More Wildernass Proposal

[Grumpy]

BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!
Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,
H.R.5610 Would Designate Five New Wilderness Areas
A Washington D.C. based natural resource news service, Environment & Energy Publishing (www.eenews.net), today reported that five House Democrats introduced legislation that would designate five new Wilderness areas in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and West Virginia. According to E&E's report, the legislation (H.R. 5610) was introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Reps. Jim Costa of California, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Raï¾£l Grijalva of Arizona and Tom Udall of New Mexico.
The bill would designate just about 500,000 acres of Wilderness in West Virginia, Arizona's Tumacacori Highlands; the Redwood Mountain Grove in California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park; the Sabinoso Wilderness in New Mexico; Oregon's Copper Salmon area and the South Fork of the San Jacinto River Canyon in Riverside County, California. E&E's report says the Wilderness proposals are also included in separate measures.
This is an important reminder of how important the 2008 election season will be to mountain bikers, OHV users and others who value access and recreation on our public lands. If you have not done so already, please register to vote and please let your local political representatives know how important OHV use is to your family.
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107



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Region 4 PR
PNW4WDA

[Grumpy]

Okay, it's a given that I am not a fan of any more wilderness or denying access to public land. However, there is one area in this proposal that I can agree with. That is the Copper Salmon area in Curry County. For those of you who don't know, Coos and Curry Counties on the South Oregon coast is where Susan and I call "Home". The area involved is, in fact, in need of being left as is to protect the Elk and Sixes River drainages and the salmon and trout fishing in those streams. Both of the rivers are designated Wild & Scenic below Copper Salmon, but the head waters are not in that designation. To me, the proposal takes care of what, logically, should have been done in the original W & S draft. It all makes sense when you look at the map. When I was a mite younger than I am now, I worked for the USFS down there, and have been in that area many times. Yup, we were laying out timber sales and access roads around Laird Lake, which is named for one of the old time loggers, Wilferd Laird, AKA: "The Old Boar". Yes, I knew him. His son, Shirley, was logging it at the time. On a personal note, I have an Aunt and Uncle who live in Langlois, Friday and Kathy Phillips. Friday has lived in Langlois since 1916, when he was three, and logged up Elk and Sixes from the 30's up till the mid 50's to supply his sawmill at Port Orford. So, having said my piece, I will now let the rest of you comment.