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of timber south side, harbors brown bear, mink, marten bors the southern limit of North America's from the area, was withdrawn as the result of and Sitka black-tailed deer and draws large coas ta I grizzly bear population.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. Status: The Sand Creek Restoration Project would thin trees within the roadless area, 25. Owyhee Canyon ostensibly to reduce fire risk in these dry (BLM Oregon, BLM Idaho) forests, where intense wildfires burned in 1994. largest herd of free- ranging Rocky Mountain habitat for mule deer, black bear, coyote, pika Environmentalists want the agency to try elk in the Northwest. A recreation wonderland, and such old-growth species as pileated wood• experimental thinning in roaded areas first. A it's also the source of drinking water for Baker pecker. Location: Extreme southwestern Idaho draft EIS is due in June. City and La Grande. Status: The Fremont Forest tried to sell tim• and extreme southeastern Oregon Status: The Forest Service plans at least five ber here in the 1980s but has no immediate Size: 619,000 acres (includes intermixed large timber sales in this region; three would plans to offer timber sales in the area and has BLM and private lands) cut roads into pristine roadless areas and two designated several hundred acres a Research What's at stake: A maze of deep, OREGON would log in municipal watersheds. The Beaver Natural Area in recognition of the rare ecosys• steep-walled canyons cutting through basalt Creek Fuels Reduction project would log in the tem that survives here. plateaus. Wilderness hiking, hot springs, LaGrande watershed, ostensibly to reduce high white-water boating on the Owyhee River. 19. Aldrich Mountain/ fuel loads and clear land for fire Habitat for pronghorn, California bighorn NORTHERN GREAT BASIN Dry Cabin RAs breaks. sheep, mule deer, mountain lion, river otter, (Malheur NF) (Oregon and Idaho) golden eagle, bald eagle, prairie falcon, sage grouse, mountain quail, redband trout. Location: West of John Day 21. Sky Lakes/ Status: Threats include intensive livestock Size: 4,951 acres Pelican Butte 23. High Steens/Little grazing, off-road vehicle use and proposed What's at stake: Ponderosa pine RA (Winema NF) Blitzen Gorge RAs expansion of an Air Force National Guard and white fir stands provide excellent cover (Oregon BLM) bombing range. The BLM has proposed a for mule deer and Rocky Mountain elk and Location: East of Sky Lakes 172,100-acre wilderness. Oregon conservation• habitat for mountain lion and black bear. Wilderness near crest of the Cascades, 25 miles Location: In the Northern Great Basin 60 ists have proposed 480,000 wilderness on the Benchlands and steep slopes are home to northwest of Klamath Falls miles southeast of Burns Oregon side. The Committee for Idaho's High bighorn sheep. Streams harbor steelhead, bull Size: 17,500 acres Size: 79,140 acres Desert recommends closing a few dirt roads trout and rainbow trout. Raptors, game birds What's at stake: Unique old-growth What's at stake: Steens Mountain, a and establishing a vast 1.2 million-acre wilder• and songbirds are abundant. forest area at junction of Cascades and fault-block mountain cut by deep U-shaped ness where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada meet. Status: The Todd timber sale, which pro• Klamath Lake Basin harbors spotted owls and glaciated gorges, is famous worldwide for its posed to building roads and clearcuts on the supports high concentrations of nesting and wildflowers and aspen groves and its dramatic south half of Aldrich Mountain to reduce fire roosting bald eagles. an important cultural setting. Streams running off the gentle west risk, was withdrawn after conservationists resource for the Klamath Tribe. slopes water vast marshlands; its steep east face drops 5,300 feet to the stark Alvord .. threatened to sue over roadless area entry. The Status: The proposed Pelican Butte Ski Area, "'Cl> Malheur Forest is currently preparing the Jobs now in the early planning stages, would con• desert. The mountain is home to raptors, game :z:."' N struct ski lifts, snowmobile trails and cross• birds, pronghorn, mule deer and Rocky N timber sale adjacent to a roadless area north ~ of the mountain. country ski trails in a portion of the roadless Mountain elk, and its streams are stocked with area, disturbing critical habitat for bald eagles Lahontan cutthroat trout. and destroying the area's wilderness character. Status: Ranchers control the lush gorge The Cold Springs/Switchback timber sales on bottoms; the BLM manages the high country ------. Nature's last Stand 27. French Creek• 32. Ninemile Patrick Butte RA Valley (Lolo NF) (Payette NF) Location: 40 miles northwest Location: Central Idaho adjacent to Frank of Missoula Church-River of No Return Wilderness Size: 10,000 acres Size: 152,228 acres What's at stake: This val• What's at stake: This country of steep ley is home to the Ninemile river