /North Fork Elk River California 15 Dillon Creek/Siskiyou 16 Orleans Mountain Group Three: THE EAsrsrnE Washington 17 Long Draw/Long Swamp 18 Devil's Gulch Oregon 19 Aldrich Mountain/Dry Cabin 20 North Fork John Day/Elkhorn/Greenhorn 21 Sky Lakes/Pelican Butte 22 Deadhorse Rim/Coleman Rim Northern Great Basin Oregon 23 High Steens/Little Blitzen Gorge 24 Trout Creek Mountains Oregon-Idaho 25 Owyhee Canyon Group Four: NORTHERN RocK1Es Idaho 26 Deadwood 27 French Creek/Patrick Butte 28 North Lochsa Slope 29 Cove-Mallard 30 Mount Jefferson Montana 31 Great Burn 32 Ninemile Valley ROADLESS AREAS AT RISK A Ca~cadia Sampler project, which would have built 93 miles of chum salmon. Goose Flats River, on the inlet's What's at stake: The Stoltmann har• road and cut 123 million board feet of timber south side, harbors brown bear, mink, marten bors the southern limit of North America's from the area, was withdrawn as the result of and Sitka black-tailed deer and draws large coas ta I grizzly bear population. a lawsuit. A new draft EIS is in the early plan• numbers of migrating waterfowl. Beautiful Status: Only 20 percent of this wilderness is ning stages. Tenakee Inlet attracts sea kayakers and sup• protected. The government has granted ports small charter fishing businesses. lnterfor, a B.C. logging company, a tenure to Status: Except for narrow protective buffers clearcut the rest of the area. 2. East Kuiu RA bordering the inlet, Upper Tenakee is slated for (Tongass NF) logging under the new Tongass Land Location: On Kuiu Island north of Prince Management Plan. The Finger Mountain project of Wales Island and west of Kupreanof Island would cut 1,872 acres and build up to 50 miles Size: 27,547 acres of new road in this half-million-acre roadless area. A draft EIS is expected late this year. What's at stake: Salt lagoon Lake on East Kuiu attracts Canada geese, harlequin ducks, marbled murrelets and migrating trum• BRITISHCOLUMBIA peter swans. The river and estuary offer spec• tacular scenery and support abundant runs of pink, chum and coho salmon as well as halibut, 5. Great Bear Rainforest crab and shrimp. Seclusion Harbor provides a safe anchorage and is a key stopover for Location:Three distinct roadless areas migrating waterfowl. Kayakers are attracted to along 600 km (373 miles) of British this wildlife-rich area, which is also a tradi• Columbia's Central Coast, the Greater Ecstall tional subsistence hunting and fishing area for Region to the north, the Great Bear Rainforest Alaska Natives from the village of Kake. in the middle and the Knight Inlet Region to the South. Status: Th-e Forest Service's efforts to sell timber in East Kuiu Size: 3.4 million hectares (7.4 mil• have been blocked repeatedly by lion acres). appeals and legal challenges. A What's at stake: These draft EIS proposing the construc• areas, almost the size of tion of 80 miles of new road to Switzerland, include the last large log 120 million board feet was . contiguous regions of intact temper• withdrawn as the result of a lawsuit. ate rainforest in the world. The region The area remains open to logging in the includes more than 100 still-pristine val• L..: ' new Tongass Land Management Plan, but habi- ill , leys, and is home to more than 1,000 distinct tat reserves and scenic set-asides reduce the ·~c:: l races of wild salmon and the rare, white SE Alaska,. land base available for cutting. A new draft EIS ~l Kermode or spirit bear. Canada's largest popu• is in the early planning stages. lation of grizzly bear lives here, but it's threat• ened by hunters and poachers and driven out by habitat loss due to clearcutting. 3. Cleveland Peninsula Status: Since 1990, 14 rainforest valleys SOUTHEASTALASKA RAs (Tongass NF) more 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) in size Location: Mainland north of Ketchikan have been roaded and logged. Size: 120,000 acres 1. Port Houghton-Cape What's at stake. Large unroaded RAs (Tongass NF) Fanshaw wilderness provides habitat for wolf, mountain 6. Randy Stoltmann Location: On the Alaska mainland north• goat, brown bear and Sitka black-tailed deer. Wilderness east of Petersburg The peninsula, just three miles by boat from Location: Pristine areas northwest of Size: 110,190 acres the Ketchikan area, is a popular hunting and Whistler, about 200 km from Vancouver in the What's at stake: Port Houghton fishing area for Ketchikan residents. Squamish and Lillooet watersheds. River flows out of two large lakes in Status: Most of the peninsula Size: 260,000 hectares Alaska's coastal mountains and remains open to logging under the