UPDATE—Rogue Actions Against Wolves in ID Moving Forward:  We reported last month that the Forest Service (FS) had approved ID Fish and Game's (IDFG) request to land helicopters in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FCRONRW) to dart, capture, and radio collar wolves. This month, Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups filed a preliminary injunction brief in the U.S. District Court in Idaho to stop the IDFG plan. The case was heard on 2/18. Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill denied our request to stop the helicopter landings. In his ruling, he stated that the use of helicopters will help wolves, whose presence helps protect wilderness character. But he also stated, "The Forest Service must proceed very cautiously here because the law is not on their side if they intend to proceed with further helicopter projects in the Frank Church (sic) Wilderness."  Illegal next time, but not this time? His ruling failed to address the issue of how the use of helicopters is the minimum required to preserve the area as Wilderness.
Wilderness Watch file photo
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Georgia Chapter Re-Activated:  The Georgia Chapter of Wilderness Watch is active again and currently focused on the Cumberland Island Wilderness. The National Park Service on Cumberland Island has ignored wilderness laws by promoting commercial driving tours and development within the Wilderness. Wilderness Watch has successfully litigated to protect Cumberland Island in the past, and the Georgia Chapter will continue to address current issues on the island. Visit our website to learn more.
Photo by Jerome Walker
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Half Dome Cables Interim Permit System:  The National Park System is instituting an interim permit system in 2010 and 2011 for the Half Dome cables in the Yosemite Wilderness, to address safety concerns related to increased crowding. This system, in effect on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays from mid-May to October, will limit daily use to 400 people (Saturday and holiday use now averages 800 people/day with peak numbers of 1100-1200.) Hikers use the steel cables, installed in 1919, to ascend the last 400 vertical feet of the famous rock. Click here for more information.
Photo by National Park Service
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Wilderness Watch Weighs In—
—No to Communication Tower in Cabeza Prieta Wilderness:  Wilderness Watch urged the US Fish and Wildlife Service not to allow construction of a communication relay tower in the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness (CPW). The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed construction of a tower within the Wilderness as part of its Secure Border Initiative (SBI) and specifically, the SBInet Ajo1 Project (This is ~4MB file). The tower would stand 33.5 feet, with a 16-foot wide by 14-foot tall solar panel array attached to it. It would stand in stark contrast to the surrounding Wilderness, and be visible for miles around. All of the government agencies involved state that if Ajo1 is successful, it is very likely that illegal immigrants and drug smugglers will move further westward—deeper into the CPW—to avoid this section of ten planned clustered towers comprising the Ajo1 ‘virtual fence.' In addition to violations of the Wilderness Act, the construction of this tower may drive away bighorn sheep, which use this area as a traditional lambing ground.
Photo by Jim Hendrick, courtesy of wilderness.net
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—Protect National Forest Wilderness:  The Forest Service (FS) has issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a new planning rule for the national forests. The NOI describes the need this way: A new Agency planning rule is needed to guide land managers in developing, amending, and revising land management plans for the 155 national forests and 20 grasslands in the National Forest System. A new planning rule provides the opportunity to help protect, reconnect, and restore national forests and national grasslands for the benefit of human communities and natural resources. Developing a new rule will allow the Agency to integrate forest restoration, watershed protection, climate resilience, wildlife conservation, the need to support vibrant local economies, and collaboration into how the Agency manages national forests and grasslands, with the goals of protecting our water, climate, and wildlife while enhancing ecosystem services and creating economic opportunity.

Wilderness Watch took this opportunity to remind the FS that 20% of national forests are designated as Wilderness, and provided numerous suggestions for inclusion in the final rule that will help to ensure that the agency is meeting its responsibility to protect and preserve the resource of wilderness on the national forests.