breaklands, alpine meadows, glacial Wolves, a pack of gray wolves cirque basins and high mountain lakes sup• immortalized in Rick Bass's book ports redband and bull trout, golden eagles, of the same name. The wolf pack, osprey and bighorn sheep. which moved into the valley in Status: Three scheduled timber sales would 1989, is thriving, grizzlies have - log at least 4,600 acres through a combina• been spotted in the area, and bull tion of helicopter yarding, cable logging and trout inhabit Ninemile Creek. The the construction of six miles of new road. The valley is a wildlife corridor con• entire roadless area is slated for timber har• necting the Mission Mountains vest over the next decade. and the Rattlesnake and Selway• Bitterroot wilderness areas. Its aquifer supplies ground water to 28. North Lochsa Slope several communities in the Clark RA (Clearwater NF) , Fork Basin, Status: Location: North of U.S. 12 in northeast• The Yellowstone central Idaho Pipeline Company seeks a permit to construct a refined-fuels Size: 101,943 acres pipeline through the valley along What's at stake: Important habitat a known earthquake fault. The for bull trout, spring chinook salmon, steel• pipeline, linking Billings with head, and westslope cutthroat trout. The Spokane, would cross the North longest undisturbed section of the Lewis and Siegel Roadless Area and trench through 28 Clark Trail passes through the Fish and Hungry MONTANA year-round streams and 73 intermittent creek watersheds. streams. During construction it would dump Status: Proposed elk habitat enhancement massive amounts of sediment into Ninemile project would cut timber on 1,650 acres and 31. Great Burn (Lolo NF) Creek; spills would be all but inevitable once open 22 percent of the existing trail system to diesel and other petroleum products began motorized trailbikes. Location: Montana-Idaho border moving through. The Flathead Tribe Size: I 56,000 acres in Montana plus refused in 199 5 to renew a per• contiguous roadless areas in Idaho; mit for a section of the 29. Cove-Mallard RA more than 300,000 acres in all. pipeline that passed (Nez Perce NF) What's at stake: The Great through the Flathead Location: An unprotected block in the Burn and five other roadless areas Reservation; since then heart of the· Central Idaho Wild lands form a "string of pearls" along the fuels have been transport• ed by rail from Missoula to Size: 70,000 acres Bitterroot Crest that attracts wilder• ness lovers from Missoula and the Clark Thompson Falls. A draft envi• What's at stake: Nearly 3 million Fork River. Moose, mountain goats, wolver- ,g j ronmental impact is due next fall. acres of unfragmented wilderness separated by ines, fishers, black bears, mountain lions, pine t\ a single road from another I.I million wilder• martens, osprey and golden eagle inhabit this 15 \,_ ness acres. Premier elk calving area and habi• wilderness, which ranges in elevation from tat for moose and bighorn sheep. critical habi• 3,200 to 8,000 feet. More than 30 lakes are tat for Snake River salmon. wild steelhead, set like jewels along the crest. lie along the bull trout and cutthroat trout. crest. Status: The national campaign to keep Status: The Lolo National Forest is develop• roads and clearcuts out of Cove-Mallard, using ing a Stateline Snowmobiling Proposal to gov• a combination of direct action, litigation and ern future management of the snowmobiling administrative appeals, has been going on that currently occurs on part of the Great since 1992. It has delayed but not halted the Burn RA in violation of the forest plan. massive project. To date, about 54 miles of Motorized recreation also threatens the por• IDAHO road have been built out of 145 miles planned tion of the Great Burn that lies in Idaho's and 20 percent of the 5,700 acres slated for Clearwater National Forest. logging have been cut. 26. Deadwood RA (Boise NF) 30. Mount Jefferson RA Location: Northeast of (Targhee NF) Boise Size: 49,358 acres Location: Centennial Range of eastern Idaho, near Continental Divide What's at stake: Habitat for redband and Size: 55,756 acres bull trout. Winter and sum• What's at stake: One of the few intact mer elk range. Hiking, backcoun- areas in this heavily roaded forest. :i try deer hunting and whitewater boating on CD Immigration corridor for grizzlies and wolves the Deadwood River less than two hours from moving between Central Idaho Wilderness and, Boise. the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Status: The proposed Deadwood timber Status: Targhee National Forest plan calls sale would log 21,000 acres within the road• for meeting 41 percent of the timber target less area, including 13,000 acres of old-growth from forests in the Centennial Range. pine, and build 11 miles of new road. Conservationists recently won a lawsuit forcing the Forest Service to individually mark 87,000 trees, but the project is still moving forward. PuttingLogging Roads to Bed Suiolaw National Foreot Moveo tram Liquidation to Reotoration

