While I agree with the commentators, people need to be reminded that ecosystems are under duress across the continent. We tend toward protection of dramatic landscapes such as those described in the article, but right now the Prairie Pothole wetland complex is being drained, and native grasslands are being plowed up in the hundreds of thousands of acres each season. These are among our most diverse ecosystems. The story is nationwide, not just one area.
61
I was born there and spent my youth roaming the foothills as a shepherd with my faithful dog Tony and gentle mare Velvet. My earliest memories are of Glacier Mountain rising like a blue emerald to the west, and the pungent smell of pine in the evening breeze. When I return now, in the valleys at night looking up, the stars and Milky Way seem so terrifyingly close that you feel like ducking. The rattlesnakes will keep you from enjoying it too much. You'll encounter several on a day's hiking, and find yourself watching the ground instead of the view. At night they sleep on the trails to stay warm. I don't miss them.
3
@shreir I have lived in rattlesnake country for many years - and I'd rather co-exist with acres of them than one corporate timber CEO.
20
I believe the career public servant biologists who've been studying these issues their entire lives more than a celebrity song writer/musician. Love Carole King's music, she's vastly uninformed on issues wildlife. She and Garrity blow it in the fifth paragraph. Anyone who knows deer and elk know they thrive on areas where trees are cut. Elk graze grass, deer browse bushes, neither eat trees. Not saying that cutting trees is a good idea, just that claiming it harms ungulates is simply not true.
Two representatives from the North East deciding what habitat to protect how, in the Rocky Mountains is a recipe for further disaster and disintegration of Monument designation. If these two want to create jobs start by fully funding our Parks, and restoring our Forest Service and BLM campgrounds to public management instead of private profit.
No. No to celebrities telling us what's best while bribing slots in Universities for their children. No to dictating how to drive us common folks out of the lands we own. No.
9
@somsai "drive common folks out of lands they own?" Public lands are held in trust for all, not for whatever utility individuals wish to make of them. What about the virtues of keeping some lands free of development and human habitation? We need to protect more public land before it's all gone. Last I checked we're not creating any new land.
45
@somsai
Actually in Idaho deer and elk do browse trees. They especially like pines and orchard trees. When a herd of about 300 invaded my Idaho farm four years ago, after they finished ripping down the protection for my stored hay they ate my orchard trees down to stumps! They also browse lichens from forest trees. And every pine tree on the tree farm next door was pruned as high as they could reach.
28
@somsai
The natural character of these forests is what allows for bounding. Theses forests are not dense stands of Dougles For and Hemlock, they are more open stands of pines. The best thing we could do is not log but quit suppressing wildfires and do some selective thinning. Road building is extremely damaging to the landscape and streams.
There is no doubt that the single bottom liners in the trump administration and the gop want nothing more than to make money. And they will do so while making tax payers pay.
26
Seems those who all themselves "Conservatives" should be conservative. That is, for conservation and reluctant to embrace drastic changes to our heritage or sell off capital assets.
I wish the article noted the financial rewards to be realized for the country in exchange for logging rights so we can identify how the Trump administration values public land. What portion of Federal income is the potential income to be realized from carving up a heritage site?
I prefer selling off parts of Arlington cemetery or Central Park. More money there if the imperative is to maximize dollars by selling or leasing capital assets such as lands held in trust by the government for generations of Americans. Should we sell off a few square centimeters of paintings in the National Gallery or historical documents a centimeter at a time?
I think Elizabeth Kohlbert used an oriental carpet as an analogy for an ecosystem. The whole doesn't function if it is cut up into separate pieces.
Thanks to the Alliance for fighting the good fight to protect our wilderness.
28
@JT. Please sell off the Individual-1 presidential portrait. It's a "fake" anyway (as is the POTUS).
5
My wife's mother and aunts family were from Idaho and I was lucky to visit several times while they were alive. We really did see salmon jumping out of the water, and would drive for hours between tiny towns.
The benefits or harvesting the trees will be short-lived and then what? Like the now old song, we would have paved paradise to put up a parking lot.
51
NREPA is urgently needed. Exploitation of timber, minerals and oil is ramping up. Public processes that have served to protect the irreplaceable wilderness resource are under attack by politicians. Here in the Northern Rockies the favorite tactic of our politicians is to claim NREPA is a product of eastern politicians and naïve conservationists. In fact NREPA is a homegrown proposal constructed by many local and regional grassroots groups based in the Northern Rockies. Wilderness quality lands are constantly diminishing. We can not recreate wilderness; we can only preserve it.