meanders through meadows before new Tongass Land Management Plan. emptying into a three- mile-long salt A draft EIS in the early planning chuck, which harbors abundant stages.may propose building up to salmon runs estimated at 54,000, as 60 miles of new road and logging 85 well as herring, shellfish, harbor million board feet of timber from seals, steelhead, Dolly Varden and cut• 3,500 acres. throat trout. Ducks, geese and arctic terns use flats at the head of the salt chuck, and forests harbor wolf, black bear, moose, 4. Upper Tenakee Inlet wolverine, mink, marten, river otter and (Tongass NF) mountain goat. Port Houghton attracts com• Location: Pristine inventoried roadless mercial fishermen, charter tour boats and sea areas in the upper reaches of Tenakee Inlet, kayakers. The Port Houghton salt chuck is the on north Chichagof Island. only unlogged salt chuck on the mainland coast. Size: 556,271 acres Status: The Port Houghton-Cape Fanshaw What's at stake: Long Bay River sup• ports important commercial runs of pink and ~ature's last Stand---------------- 20. North Fork John the southwest side of Pelican Butte would for recreation and has been buying up the Day/Elkhorn/Green• reconstruct 1.5 miles of road and selectively log extensive private holdings where there are will• WASHINGTON horn RAs (Malheur, white fir and Shasta red fir over 2,110 acres, ing sellers. Umatilla and Wallowa• including 471 acres within the roadless area. Status: Off-road vehicle threatens the The Winema National Forest withdrew the sale Whitman NFs) southwest side of the mountain. Recreation 17. Long Draw and Long after environmentalists appealed it but recently pressures are intense, and summer traffic is · Swamp RAs (Okanogan NF) Location: East-northeast of Baker City, issued a new draft environmental assessment heavy on the Steens Mountain Loop Road. The south of LaGrande with few changes. B LM has proposed setting aside 41, I 40 acres of Location: East of the Pasayten Wilderness Size: 200,000 acres of unprotected roadless in north-central Washington.. · the Steens and 69,165 acres of the Alvord areas Desert to the east as wilderness. Oregon con• Size: 110,000 acres What's at stake: This country, 22. Deadhorse servationists have proposed a 1.2 million-acre What's at stake: The largest popula• headwaters of the Powder, Grande Rim/Coleman Rim Steens Mountain National Park and Preserve tion of lynx in the Lower 48, now down to 48 Ronde and North Fork John Day RAs (Fremont NF) encompassing Steens Mountain, the Alvord animals, inhabits this high-elevation lodgepole rivers, is a land of superlatives. Location:East-southeast of Desert and adjacent I ds. pine forest. It's also home to snowshoe hare, Together with the North Fork John wolverine, gray wolf, pine marten and fisher. Gearhart Mountain Wilderness in Day Wilderness, it's the largest south-central Oregon One of the last pure strains of redband trout in unbroken expanse of virgin forest in 24. Trout Creek the mid-Columbia region lives in these ·Size: 24,000 acres eastern Oregon. The largest wild chinook x: Mountains RAs streams .. c:· What's at stake: Perhaps the largest salmon and steelhead runs remaining in (Willow Creek, Disaster Status: Intensive logging in the Loomis Oregon are found here, and it's home to the ~1 intact stands of big old-growth ponderosa pine (up to four feet thick) and white fir in Oregon. Peak, Fifteenmile Creek, State Forest to the east has reduced lynx forage Oregon Canyon and and cover. The Long Draw timber sale proposes Twelvemile Creek) (Oregon to build 13.3 miles of road and log 1,200 acres 6 Nevada BLM) of pine in the roadless area. Protests from con• servationists and Washington Gov. Gary Locke prompted Supervisor Sam Gehr to withdraw Location: Extreme southeastern Oregon the sale last year, but the area remains part of and northwestern Nevada. the forest's timber base. Size: 180,090 acres What's at stake: Imperiled populations of rare Whitehorse cutthroat trout. Habitat for 18. Devil's Gulch RA pronghorn, mule deer, bobcat, mountain lion, (Wenatchee NF) sage grouse and beaver. Location: West of Wenatchee, south of Status: Large sections of the Trout Creeks U.S. Highway 2 are leased for livestock grazing. The BLM rec• Size: 25,186 acres ommended 164,070 acres for wilderness desig• nation. Conservationists have proposed protec• What's at stake: Popular trails through tion for 320,000 acres. park-like stands of ponderosa pine and ridge• lines with panoramic mountain views make this area popular with hikers and mountain• OREGON-IDAHO bikers from as far away as Seattle.