by Kathie Durbin In his 1999 budget, President Clinton has proposed spending $218 million to he big shovel digs into saturated remove and rebuild logging roads and soil above Mill Creek, a swollen restore national forest watersheds. That T tributary ofTenmile Creek, and would allow the agency to triple the its removes another 18 cubic yards of fill. road obliteration program to about 3,500 Seasoned heavy equipment operators miles next year. However, Clinton's bud• work steadily in a December downpour, get also includes $37.4 million for con• gradually exposing the rusted steel cul• struction of 403 miles of new logging vert that funnels the creek's flow 20 feet roads and reconstruction of 2,957 miles below an old logging road in the Siuslaw of old roads - an appropriation the National Forest. Western Ancient Forest Campaign says Culvert removal on an anadromous "defies common sense and fiscal respon• fish stream in the Oregon Coast Range is sibility." tricky business even in good weather Nationwide, about 433,000 miles of Crews begin tearing out a road and culvert that impeded salmon migration in Mill Creek on and ordinarily is not attempted during logging roads, including 60,000 miles of the Siuslaw National Forest in coastal Oregon. (Siuslaw National Forest video) the rainy winter season, when the risk of so-called "ghost roads," temporary roads flushing sediment into spawning beds is from old timber sales and tracks created high. But this culvert was installed in by off-road vehicles, scar the national human life and property, as many resi• timber annually. But in the heavily 1963, when Forest Service road-building forests. That's more than eight times the dents of the Oregon Coast Range logged Coast Range, the Siuslaw pro• standards were far less exacting, and it's length of the interstate freeway system. learned in November of 1996, when vides virtually the only intact habitat in bad shape. The bottom of the eight• Many old logging roads were built on record rainfalls set off hundreds of slides, blocks for northern spotted owls and and-a-half-foot-wide corrugated pipe has loose soil dug from the mountainsides wiped out at least a dozen homes and marbled murrelets, both protected under already partially collapsed, raising the and are prone to failure. In all, the claimed eight lives. Though mudslides the Endangered Species Act. Deer that water level and placing a barrier in the Forest Service estimates that fewer than are a natural phenomenon in the Coast thrive in Coast Range clearcuts find little way of spawning salmon and steelhead. half of national forest roads are properly Range, numerous studies show slides are food in the dense young plantations that Engineers worry that it won't last the maintained, and says it would cost a more likely to occur on slopes that have grow up to replace natural forests. winter. If it goes, the road will go with it, whopping $10 billion to bring them all been logged and roaded. A task force on Abundant runs of wild chinook salmon, inflicting far greater damage on fish up to grade. landslides and public safety, appointed coho salmon, steelhead and cutthroat habitat. There is-little scientific dispute over ' by the Oregon Legislature, is supposed trout that once spawned in coastal Five days and 2,700 cubic yards of the toll this vast network of forest roads to recommend measures to reduce those streams are now in steep decline due to soil later, workers have uncovered the has exacted on fish-bearing screams and risks. Meanwhile, a temporary forest a combination of factors including over• 80-foot length of culvert pipe, dragged it wildlife habitat. Roads in forested areas practice rule forbids logging on steep, fishing, ocean conditions and habitat up the steep embankment, placed SO loss. tons of boulders along the stream banks Today the Siuslaw timber sale pro• to stabilize them, and constructed a gram is barely in double digits (last year berm that blocks the logging road lb the 2t6t century i6 to be the century ob the forest sold 20 million board feet of beyond to vehicle access. After a brief timber), its budget has been chopped by flush of muddy water, Mill Creek is run• two-thirds, and Furnish has found a new ning free and clear. The cost of the mission for his agency. He's putting log• December 1997 project: $10, 700. ecological reerorcrton, Logging road6 are a6 ging roads to bed - lots of them. Under This is road removal and watershed the forest's transportation plan, only restoration up close and personal. For about one-third of the logging road net• the past three years, it's been a principal good a place a6 any to begin. work - 700 miles out of the 2,200 miles focus of Siuslaw National Forest that existed in the early 1990s - will be Supervisor Jim Furnish and his road maintained. The new forest recreation engineer, John Dillingham. Now nation• map warns that many old roads are al policy is catching up. unsuitable for passenger car travel: "If In late January the Clinton adminis• carve habitat, interrupt migration corri• erosive soils. you choose to drive them, plan to tration belatedly acknowledged that dors, and leave game vulnerable to If the 21st century is to be the cen• encounter rocks, road washouts, downed co poorly maintained roads can be time poachers. Roads above streams bleed tury of ecological restoration, logging trees and brush encroaching on the road• ~ bombs when it announced a partial 18- sediment into waterways, burying roads are as good a place as any to begin. way." _c month moratorium on construction of spawning gravels. Fish species that And the Siuslaw National Forest can It's hard to overstate the significance require cold, clear water, such as the bull ro~ new roads in roadless areas. (The mora• point the way. of this shift. The Oregon Coast Range is L torium does not apply to the Siuslaw or trout, are especially vulnerable. In the 1980s, before environmental tree-growing land, forest so productive other forests west of the Cascades within Logging roads on highly erosive lawsuits put the brakes on logging, the that much of it was claimed by 19th-cen• the range of the northern spotted owl.) soils can also pose a serious threat to Siuslaw cut 300 million board feet of tury timber tycoons before the national Celebrate the Earth with The Mountaineers Books