29
in my decades of hiking the national forests in California one thing I have noticed is that logging operations visible from well traveled public access roads appear well managed...... walk off into the forest for another story. not only do small trout streams get destroyed but the forest floor is left covered in a foot and half of slash. I recently revisited on of these areas 15 years after the logging..... it was still almost impossible to hike because you still had to climb over small trees that were downed but left and all of the slash still on there forest floor. when some right winger tells you that fires would not happen if we logged more? realize that he does not know what he is talking about.
114
@coale johnson ecologically the slash is good for the forest floor. Your ease of hiking is not conservation. I'm not advocating logging, I am advocating scientific forest management.
7
@somsai How did those old growth forests ever survive before we came along to scientifically manage them?
22
@RP: By naturally occurring wildfires, which are an essential part of a healthy forest ecosystem. With hotter and drier climates, however, the composition of the new growth can be altered from the pre-burn mix and, in some cases, the forest can fail to regenerate at all. Modern droughts can compromise ecosystems that used to be more resilient.
1
Rampant deregulation will have consequences. The voters of Western states who uniformly supported Donald Trump, will soon learn. All of those wild places where families hunted, fished, camped, and played are about to be assaulted by mining, logging, and agricultural entities. Rules that demanded compliance with Clean Water Act and other life saving/watershed saving laws will be by-passed or simply ignored. You are about to see the results of your vote. Investors out East, and a few locals will make fortunes. You'll have your jobs for a generation, and then you'll have nothing. Get ready.
141
@Patrick Stevens where I live in the eastern Sierra ranchers love trump. they love the bundy's. what they don't realize is that if public land is made available they will not be the ones buying it..... as you say, wealthy businessman will be first in line and if they didn't like the feds managing the land? they will like the new higher grazing fees and vulture nature of the new stewards even less.
40
Trump in all ways is simultaneously THE most dangerous man on the planet and the most ignorant.
6
Snow covered peaks? How much warming before there isn't any snow in June?
Federal resources should be protected, not given away.
4
Thank you for your work, I will retweet and support your efforts. You have my permission to contact me via email or twitter, I would love a newsletter or follow up - [email protected]
Overpopulation, of homo sapiens. We are the disease of the planet earth. Clear cutting mountain ranges is beyond stupid and I am glad my life is near the end. I cant imagine what our children will inherit. At least they will have strip malls filled with human traffickers.
2
This plan should also include the High Uinta Range in northeastern Utah which practically abuts where this maps end on the WY section.
1
Before you dismiss the heart, intelligence and logic of this editorial, read Richard Powers' The Overstory.
All Trump sees are goodies to hand out to major contributors.
Name the banks who fund environmentally destructive exploitation. Name the bank presidents and invite them to a hearing in Washington DC. Name the companies who will do the dirty work. Publish the history of their past operations. Name the locals who are co-operating with the capitalists. We'll take it from there.
3
Mr. Trump has never seen a pristine forest or a wild species he did not wish to subjugate to the greed of developers and the fossil fuel industry. He has no connection to Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir, or the explorers Lewis and Clark.
The wild places in our country are precious to every citizen, the last vestige of natural beauty that we have. We cannot let this avaricious and thoughtless administration damage and destroy them. We will fight on!
9
Privatize the gains; socialize the losses.
Then turn ‘socialism’ into a fearsome word that triggers visions of brutal totalitarian regimes. Stir it up with a soupçon of xenophobia, a generous helping of racism and a bushel of scapegoating and willful ignorance, et voila! You have American ‘conservatism.’ What does it ‘conserve’? Certainly not our abundant, commonly owned natural resources; certainly not the common good.
A permanent class of unimaginably wealthy private owners and profiteers, many of whom obtained wealth and power through sheer accident of birth? Yes, that’s what it ‘conserves.’
7
The time is right for NREPA. Rampant logging, mining and other extractive industries our destroying our precious irreplaceable resources at taxpayer expense.
In Montana where I live, timber is king and they own the politicians on every level. The mantra is log with abandon. They are missing the forest for the trees. They call it making the forest more resilient to fire and disease, but scientific study after study disagrees with this simplistic idea. Logging in fact creates more intense fires and makes the forest more susceptible because it opens the canopy and dries the forest. It also spaces out the trees so wind travels happily through stoking the fire. A great example is the Camp fire in Paradise, CA. The area around the town was heavily logged allowing the fast spread of the fire.
It is time for the people to stand up to timber, mining and drilling. We should not pay for their big houses and fancy cars. We should not pay for getting their children into Yale by hook or by crook. They should pay what the timber truly costs rather than rely on tax dollars. If they had to pay for it, they would not do it.
NREPA needs to happen now before it is too late and our children and grandchildren only know bears and old growth forests via photographs.
