Columbia Highlands wilderness talking points

1)    We need a balance that includes wilderness and sustainable forestry on the Colville National Forest

Wilderness protection for roadless areas, along with areas already identified for responsible forestry, would provide a balanced approach to managing the Colville National Forest that will protect wildlife habitat, provide recreation opportunities, and support jobs in the timber industry.

2)    Only 3% of the 1.1 million acre Colville National Forest has been protected

Less than 3% of the 1.1 million acre Colville National Forest (the Salmo Priest Wilderness) is designated Wilderness, representing less than 1% of all wilderness in the state. There are, however, 19 inventoried roadless areas that meet criteria under the Wilderness Act for possible future designation. Only 2.6% of the contiguous United States, an area about the size of South Dakota, is protected as Wilderness. Wilderness provides the strongest protection for pristine public lands. Pressures on our natural resources are steadily growing as population is rapidly doubling and development spreads across the landscape. Wild, natural areas are becoming increasingly rare, so we must keep the ones we have intact today for the benefit of our health and the health of our children.

3)    Wilderness ensures at least some of our public lands will be safeguarded for the future

As our region’s population increases and former farm and timber lands become more developed, our remaining backcountry lands become even more valuable as remnants of our once vast wilderness heritage. Wilderness is a place where we can connect with the past and where we can be reminded of how the American frontier helped to shape our values of freedom, self-reliance, and perseverance. These undeveloped, untamed lands provide an opportunity for us to experience the freedom, challenge, and solitude that helped shape our forefathers and our uniquely American culture. Over 100 years ago, much of northeast Washington was wilderness. Today, our remaining roadless areas are all the wilderness we have left. Just because an area is a designated “Roadless Area” has not kept them from being developed in the past and won’t keep them from being developed in the future. Only Congressionally designated wilderness under the Wilderness Act of 1964 offers the security we need for these rare, ecologically significant landscapes.

4)    Wilderness areas protect traditional recreational access

Hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, horse packing, hunting, fishing, berry picking, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, and even wheelchairs are allowed in wilderness areas. More than 12 million people visit wlderness each year on their own or with a guide. Two-thirds of the Colville National Forest is open for motorized use and mountain biking. However, motorized and mechanized vehicles like ATVs and mountain bikes are not allowed in wilderness areas. New trails should be developed to replace any biking or motorized trails that might be lost because of wilderness designation.

5)    Designated wilderness areas stimulate economic development for neighboring communities

Wilderness ensures the scenic mountain backdrop of many small towns will be maintained as an asset to continue to attract tourists, retirees, and new businesses looking to relocate in areas with a high quality of life and nearby recreation opportunities. An increase in the value of private property adjacent to Wilderness areas is also well documented, as is having an official landscape designation like “Wilderness Area” on the map as an added draw for the region.

6)    Wilderness helps maintain secure flows of clean water for fish and wildlife, drinking, irrigation, and ranching

Healthy populations of fish and wildlife and many of our region’s farms, ranches, and towns rely on the mountain backcountry as their source of water. The towns of Orient, Metaline Falls, and others get their drinking water from roadless areas and wilderness. Maintaining the integrity of these lands through Wilderness protection is a cost-effective way to secure our fresh water supplies for the future.

7)    Wilderness provides habitat security for wildlife and higher-quality hunting opportunities

Many animals, such as bears, lynx, wolves, wolverines, caribou, and other wildlife rely on the wild forests of the Columbia Highlands as escapement habitat where they can find refuge from increasing development and human pressures and as a crossroads for moving across larger landscapes. As climate change continues to alter our forest ecosystems, these wild areas will become even more important havens of safe passage for wildlife on the move. Wild forests also provide large natural burned areas and meadows and wetlands free of noxious weeds also provide important feeding areas for deer, elk, moose, and other wildlife. Millions of birds also use wilderness as nesting and wintering grounds and resting places when migrating. Hunters also find increasingly rare opportunities to get away from roads and traffic to pursue bigger bucks and bulls in more traditional ways in the backcountry.

8)    Motorized routes in proposed wilderness should be traded out

There are several one-way motorized recreation trails within the Twin Sisters Roadless Area and other motorized routes in several other areas, including South Huckleberry, Owl Mountain, and Jacknife Roadless Areas; however, these trails are not part of a larger legal motorized trail system, and they have been identified as routes that could be traded for other motorized loop trails nearby. Converting these trails into non-motorized trails would make it ideal for wilderness recreation activities and wildlife and would help make a better, more connected motorized recreation trail system.

9)    Cattle grazing and improvements for livestock are allowed in wilderness

Existing grazing activity and/or range developments should not lower an area’s eligibility for wilderness. Both the Wilderness Act and Forest Service manuals state that grazing that occurred before an area was designated as wilderness “shall be permitted to continue subject to such reasonable regulations as are deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture.” The Forest Service policy follows the Congressional Grazing Guidelines, which specifically state that the number of animals allowed to graze should remain at generally the same level as prior to wilderness designation, and that “the maintenance of supporting facilities" is permissible in Wilderness areas.

10)    Thousands of miles of wilderness trails are maintained every year

Thousand of miles of trails are maintained in Washington’s designated wilderness areas each year using traditional hand tools like crosscut and bow saws and horsemanship skills of packers. Because of declining federal budgets for trail maintenance on both front-country and wilderness trails, volunteer groups have stepped up to help keep our trails open and to lobby to restore funding for our nation’s trails. For the first time in several years, volunteers from several groups opened up all of the trails in the Salmo Priest Wilderness over the summer of 2009.