The Columbia What the River Reveals The Enduring Forests Sustaining a Modern Resource Understanding and Restoring Healthy Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Tim Palmer Watersheds British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska Illustrated by Jim Hays ValerieRapp Ruth Kirk, Editor Flowing from seven states and one Canadian province, What makes a river healthy? How are a river and its Charles Mauzy,Photo Editor -, the Columbia River's watershed reveals not only the watershed connected? In what condition do we find Foreword by Robert Michael Pyle wealth of two nations but also the tragic losses in the our Pacific Northwest Rivers? Can we restore our rivers • ... beautiful photography and thought -provoking prose .. wake of two centuries of human settlement. The and keep them healthy? These are the questions -CHOICE

Columbia celebrates this grand region with spectacular explored in this new, insightful assessmentof the health • ... the photographs are, quite simply, breathtaking." color photos and enlightening text, while offering an and ecology of Pacific Northwest rivers. -Barbara Lloyd McMichael, The Bookmonger honest portrait of a resource crisis. Softbound, S 16.95 Softbound, S27.95 Softbound, S24.95

e2'J THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS • 1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134 • www.mountaineers.org m Founded in 1906 to Explore, Study, Preserve, and Enjoy the Natural Beauty of the Outdoors ·

With books. like these, who needs television? Northwest Environment Watch's book series will give you all the drama you could want.

