Access

Q: Won't new wilderness exclude kids, the elderly, the handicapped, people who aren't physically fit, and people who otherwise just want to drive through their forests?

A: Anyone who can walk can enjoy most wilderness areas. People confined to wheelchairs can also use wilderness trails.

Many trails in our state's unprotected wild areas are flat and wide and perfect for families with young children, the elderly, or those who prefer a less demanding form of wild recreation. Horse riders enjoy wilderness trails, people seeking an easy overnight experience in the backcountry can hire the services of outfitters and guides, and canoers and kayakers can savor untamed rivers and pristine lakes.

The national forests of Washington have 18,000 miles of road suitable for passenger vehicles (not including highways)--plenty of opportunities to explore by car. Unprotected wild lands are the scenic backdrop to a great many popular roads and highways.

Q: Doesn't wilderness protection mean that motorcycle and mountain bike riders cannot use these relatively rare protected areas in national forests?

A: Citizens of Washington love their wilderness areas, but right now some of our established wilderness areas are being overwhelmed by people. At the same time, the Forest Service is building logging roads into remaining unprotected wild areas and selling the trees to timber companies. By putting qualifying wild areas into the wilderness system, we can ensure that our citizens will always have pristine wild places to discover and enjoy.

Wilderness is popular partly because of its unmechanized character, where anyone can escape the rush of modern life and adopt a pace to match nature. It's true that wilderness is closed to motorcycles, jeeps, mountain bikes, snowmobiles, and other mechanized travel. But today, 70% of Washington national forests is available for motorized recreation.

Q: Doesn't wilderness mean there won't be any trails?

A: Absolutely not. Trails are recognized as an important resource of wilderness. We need trails in wilderness to visit and explore those areas. Having areas protected as wilderness ensures that the trails there will not be ruined by logging, road construction, or mining operations.

Q: Won't we have to wait in line for use permits or pay heavy fees to use wilderness areas?

A: In fact, permit systems for wilderness entry happen when limited areas are overloaded by visitors. Such limitations are inevitable if we don't expand the wilderness system beyond its present size. If additional wilderness areas can be created, there will be less need for permits limiting public use. However, if we allow the 3 million acres of remaining unprotected wild lands to be degraded by logging, road construction, mining, and off-road vehicle use, that much less land will be available for wilderness-type recreation. Federal law forbids fees for the purpose of limiting wilderness entry.

Fire

Q: How do we prevent our rural communities from burning down if they are surrounded by wilderness areas and entry for management is limited?

A: The Wilderness Act and other laws permit entry into and the suppression of wildfires within wilderness if they present clear threats to public health and safety, or to property or resources on surrounding lands. While minimum-impact firefighting is preferred in wilderness, in extreme danger, aerial firefighting with water and flame retardants is allowed, as well as mechanical equipment on the ground.

The Forest Service develops a fire management plan for each wilderness that specifies how fires are to be fought and identifies natural features that can serve as natural fire breaks to aid fire-fighting. These plans also often allow the Forest Service to perform prescribed burning to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. Such plans are developed with the involvement of local communities to incorporate their concerns.

Economic Impacts

Q: What about the effects on employment of all those new wilderness areas?

A: The possible loss of jobs caused by protecting new wilderness has often been overstated. While some rural parts of the state rely on natural resources such as timber or mined minerals, many studies today show that wilderness has far greater economic value for recreation and quality of life. The presence of protected wilderness provides family-wage jobs in outfitting and guiding, businesses that support fishing, hunting, hiking, boating, and backcountry skiing, and the manufacturers and suppliers that support such recreation.

In Washington, there are forty times as many jobs dependent on recreation in national forests than jobs based on timber logged on national forests. The presence of nearby wilderness is an important feature of many small communities, making them desirable places to live and to attract new businesses.

Washington would be in a far less competitive position without large tracts of wilderness that greatly enhance residents' quality of life. Protecting wilderness can help ensure a continued stable, high-quality water supply to dozens of rural communities in Washington.

Ranchers will see minimal impact, since the Wilderness Act specifically allows grazing to continue in wilderness.

Q: What about grazing in wilderness?

A: The Wilderness Act of 1964 quite specifically allows continued grazing in wilderness.

Weeds

Q: How are we going to control harmful weeds if an area is made wilderness?

A: Nearly the full range of management options is available to control and eradicate noxious weeds in wilderness, though low-impact methods such as hand pulling are preferred. Since many noxious weeds are spread by motor vehicles, protecting areas as wilderness is the best way to minimize new weed invasions.

Columbia Highlands

Q: How much area would be put into wilderness, and where are the areas?

A: About 3 million acres of unprotected wilderness exist in Washington. While most of those 3 million acres are suitable for inclusion in the wilderness system, groups in the Wild Washington Campaign are studying and mapping areas to determine what makes sense for Congress to consider as wilderness. Wild forests and inventoried roadless areas can be found throughout the Okanogan Highlands, Kettle River Range, and Selkirk Mountains in northeast Washington; Cascade Mountains; Olympic Mountains; and Blue Mountains in southeast Washington. Remaining unprotected wild areas are almost entirely on the national forests, with the exception of Chopaka Mountain, on Bureau of Land Management land in Okanogan County.

Q: Don't we have enough wilderness already? How much is enough?

A: With the population of Washington likely to double in the next 50 years and with suburban development spreading throughout the state, it is all the more important to preserve the wild areas that still exist. Biologists emphasize the importance of preserving remaining wild habitat areas to ensure rare wildlife and fish can survive.

Since some of our existing wilderness areas are getting crowded, the public needs to have additional places to hike, backpack, fish, snowshoe, hunt, and otherwise find self-reliance away from machines and our high-tech world. The Forest Service has administratively protected some wild areas from logging and development, but that protection is not permanent and does not have the force of law that wilderness designation provides.