by Rick Bass

August, 2006
ACT. NOW.
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On October 14, 2005 163,000 acres of Recommended Wilderness Disappeared from the Kootenai Forest Plan
We want it back.
You can help.
DEADLINE IS September 9.
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What’s lost can be regained.
The Kootenai Forest is one of the wonders of Montana. It contains Montana’s only temperate rain forest. From the top of soaring, windswept peaks to red cedar forests almost jungle-like in their density, from giant ferns as large as a child’s coat to clear steams running with trout and steelhead, from mountain goats to grizzly bears to occasional glimpses of the rare Selkirk caribou, the Kootenai is Montana’s most varied and eclectic forest and, some would say, its most magical. Heavy snows and soaking spring rains bring up a profusion of wildflowers that seem like the earth’s very skin, that breathe with the earth itself. Shifting fog wraps the forest in mystery; uncertain calls echo in the pale wood; sunlight breaks through the mists in ethereal, probing spears. To step into the Kootenai’s wild places is to step back into time, to experience the ancient American continent. It’s a landscape deserving of awe and wonderand Wilderness recommendation.

But the Forest Service has chosen to deprive this landscape of the respect it deserves. If the proposed forest plan takes effect, the Kootenai will have no recommended Wilderness. None. It would be the only national forest in Montana without any recommended Wilderness in the forest management plan.
It can’t happen.

Promises Made.
In the Draft Forest Plan issued a year ago, 163,000 acres of the forest were proposed for Wilderness recommendation. Not enough, given the Kootenai’s wealth of wild places. But163,000 acres. And those acres came with a promise.
The "collaborative process" was still underway...meetings between conservationists, local leaders, and diverse citizens interested in the forest. Forest Service staff publicly pledged that unless “complete consensus” could be reached among the collaborative groups for changes to the Wilderness recommendations, they would remain intact in the Final Plan163,000 acres. Conservation groups took the Forest Service at its word.
Despite discussions through the summer, little consensus was reached for changing the Wilderness recommendations. By the Forest Service's own rules, they would remain in the plan.
But in October, after the collaborative process had closed, the Forest Service announced, without justification or real explanation, that those 163,000 acres were lost. Lands that had been promised for Wilderness recommendation would be termed “Wildlands,” a new, largely unenforceable category that lacked the clearly defined, easily understood protections of recommended Wilderness.
When the plan’s “Final Alternative” was released on May 7, 2006 the gaping hole remained. The agency’s vision for the management of this magnificent wild landscape contained no recommendations for Wilderness. Wilderness had disappeared from 2.2 million acres. A promise broken.
A return of sense.
Common sense needs to return to the forest plan. Simple reason demands that pristine wildlands in the Kootenai be given Wilderness recommendationthe status these lands have enjoyed through decades of forest plans. The Forest Service’s arbitrary withdrawal cannot stand.
WHAT YOU CAN DO

WRITE THE FOREST SERVICE.
Tell the agency we want our Wilderness back. Tell them to return balance to the forest. There’s room in the Kootenai’s 2.2 million acres for timber harvesting, motorized use, and outdoors recreation. There must be room for Wilderness too. Only by restoring Wilderness recommendations will the forest be complete, offering its wonders to the widest spectrum of the public, providing critical habitat to fish and wildlife, and protecting priceless treasures for future generations.
Demand Wilderness recommendation for these magnificent wild areas:
· Additions to the Cabinet Mountains WildernessCabinet Face East & West; McKay Creek; Trout Creek; east and west forks of Elk Creek. These are the last redoubts of the Kootenai’s most endangered grizzly bear population.
· Scotchman’s Peaks. It’s been said walking into the Scotchman’s is like walking into heaven. These wild peaks offer spectacular hiking, glimpses of mountain goat and elk, and views into the blue distance that will break your heart.
· The Roderick-Saddle-Grizzly complex is the gold standard for biological diversity in the Yaak Valley, and a traditional stronghold for female grizzlies.
· Buckhorn Ridge and Northwest Peaks, the premier alpine terrain in the Yaak, populated by wolverine and lynx, offer astounding high country skiing.
· Gold Hill West in the Libby District, a rich terrain drained by numerous wild watersheds, supports elk, native trout, and furbearers.

Tell the Forest Service to restore these and other deserving wildlands to Wilderness recommendation163,000 acres and more!

WRITE NOW. THE DEADLINE IS September 9, 2006.

Write to:

KIPZ Forest Plan Revision
Kootenai National Forest
1101 Hwy 2 West
Libby, MT 59923


Or email to: r1_kipz_revision@fs.fed.us

***************************************************************************************** “There are only a few sizeable places left on the Kootenai that are still wild and natural, places that have avoided being bulldozed and ‘improved’ and crisscrossed by the traffic of the modern age. We need to protect these places for the wildlife, for the peace and quiet they provide, and for future generations to enjoy as we do.”
Doug Ferrell, Trout Creek

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