Till.'? PL;\(. E They tell you what's going on. ON .- Et\ R.I H

They tell you who's making a difference.

*Winner 1997 WA Governor s" • Writers Award"

And, they tell you how to make a difference.

You've seen our books around. Probably even in cascadia nmes. Now you can get them for yourseH. Just call Northwest Environment Watch and become a subscriber today! Toll-free 1-888-643-9820. Or, check out our website at www.northwestwatch.org. You'il be glad you did.

Northwest Environment Watch. Informing the Northwest. Informing the World. ature's last Stand------

B.C. Wilderness More than Sum of Parks

By Ian Gill because more than SO First Nations are tified by the notion of "wilderness" Columbians should demand new legisla• negotiating modern treaties and in areas as being somehow untouched by tion that secures real ecological integrity, hat place do people have in almost every case, the territories under humans, since First Nations people have and that bans adverse activities in parks parks? ls there really such a claim include land designated as a park. been inseparable from the natural such as mining, hydroelectric develop• W thing as wilderness anymore, "Without prejudice" is an important ecosystems of British Columbia for thou• ment, oil and gas development, logging and if so, who gets to go there? Should promise, but regrettably, it is also a hol• sands of years. and high-impact tourism. We need legis• the habitat needs of wildlife be thought low one. Even before a recent court rul• What this conundrum points up is lation that ensures greater accountability of as superior to the recreational needs of ing that has significantly strengthened that our existing protected areas legisla• for how our parks are managed, that pro• people? And which people, anyway? Do the hand of all First Nations, it was clear tion is failing British Columbians - and vides ways to connect parks to their sur• First Nations people have a territorial that the Protected Areas Strategy preju• not just First Nations. In an analysis of rounding landscapes, and that creates claim to parks and protected areas that diced aboriginal interests in their tradi• B.C.'s protected areas system just pub• mechanisms that ensure the costs are somehow overrides the right of access of tional territories. lished by Ecotrust Canada, it is our find- fairly borne. Most importantly, we need other people? Should aboriginal people Parks and protected areas - the . ing that a focus on protecting areas for to make sure our protected areas are have rights to use resources in parks that Tatshenshinis, the Carmanahs, the Stein high-profile species like bears and ungu• jointly managed with First Nations, and are otherwise denied "ordinary Valleys of which we should all be proud lates has produced a fragmented protect• that their aboriginal rights are honored. Canadians"? - have been created through legislation ed areas system that doesn't go far Ecotrust Canada has proposed a The answer to that last question - that deems such areas to be "inalien- enough to protecting the full spectrum new Protected Areas Strategy that yes - shouldn't come as a surprise to embraces the components outlined anyone who has paid the slightest atten• above. We are sharing our recommenda• tion to recent court decisions regarding tions with the public, with First Nations aboriginal rights in Canada, particularly governments and with the provincial in British Columbia. The fact is, First It io our tinding that a tocuo on protecting areao government in the hope that we can cre• Nations people can.and have demon• ate mechanisms in law that are worthy of strated that their occupation and use of the incredible protected areas system we B.C.'s lands and waters has spanned tor high-protile opecieo like bearo and ungulateo have allworked hard to create. thousands of years. No other single But laws alone are not enough. In group in Canadian society can claim hao produced a tragmented protected areao oyotem our parks - as in every other walk of that. life in British Columbia - what we Only recently have Canadians, led that doeon't go tar enough to protecting the tull need most of all are examples of aborigi• by the courts, acknowledged that the nal and non-aboriginal people working ways mainly non-aboriginal people have together to steward all our resources in divvied up the supposedly common opectrum ot ecological integrity in B. C. ways