7
I love Carole King. She's been at this for a long time and I cherish her for that.
3
"In Wildness is the Preservation Of the World" spoken by Henry David Thoreau in 1851 is surely one of the most prescient and visionary statements in the annals of history
4
Drive Montana Highway 200 west from Great Falls to Lincoln to see views of the Rocky Mountain Front that seem unchanged from what Lewis could have seen on his return over the Continental Divide in 1806. No roads, no fences or power lines, no signs at all of human impact to the land.
It’s a stunning view that I really hope we don’t squander!
9
I grew up in Coeur d’ Alene and am fiercely proud that some 40% of the State is wilderness area. Nestled between CDA and Montana is the silver valley and is an area that is permanently scarred from mining. Fly over the panhandle and it’s a checkerboard if clear cutting forests run amok. Why must continue to destroy our natural wonders? It is so sad it just breaks my heart that we can’t figure out how to control our thirst for money. Must capitalism destroy everything?
15
I suppose the new set of judges being selected will see things differently - at least that is supposed to be the reason for their selection.
3
The mapping of this area by L & C led directly to the destruction of this once (before L & C) pristine wilderness.
2
There ought to be some recognition, and celebration, of Congress's recent designation of vast areas of new and expanded wilderness (TIMES, Feb. 12, "Senate Passes a Sweeping Land Conservation Bill"). One of the very few things they've actually done in years.
The simple trick seems to have been leaving room for hunters and fisherman. As long as conservation plans insist on excluding these traditional activities Congress won't act, any plan will have to rely on the courts and will garner tremendous amounts of hostility, as witnessed by so many of the comments here.
I'm not a hunter or fisherman but it's obvious to me that cooperating and compromising with those of my fellow Americans who are, is the most sensible way to protect this beautiful land of ours.
Of course "traditional activities" do not include tax-payer subsidized industrial clear cutting. Let's hope these excellent court decisions aren't overturned.
14
I agree with maintaining the ban on oil, gas, and mining. However, there is a need for logging to reduce catastrophic wildfire.
There are two factors that have increased the probability of stand-replacing fires; fire suppression over the last hundred years has led to much higher stand density (i.e., number of trees per acre), including the proliferation of dog hair forests (i.e., dense thickets of small, closely packed trees), and much higher fuel loads. Second, warming climate has created drought conditions and increased insect outbreaks that have killed millions of standing dead trees.
These conditions have already caused the biggest fires in modern history and will continue to do so until most of our forests will burn to the ground. We are past the point where good forest management can correct the conditions of our unhealthy forests.
I am an ecologist and I have seen the state of our forests deteriorate over the last twenty years. If something drastic is not done to reduce fuel loads, millions of acres of forests will disappear because of fire. Logging and controlled burns are the only way to alter this trajectory.
4
@Maurie Beck, your comment cannot be repeated often enough.
1
"parts of the Northern Rockies remain as they were when Lewis first saw its peaks. We must protect them so future generations can experience the grandeur that [Lewis] beheld."
So it's *not* "too late", and "something [outside] has [*not*] died", at least not entirely? In that case, when "[we] feel the earth move under [our] feet", let us hope that any such earth-moving remains as metaphorical as "the sky tumbling down" above it ...
4
The western forests are dying now from bark beetle, which is exacerbated by global drying. Extraction of resources and water will accelerate the process. We will have a desert in the northwest.
Our next generations will battle dehydration, heat, displacement of populations, war, and disease eve if we act now. The results of human stupidity are already happening.
We need a radical about turn in government policies and a pro-active set of policies to mitigate global destruction by humans. This is the real "national emergency."
25
This administration reminds me of passages in The Lord of the Rings, the destruction of Middle Earth. I'm praying there is a happy ending, just like the book but it sure doesn't look so good right now.
5
Prayer alone is not enough. Not nearly enough.
The legacy of humanity will be: no legacy at all. We are destroying the ecosystem that sustains us. In the end, humanity will go extinct, due to its own failings, ignorance and greed.
This is likely the reason why scientists are not finding any signs of intelligent life in the universe. "Intelligent life" isn't very smart and destroys itself before it can actually become intelligent.
I hope this part of America will be preserved for future generations, rather than leased for destruction by the highest bidders.
14
Unless my eyes deceive me, the map provided with this op ed article says that the 8,000 year old trading route over the mountains of Northern Idaho, the same route followed by Lewis & Clark, would be New Wilderness and thus permanently closed to wheeled traffic.