Public meetings will be scheduled soon. Be sure to check the FS's Planning Rule page for information on specifics.
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—Merced River Plan:  The National Park Service (NPS) released a plan for Merced Wild and Scenic River in California in August 2000. Following several lawsuits and litigations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided on March 27, 2008 that the plan needed to be revised. Wilderness Watch recently submitted scoping comments to the NPS. Our comments recommended removing the High Sierra Camps and restoring the sites, or, at a minimum, requiring the camps be used and managed in a manner compatible with the surrounding wilderness. We also recommended limiting stock use, and phasing out all commercial developments in and near the Merced River corridor and commercial services in the wilderness.
Photo from Wickipedia Commons
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Wilderness Watch Joins Legal Challenge Against Fish Stocking in CA: Wilderness Watch joined other conservation groups in litigation challenging California's fish stocking and hatchery management program, following the release of its EIR, which is the State's equivalent of an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The primary legal claims are that CA Department of Fish and Game violated the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by: 1) too narrowly stating the program's purpose and need, thereby limiting its review to exclude issues like impacts to wilderness character; 2) improperly using the mid-2000s as the environmental baseline against which the impacts of the alternatives are evaluated, which incorrectly leads to fewer findings of significant impacts; 3) failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives to both the inland stocking and hatcheries program, including an alternative that ends fish stocking in Wilderness; 4) illegally deferring mitigation to later planning efforts; 5) ignoring potentially significant impacts, particularly to aquatic invertebrates; and 6) failing to evaluate the cumulatively significant impacts of stream and lake poisoning projects throughout CA to remove previously stocked fish.
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If the Real Impacts were Revealed: According to an article in the Methow Valley News, "A decade-long string of environmental analysis procedures, delays and short-term permits has one pack and saddle outfitter business appealing their permit and charging the Forest Service with unequal application of rules and policies." While commercial packers are upset over the length of time the Forest Service is taking to complete NEPA analyses prior to issuing multi-year wilderness permits, if the FS were to truthfully describe the extent of outfitter impacts and focus its effort on limiting use to an appropriate level (rather than drag the process through years of delay and unnecessary complications), it would lead to less commercial use and substantial changes in the way these outfits operate.

Also in the Methow Valley Ranger district, a couple has been charged with operating a commercial survival school in the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness without a permit. The charges include "selling a service on Forest Service land without a permit, unlawful use of Forest Service property and unlawfully cutting or damaging trees." Click here to read about it in the Methow Valley News.
WW file photo showing site impacts from a stock holding area that has been poorly located, Pasayten Wilderness
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Forest Service Plans to Increase Wilderness Patrols: The FS is increasing patrols in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (A-BW) in Montana after recently issuing numerous citations to snowmobilers illegally entering the A-BW. The FS says, "We want folks to be able to go home at the end of a day of enjoying their national forest. At the same time, they should honor the wilderness area boundary." Click here to read an article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. To report illegal activity, contact TIP MONT by phone at 1-800-TIPMONT or online at http://fwp.mt.gov/enforcement/tipmont.
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Save the Dates:
MT—Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 6pm:  Walkin' Jim Stoltz concert to benefit the Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign (LBPWC), which Wilderness Watch is part of. Join us for an evening of music and fun celebrating Montana's wildlands and learn why Senator Tester's "Forest Jobs and Recreation Act" fails to protect our public lands.
Place: The Stensrud Building, 314 N. First St., Missoula, MT 59802
Time: 6pm social hour, 7pm program
Cost: Free
Beer and soft drink sales will benefit LBPWC. Donations gratefully accepted.
For more info, please email Dawn Serra at Wilderness Watch.

CA—Thursday, April 8 through Sunday, April 11, 2010: 2010 Western Wilderness Conference at UC Berkeley:  The Western Wilderness Conference will focus on the role of wilderness in an age of global climate change. Issues and questions to be addressed include:

• How can wild lands mitigate the effects of climate change?
• How will climate change impact wilderness qualities?
• How can we guard the vital concept of wilderness as "untrammeled" land when managers are actively assisting wildlife to help species escape from, or adapt to, the effects of climate change?
• How can we connect with new allies and make wilderness relevant to "non-traditional" supporters, like Native Americans, Hispanic communities, urban dwellers, hunters and anglers? And how can we engage the next generation?

For more information, visit: www.westernwilderness.org.
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Just for Fun: Monkey Creek Bridge construction
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