that respect First Nations' tradi• wealth of the nation - through complex tions, honor the needs of present genera• legal entitlements, tenures, quotas, allo• - Ian Gill tions and provide a rich future for those cations and licenses - have constantly to come. come at the expense of aboriginal peo• ple's own entitlements. Ordinarily, this dilemma is charac• Jan Gill is executive director of Ecotrust t_erized in the media as creating great able." This is an attempt to make sure of ecological integrity in B.C. ' Canada, a former reporterfor the uncertainty for investors, especially in parks stay parks, and don't get turned Furthermore, not all protected areas Vancouver Sun and CBC, and is a member resource sectors such as mining, logging into tree farms or copper mines at some are secure from future development. of Cascadia Times' Board of Advisors. and fishing. Occasionally, a thoughtful point in the future. There is a widespread assumption that More than the Sum of Our Parks - report will point out that this situation But surely if we legislate the areas being set aside as protected areas People, Places and a Protected Areas • hasn't exactly provided much certainty, inalienability of these areas, by defini• are being protected forever. In fact, as it System for British Columbia, is available or wealth, for aboriginal people, either. tion they also cannot be transferred to now stands park boundaries can be for $20 from Ecotrust Canada. Phone ( 604) What has been largely absent from First Nations in treaty settlements. This altered, and in fact whole parks can even 682-4141 or email [email protected]. these discussions, however, is much seri• prejudice is compounded by the fact be deleted from the Park Act - some• ous analysis of British Columbia's invest• that in treaty negotiations, the B.C. gov• thing that a future government might be ments in parks and protected areas, and ernment has avowed that it will "main• under pressure to do if anti-environmen• how our society's conscious decision to tain parks and protected areas for the tal forces hold sway. Future governments somehow "set aside" large and small use and benefit of all British will always have the right to undo what tracts of land and marine ecosystems Columbians." this generation has done - so building a intersects with First Nations' evolving There would appear to be some• broad social allegiance to our protected rights. At the same time, not much thing fundamentally irreconcilable about areas system is critical. attention has been paid to the fact that, a commitment to assure First Nations Lastly, there is also an assumption in society as a whole, our expectations of that parks won't prejudice their rights or that we have a parks management sys• our parks system have changed from an treaty negotiations, while at the same tem that is up to the task of looking after era when parks were established simply time saying to British Columbians that the parks heritage we are creating. Since for our "use and enjoyment," to a real• parks are protected for everyone's equal 1992, 246 protected areas have been cre• ization that they are necessary to provide use. What is more, First Nations seek ated in B.C., bringing the total to 645. habitat in a world that is fast losing its different uses for what are now protect• Another 200 or so are in the works. But ecological wealth and diversity. ed areas than do people who want parks to date, of the 645 existing protected In respect of First Nations, B.C.'s made for recreation or the preservation areas, 406 areas have no management much vaunted Protected Areas Strategy of wilderness. First Nations' uses are plans. This, when BC Parks' annual - through which the province has creat• consistent with their traditions, such as budget is being reduced, not increased. ed hundreds of parks covering millions hunting and gathering, fishing and cere• The B.C. government has created of hectares - assures aboriginal people monial uses of various resources. In my what it calls a Park Legacy Project to that all this park making is "without experience, they are less interested in address these issues. It is seeking input prejudice" to their stance in treaty nego• the recreational opportunities provided as to how to make the system work. At a tiations. This is an important promise, by parks, and frankly are somewhat mys- minimum, we believe British ------~------...... rmn