That 100-mile stretch of very bad gravel road (really rock road in many places), can still be carefully driven with the right off-road vehicles and mountain bikes. It connects Native sacred sites and Native historical sites. It provides nearly the last opportunity to see land in nearly the same condition as Native traders, Native buffalo hunting parties headed to and from the buffalo grounds of the Plains, and Lewis & Clark saw it.
Now apparently Ms. King and Mr. Garrity want to close it off to the American public. Because the ridge-top trail is mostly so far from water, and so long at approximately 100 miles, it would be nearly impossible for modern Americans -- including modern Natives who use pickup trucks and SUVs like the rest of us -- to have access to this critically important cultural heritage area.
Functionally the area is only accessible about 4 months of the year anyway, due to the very deep winter snows that come early and stay late (Lewis & Clark nearly died there in the early snows of September when their seasoned Native guides lost their way).
Why does the Alliance for the Wild Rockies think it is necessary to cut off practical access to this very important cultural heritage area?
3
@Frank
One would still be able to traverse it on foot, just as Lewis and Clark did, no? I didn’t read anything in the article regarding “no access”.
1
Let's hope Carole King won't need to create a new and sad verse of her 1971 song "It's Too Late, Baby"!
8
@CDRJr
Toni Stern would likely be the one to re-write it. Those were her lyrics.
This all sounds very nice. But as someone, in contrast to these politicians from New York and Rhode Island sponsoring this legislation, who actually lives near the wilderness, I can tell you the result of this naïve, do-gooder environmentalism: Overgrown forests that erupt in out-of-control conflagrations every summer that produce mind-bogglingly thick, choking smoke that the people who live here have to breath for months on end. But these east coast liberals mean well, so I guess that's all that matters.
3
@Ed Kiernan As someone who lives near the wilderness, you must know that there are responsible ways to manage overgrown forests to avoid out-of-control conflagrations.
Drilling for gas and oil is not one of them.
29
@Ed Kiernan Your slights aside Ed - there is a big difference between neglect which you seem to imply is the fault of "do gooders" and full blown industry that brings and creates pollution. All this negative drama has me baffled. Why wouldn't you want to keep this special place clean and well cared for? I don't get it.
Here is an idea. Get together and BUY THE LAND. Open your wallets and spend some of your money for what you say you care about.
Or do you always expect somebody else to pay the bill?
1
@Jayden Lewis
The point you miss is the American public at large already owns the land. This article is just talking about a potentially better way to manage the public's land.
18
The gall to even attempt to subsidize mass logging with $12 million dollars of taxpayer money is astounding. Is there a national shortage of wood of which I am unaware? For what pressing purpose must we cull forest upon forest AND pay extra for the right to do it?
Jobs, you say! Yes, in this most mighty country during this most modern age, people will argue that feeding our national treasures into a wood chopper is rational long-term economic thinking.
20
All that we cherish in nature.
All that we love and adore about our planet earth.
All that we hope to set aside for future generations.
All we have enjoyed with our parents and friens just being outside in the wild.
Donald just never had that bond. He misses what he did not have. So his sons pretend to be big game hunters and dear old dad will destroy as much as he possibly can to sell out to those interests that destroy our environment for a few dollars more.
A profit and big money support are all donny has ever been after.
We must fight this tooth and nail; without fail.
21
As a retired archaeologist for the Feds I can unequivocally state that our forests, especially the ones that have been clear cut looks like a practice area for saturation bombing.
During my tenure I walked thousands of square miles of UFS lands that had been clear cut and nothing replanted and none of the mountains of slash were dealt with.
So I'd go in and write report after report on what I had seen and turned those reports over to my supervisor who was required by law to submit them to the State Historic Preservation Officer to permit or deny the project area which had been carefully surveyed and important archaeological features note.
The reports as written were never submitted to SHPO. They were totally changed in the District Office to show the project had no detrimental effects. And SHPO never went out into the field to check for the accuracy of the reports they had to clear or deny clearance on.
The response to these reports was to move the project back deeper into the forests far beyond what the public could see.
To actually see the damage you'll have to look up areas in MT to see the devastation of the saturation bombing effect that was use.
And of course, all bonuses from the District Ranger on down were awarded by how many millions of board feet were whacked. Biologists, botanists, and archaeologists got maybe a $100 bonus.
So get on google earth around Libby, MY, and see what it looks like. You WILL be appalled.
37
The LAND needs to be protected and this is usually done best by the people who live in the area for generations.
Rich outsiders don’t generally have a clue.
2
@Jo D No, it is insular residents who keep doing the same things that damage the land that don't have a clue and who don't have the smarts to educate themselves.
4
@HLR, I know many of these "insular residents". Most are good people who care about their homes and surroundings. What they lack are often the means to protect themselves from corporate logging and mining concerns. We have a similar threat in northern Minnesota from a Trump-connected Chilean mining company. The Boundary Waters Wilderness needs all the outside help it can get.
