Colville National Forest
Wild, roadless forests on the Colville National Forest qualify to be made part of America's Wilderness Preservation System. Other large parts of this northeastern Washington national forest are best suited to restoration forestry and responsible forest management.
Protection of lands qualified as wilderness is an important part of an ongoing collaborative process to create a practical management plan for the Colville National Forest.
Protecting the wilderness of eastern Washington is hardly a new idea. In 1984, several proposed wilderness areas in the Kettle Range-Selkirk region received Congressional scrutiny. Although these high-quality wildlands deserved wilderness protection, all but the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, located in the Selkirk Mountains, were unexpectedly dropped from the Washington State Wilderness Act of 1984.
More than 25 years later, the Salmo-Priest is still the only protected wilderness in the Colville National Forest. Today, just 3% of the 1.1 million-acre Colville National Forest is protected wilderness, the lowest percentage of any national forest in the greater Northwest.
A new forest plan
In 2002, the Colville National Forest began its revision of its forest plan. One of the first steps was to get an updated account of the roadless lands remaining. The agency identified 21 inventoried roadless areas (IRAs), several of those sharing acres with neighboring national forests like the Okanogan and Idaho Panhandle. Some of these roadless areas had been identified in previous RARE (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) processes. Some, such as Cougar Mountain Roadless Area, were identified by painstaking field and map work by Conservation Northwest and later verified by Forest Service field staff.
Aware that Forest Service would soon begin a process for revising the Colville National Forest plan, the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition—including timber mill owners, forestry professionals, community leaders, and conservationists (Conservation Northwest and The Lands Council)—crafted a draft management plan for a balance across the forest. This plan recommended 17 of the 21 roadless areas be designated as wilderness.
Public support for wilderness
In 2008, for the first time ever (and as part of its forest plan revision), the Colville National Forest asked people which of the total 21 inventoried roadless areas (encompassing more than 230,000 acres) they believed the agency should recommend to Congress for wilderness designation.
To let the Forest Service know what citizens thought, supporters rallied at public meetings throughout northeastern Washington in Spokane, Republic, Colville, and Cusick. More than 1,500 people from around the state sent letters and comments supporting protection of all roadless areas that merit wilderness recommendation.
In the summer of 2009, the Colville National Forest revealed a sneak preview of its forthcoming recommendations, eliciting a mixture of disappointment and hope for a better recommendation from conservationists. The agency had favored just four possible roadless areas for wilderness. The agency responded to criticism declaring that the process was just a beginning and that "all options were still on the table."
See the Colville National Forest's evaluations of the areas' wilderness characteristics.
Click to enlarge the image below for an alternate analysis of the wilderness quality of these amazing areas compiled by the Washington Wilderness Coalition.
Next steps
Today, the balanced approach to management of the Colville National Forest, favored by the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, has gained bipartisan attention in Congress. Congress is the final arbiter of wilderness because only Congress can designate it. And although the Forest Service’s recommendations carry weight, Congress can—and often does—supersede the agency’s recommendations.
So what can you do? We have a unique opportunity to speak directly to our Congressional representatives about the need for wilderness—not just a handful of separate areas, but all of the roadless areas recommended by the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition.
- Write a letter urging our Congressional representatives to support wilderness designation for these wild areas. Letters make a real difference in how many of these undeveloped wild lands ultimately receive an agency recommendation for a wilderness designation. Community support sets the stage for real wilderness protection.
- Consider “adopting” one of these roadless areas by committing to visit the area and documenting your experience to help raise its visibility for protection. It's a fun and effective means of ensuring that these roadless forests of the Columbia Highlands finally receive the permanent protection they deserve.