membership, and becoming better orga• streams, and habitat that this proposal 1289 or email: [email protected]. H-e'reNotan nized than ever. The CCA Board has presents, the spill history of the industry, "Astroturf" Group amended its articles to reflect that the lack of regulation and oversight of Susan Harper, Executive Director growth and to formally change the pipelines, and the failure of the industry Cascade Columbia Alliance description therein to be a "public inter• To the editor: to invest in the best available technology POBox:2635 est organization" rather than a "Trades - know that the public has a lot to be This is a response to Margaret Seattle WA 98111-2635 Hornbaker's allegations that Cascade Assn." concerned about with regard to the envi• Columbia Alliance is a "fake" citizens Often environmental concerns and ronmental dangers associated with a new group ("Cascade Group an Example of economic concerns do join forces. Our pipeline. Unfortunately, our campaign to 'Astroturf' Lobbying," CT, Jan-Feb '98). diversity reflects the strength of our raise awareness about the dangers will opposition. We have economic, property not be as well funded as Texaco, ARCO Food Fish Cannot It is an interesting side note that Hornbaker works for the Orion Group, rights, environmental, labor, tribal and and GATX's, the companies who own Survive Pollution from hired by Texaco and its oil industry part• local government constituents who Olympic Pipeline, but we'll do our best. Salmon Farms ners to fund the public relations portion oppose the pipeline for different reasons, I hope that this is the end of their of their campaign to bury a petroleum but who all agree that another petroleum attempt co name call as a distraction supply leg is not needed, and that the from the real issues at hand. As we move To the editor: pipeline through the Cascade Mountain We appreciated your excellent arti• Range and over or under (not sure how existing system can be improved to meet forward on this issue of whether this the demands of eastern Washington. state needs the proposed pipeline/tank cle on fish farming. We have personally they are going to do it yet) the Columbia seen them by boat in British Columbia. River. She criticized CCA for not being When referring to the existing system, farm complex especially at a high envi• Emphasis needs to be placed on the upfront (when CCA has, in fact, never CCA is looking at the big picture of ronmental price - that is where our Washington State and the Northwest to focus should be. concentrated droppings from fish in the made an attempt to "hide" that some of net pens that blanket the bottom with its members have an economic interest) examine the alternative of upgrading the Our 1998 Board of Directors are: Bill existing pipeline infrastructure supplying Brown, properry owner; Fred Felleman, rotting, oxygen-gobbling bacteria. Food but failed to inform her readers that her fish cannot survive this pollution. And office has been hired by Olympic eastern Washington with petroleum Ocean Advocates; Susan Harper- execu• products from eastern refineries. We do tive director, CCA; Maryanne Tagney most of the antibiotics given to the farm Pipeline Co. to perform PR. not believe this is simply a barges versus Jones, environmental lobbyist; Shoshona fish (95 percent) result in mutations that Cascade Columbia Alliance started are resistant to antibiotics. Diseases thus as a trade association, which recruited pipeline issue, and will continue to pro• Moore, People for the Preservation of vide facts to support our position. Tualco Valley; Bill Robinson, Trout become more virulent so that wild stocks other interests who opposed the pipeline are threatened even more. for different reasons. The Alliance has Please carefully examine who we Unlimited; Kristin Rowe, property own• always been diverse - we have had are and why we exist. Grass roots means er, conservation activist; Jim Timmons, Henry Germond landowner members, labor interest that citizens are coming together conservation activist, Tri-Cities; Jim Lake Oswego, OR members, business members, and envi• because of a common goal and there is Watts, Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers ronmental group members --since the nothing "fake" about it. Those who (OCAW); Tim Zenk, former member• beginning. We are simply growing now, have spent the time to learn about this ship director, CCA organizing our board to better reflect our proposal - the threats to aquifers, If you have questions, call (206) 728-

Retrospective on Wilderness - Honoring Our Heroes Achieving Wilderness Protection - Case Studies in Success Conservation Biology and the Science of Wilderness Forest Planning and Wilderness Protection Nuts and Bolts of Local Organizing Alaska Wilderness: Our National Responsibility Media Skills Development Mapping and Visual Impact BLM Wilderness Restoring Wilderness Economics and Wilderness Wilderness Values and Ethics Future of the Wilderness System Managing Use of Wilderness Motorized/Mechanized Recreation Forest Health and Wilderness Building the Movement - The White Cloud Initiative Alternatives/Complements to Wilderness The Political Outlook for Wilderness Preparing the Wilderness Movement for the Next Century

If you would like more information or to place your na~~ on the conference mailing list, send your name, rnailinq address, phone number, and e-mail address to:

NATIONAL WILDERNESS CONFERENCE )998 Over 80 conservation groups (national, regional and local) and citizen activists 12730 9th Avenue NW, Seattle, Washington 98177 are gathering together to energize the Wilderness movement. This is a great opportunity to or e-mail at: [email protected]. hear Wilderness specialists from across the country share their unique perspectives on the environment. Our goal is to bring awareness about Wilderness issues to a diverse audience.