9
Mike--Thanks for picking up the phone, and for all your work. Good luck with the pipes!
Thank-you for this article. I wholly support the enactment of legislation to protect the Northern Rockies, its wildlife and its scenic and natural beauty; and most importantly its biodiversity. Its time...
17
I share the view of both the authors and that of many in the Pacific Northwest who believe the addition of wilderness is important for our economies and ecosystems.
17
@Skip Nichols
And our spiritual well being. Don't forget that.
13
I appreciate the sentiment behind this piece, and the importance of the designation. But you know who else would recognize that pristine landscape, and who are invested in its protection and restoration? The people of the Blackfoot nation, the Kalispel, the Salish and Kootenai, among many others. It's disappointing to see thinly veiled references to our country's fascination with Manifest Destiny, colonization, and the erasure of indigenous peoples in an op-ed for environmental advocacy.
31
Conservation is about saving the very things that humans value the most: The land and our connection to it. This legislation is smart and now is its time.
28
Thank you, Alliance For the Wild Rockies, for fighting to preserve this unique and beautiful ecosystem. It is easy to despair at the concentrated attack on our public lands - knowing you are working so hard to save them is a true breath of hope.
14
Is the leader of this idea the same Carole King who in about 1975 purchased property in Custer County along side the Salmon River and immediately closed a public access road that had been used continuously for 75 or more years. The county sued claiming it was public and they had proof. To no avail. Greed and high powered attorneys were hired by this eco-warrior and surprise they won. The old road was closed.
For people who can create great stories without much fact this is a good story. I just feel that the great state of New York could certainly benefit from wilderness, at least the people from there seem to relish it.
I will probably not support this possible wilderness bill as here in Idsho we already have sufficient. The forests we use all year long for our enjoyment and peace, so limiting access is not our goal.
4
@Mike . Hi Mike. As an outdoor enthusiast, I get what you are saying. But also consider this fact. If those federal lands that you love to use are leased or sold to logging and mining companies, as is the plan, the no trespassing signs will go up faster than you can say "let's go fishing". Also, it is perfectly legal to hunt, fish, hike etc in wilderness areas - an legacy that will be there for your kids and theirs.
15
@Ed UMMMM, no they wont. The land is not sold to them. They just get a lease to harvest resources not own it and control it. Or have you never accessed National Forest land from a "logging road" like the rest of us have?
1
@Jayden Lewis I have traveled many a logging road in my 60+ years of exploring. But the greater point is that whether they post the land or not, (and in many cases they do acquire that right to "protect" the public), the end result of logging and mining is a clear cut, scarred landscape that has had its good hunting and fishing destroyed. As a member of the hook and bullet club, I am not falling for the false narrative that handing over our public lands to corporations is somehow good for me. Maybe decades-old logging roads are now worth traveling, but who wants to wait that long.
1
It's official: There is NOTHING we can't ruin. USA! USA! USA!
12
"With the nation’s environmental laws under all-out attack by the Trump administration, victories in the judicial branch can get us only so far."
We have an under-educated, ego-maniacal, pathological liar President who has stuffed his cabinet and agencies with big business mercenaries - all of whom have demonstrated that they will do ANYTHING for money; including the destruction of our most valuable and prized possession.
Honestly, is this not reason enough to immediately begin impeachment proceedings? What are we thinking?!
Yeah, Pelosi is the rock-star of the past month or so, I get it. But the overall arc of her ideologies and decisions is all about status-quo and appeasement - and her hoary tendencies toward inaction NEED TO GO! Ignore Nancy and impeach now!
11
Might feel good for a minute to do that but impeachment is an iffy process, not an instant judgement and removal from office. Nancy is a strategist above all. Be patient.
1
The long history of exploitation for survival, now grown to the extreme of profit for the few at the expense of anything and everything, is reaching the finite limits of our planet.
Soon the wasteland will reach as far as the eye can see, the nose breathe, and the body react. Toxicity without limit, and substitution of illusion for reality, is not a good plan for a habitable future on our lovely planet.
Time to go local, go small, and put down the devices. Exporting our pollution will not work on a finite planet. Blaming victims will not work in a planet which does not recognize artificial borders and exclusionary boundaries.
The air, the water, the earth, they don't belong to us, but they sure as heck are letting us know despoiling for profit is stupid and dangerous.
Here are a few quick and beautiful presentations of our manifold helpers in nature by some well known celebrities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8d_JvMpoY4&list=PL5WqtuU6JrnXjsGO4WUpJuSVmlDcEgEYb
7
@Susan Anderson
Thank you for this info!
ConservationInternational.org has this excellent series "Nature is Speaking" plus more information.
And the series is on youtube.
Excellent!
Instead of "make America great again", it is in fact "sell out America to the highest bidder". This is a real disgrace. With Carole King, we have one national treasure fighting for another one. She is an absolute gem of a person, and has always spoken out on important issues. She, and we, need to win this one.
11
Eco-tourism! It's money without destroying the beauty. What a concept!
3
Making money is now the only thing that counts, I assume Trump is getting his kickback too
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need serious pushback on everything profit....
5
Rampant deregulation and swiftly rapacious resource exploitation were clearly what Trump was counting on to make America "great." Why do evangelicals so love the final destroyer of the Garden of Eden?
10
@Mark The only reason I can come up with is that they are really, really stupid!
1
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) bill number is HR 1321. Tell your representative to join the 21 cosponsors currently in support of protecting these national lands.
Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.
The legislation still allows for multiple use--logging, off roading.
It's just saying what science, and common sense, knows -- let's keep the functioning ecosystem going while it's untrammeled, but you can still log and ride in multiple use areas that are not part of the bill.
NREPA keeps our public forests intact thus contributing to mitigating global warming. What's not to love?
12
I just called my Congressman's local office to tell his staff about this bill and ask for support. The bill is H.R. 1321, introduced Feb. 22, currently in the House Committee on Natural Resources.
If everyone reading this article calls their representative, those calls will help build support.
Time to start dialing.
19
I've been fortunate enough to have visited Montana regularly over the past decade, hiking magnificent trails and fishing with my sons, one of whom is a fishing guide in Missoula. The idea that anyone would be willing to compromise these areas, even a little, especially for money, is unfathomable to me. It would certainly have to be someone who's never spent any time in forests or on rivers......Oh, right, Donald's a homebody except for neatly manicured golf courses. If the choice is between him and the northern Rocky Mountains, it's no contest. So long Donny.
24
@walt amses
I’ll bet your son is now leaning Republican as most westerners do. It just seems more natural.
Anything for a dollar is the Republican watchword. They apparently do not care to conserve anything and don't care what they will leave for their children and grandchildren. Their actions and votes in state and federal legislatures prove the point. I guess they expect their own children and grandchildren can buy clean air and clean water in the future and do virtual reality tours of what used to be.
13
The ranchers who graze and don't pay or pay minuscule rates, water "abuse", failure to block invasive insect and plant species, corporate misuse of national resources without cost or repair, etc. cost all of us immense amounts of money not to mention the damage to the environment and our health. It really has to stop because the damage is a very real assault on the nation from within. Not making this country safe or great. It is not just the Rockies, it is sloppy mismanagement mostly by a greedy GOP and its contributors.
22
I lived for years in the northern Rockies and my heart is still there, but it has always been seen as a basket of natural resources and the question most often asked of this landscape is "What can you give me that has money value?" And Lewis and Clark and Jefferson likely would have agreed. Jefferson's instructions to Lewis were "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with the water of the Pacific ocean may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce." Very few explorations have been made for aesthetic reasons although some few have seen the importance of beautiful landscapes in our lives.
8
People need jobs.
Clearcutting Logging is the most practical and cheapest
way to get the logs but it is not the only way.
Surely a method can be worked out where the
forest is thinned but not to a harmful degree each year.
If you don't thin the forest the undergrowth and dead
trees will build up so that when there is the next
large fire - the whole forest will be lost along with most
of the wild animals.
It should be possible to find a solution that meets the
need for jobs and the desire for natural beauty.
9
@John Brown, are you kidding me? Logging companies clear-cut because it's the most profitable. "Surely a method can be worked out....."? You have been paying zero attention as environmental groups have been doing exactly this for years, while republicans sneer at them. A compromise that meets environmental needs? What a concept. But Republicans simply want corporate profit. The environmental solutions have been there all along.
Try to keep up!
27
@deb
I was a logger in my youth.
I am quite aware how brutal the logging companies can be to their workers and
to the forests.
If there are solutions why not agree
on them ?
9
Breaks my heart reading how hard it is to protect our forests and the animals who inhabit them...and how it is a continual battle even during the times they are supposed to be protected...there always seems to be someone somewhere who doesn't realize the joy of these lands...and is out to destroy them for all of us...Will do the same as Camp Fire and see if my representatives will support the conservation projects...
9
For anyone who cares about this issue I recommend "The Overstory: A Novel" by Richard Powers. The novel weaves multiple people's stories into their common love of nature, specifically trees. ALL of us should care a lot about this issue because it impacts everyone; it's immune to political affiliation.
10
@Julie This is one of the most deeply moving books I have ever read, concerning the interrelationships among people and their environments, as well as among the non-human participants. I second the recommendation.
2
Thank you both for drafting this editorial. As an environmentalist and contributor to many leading environmental organizations, i was not aware of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. We need to protect this wild area for us, our children and future generations. Thank you.
-matt gnabasik
13
Mr. Garrity & Ms. King, this is a beautifully written argument. I'll write to my representatives and ask them to support these conservation projects. Thank you for speaking up.
21
In a quest for the almighty dollar, humans will destroy the very plants and animals we need to live. Unless there is a paradigm shift in human thought fairly soon, we are all doomed.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a linguistic "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
3
I note that the authors of this op-ed live in Idaho and Montana, both arch-Republican states dedicated to logging, mining and drilling for oil and gas in our last wild places. Perhaps they should start by educating their neighbors on the error of their ways.
11
@Christy
Wow! What nuanced take you have on the people of Montana and Idaho. I'm sure that Mike and Carole. who wrote the piece about the court cases they've helped file, never thought to engage the citizens of the area and local government officials on this issue.
If someone like you tried to engage them I'm sure they would mine and log out of spite.
2
Perhaps they already are, and perhaps there are a whole passel of people living in the states you cheerfully dismiss who are also working hard to preserve the wildness of the world.
And perhaps cheap insults are cheap insults.
5
@Christy
Montana is not an arch-Republican state by a long shot. The senior Senator from the state is a Democrat, as is the Governor. When I lived in Montana some 25+ years ago, we had one Democratic and one Republican Senator. Same with the Representatives in the House. And when we went down to one Representative, the Democrat won the seat.
I spend many summers in Idaho, and the land is priceless.
5
A pithy quote from Richard Powers's "The Overstory." "We're cashing in a billion years of planetary savings bonds and blowing it on assorted bling."
35
Write your Congressional Representatives and Senators to support the legislation.
11
Please stop invoking Lewis and Clark. Their expedition was an act of imperial policy. The ultimate goal of the expedition was subjugation of the Indigenous population. The expedition was a major part of Jefferson's plan to assimilate the Indigenous peoples into "American" society, to remove the tribes from the path of "American" continental expansion and, if necessary, to exterminate the tribes to advance the "American" empire.
Lewis and Clark didn't "discover" anything. The land has always been here. The indigenous lived and breathed it. If it weren't for indigenous guides, Lewis and Clark would have perished without "discovering" much of anything.
The proverbial chickens are now coming home to roost. Blame Trump and this administration all you want, but this is a much deeper problem. It is structural. It is psychological. The economic system that we live under is pathological, even when heavily regulated.
Indigenous peoples the world over continue to set the example of how to live properly on Mother Earth. When will we listen?
47
@Dan. Oh please.history is full of examples of native peoples over populating their environment and paying the price for the same kind of thinking we have taken to heart. Western civilization has just been better at it, if that's what you want to call it. The Anasazi in the SW u.s. is an example. The Navajo have vastly over populated their Rez. There are more Navajo now than at any time in history and its destroying their home. A high infant mortality is the only thing that kept humans from making a mess of things almost everywhere. Look at Africa. It is an economic and environmental basket case because they continue to have families as though 5 of the 7 kids they have won't make it- but they are and that continent is paying the price. Only enlightened thinking and the education and freeing of women holds any hope that we can learn to live within our environment.
16
@Al. What "examples" of over population here in the US? Before most europeans met any Native Americans, the diseases whites brought wiped out Native American populations. The pilgrims landings at Plymouth Rock discovered "abandoned" villages of Native Americans (Of Plymouth Plantation, 1630-1650 by William Bradford ). They weren't abandoned rather, wiped out by disease.
If you are published in the knowledge of the decline of Ancient Pueblo in the SW, provide your credentials (Anasazi means in Navajo: ancient enemies). I live adjacent to Navajo's and they are not destroying their habitat. Please, when you make such assertions, provide factual evidence.
7
@Al
Their "Rez." That's nice. Africa?
Women were free in the vast majority of indigenous cultures, from hunter-gatherers to more settled communities. Women appointed the chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy, as an example, and were chiefs themselves.
The Iroquois Confederacy, incidentally, is the primary model for the attempt at a separation of powers in the United States constitution.
Overpopulation was not an issue, and not due to infant mortality. It was due to careful planning and respect for the delicate ecosystem's carrying capacity.
Exceptions to this general rule were the Aztecs and Incas, among a few others. That's why, not coincidentally, they are considered "more civilized" than most other indigenous communities - because they overdeveloped, were more warlike, and became empires. They are the exception, not the rule.
The example of the Navajo overpopulating "their Rez" in your kind words is at once both untrue and not in any way analogous to how they lived before being subjugated anyway. It makes absolutely no sense.
What does the continent of Africa have to do with individual indigenous communities?
You are woefully misinformed. So was I for a long time. I hope you take the time to learn about Indigenous peoples. In addition to learning the truth about how we as human beings lived for the better part of our history on earth, it's also a fascinating journey. The official history, as written by the invaders (not just of the western world), is fraudulent.
6
In the minds of Eastern elites the West has always been viewed as a resource-extraction ATM. It's a more or less colonialist mindset.
6
@TLibby I agree except you left out West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, etc., from the areas where the colonialist mindset has led to deepening poverty and irreversible destruction of the land and its resources. Please also look into the actions of the huge Canadian mining companies that have been responsible for massive environmental destruction across the planet. This issue is about much more than Eastern investors, although they are a large part of this destruction.
2
@TLibby. What absolute nonsense! Every person I know, American or otherwise, who has even just seen a photograph of the Rockies, understands what a gift they are to us all. If anything, Easterners tend to idealize the Westerner, envious of the natural beauty in which they live, and infected by the myths of the "pure" frontiersman and woman.
1
Here are the details which which to write to your reps to support this legislation: H.R.1321 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act
Sponsor: Rep. Maloney, Carolyn B. [D-NY-12] (Introduced 02/22/2019) Cosponsors: (21)
Committees: House - Natural Resources
Latest Action: House - 02/22/2019 Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
(because being a librarian, that is what i do)
All op-eds should include a link to the actual bill!
20
Idaho is now the fastest growing state. Driven mostly by people fleeing the crowding, high taxes and high cost of living in places like California (nearly 40 million residents). The u.s. adds over 2 million new residents every year, more than the populations of ~20 states. In my lifetime the population of the u.s. has doubled. As Ed abbey said, nothing that is wild, or free or beautiful will survive this tsunami of humans. We need to decide if we are going to live in a country that values growing ever more humans on a fixed environmental base (with the inevitable environmental destruction that accompanies this way of thinking) or are we going to reduce our numbers to something that is sustainable long term that will allow for both a reasonable number of people and a natural environment. 330+ million Americans and no end in sight will not allow for both long term.
29
@Al
Again, could not agree more. The base problem is Too. Many. People. And a mindset that keeps thinking 'growth, growth, growth!' Stock markets up! More profits! Use those resources! I have little faith in humankind's desire to put the brakes on this madness.
Gotta get that bigger flat screen TV, you know.
9
The history of what happens when private enterprises are allowed to be stewards of public lands is proof positive that destructive harm is inevitable.
27
Losing even a little of this magnificent natural jewel would be a seriously short sighted mistake Very little economic gain at a huge cost in losing irreplaceable natural treasures is simply without reason and need We do not need the wood and other resources enough to offset the total loss these extractions would inflict on our remaining wilderness areas Please save the trees land water from basically being ruined by very short term and limited gain
28
Blessings to the two of you, and to all others who are supporting this marvelous work to preserve and protect our natural resources !
17
The wild Northern Rockies are a national treasure of incalculable value. To allow them to be exploited and permanently destroyed for transitory profits would be tragic. I’ve always found that just being there is one of my favorite and most rewarding travel experiences. I’m certain that many people agree.
39
Can the logging/oil/mining companies, their partners and products be named? More pressure can be brought to bear, product use can be reduced or stopped, and perspective on our real need/cost for this precious timber can be understood.
Yes, it's for 'jobs', but at what cost. Please give us specifics and some will raise alarms and awareness of the actual players.
80
@Carekegaard. Easy to name them. They are the same companies we all go to for our short sighted, throw away lifestyle. I'm always amazed that nyts readers act as though their lifestyle has nothing to do with what goes on in the country. We all use: oil and gas, paper, wood, one time use plastic and on and on. When people decide to give all that up and pay for the changes this will take, I'll believe we are serious about doing things differently.
15
I couldn’t agree more. The callous, ignorant and greedy attitude of our current administration saddens me.
42
A political system which gives so much disproportionate power to wealth provides fuel for the destructive power of greed. And this is about greed of wealthy individuals to become wealthier, no matter what the consequences to our world.
68
If Yellowstone hadn't been saved way back when, it wouldn't be here today. Same goes for this place.
44
@dbrum990 Same goes for Central Park, just for starters, for spaces saved in urban areas as well.
11
@dbrum990. You are partially correct. YNP is still here is by that you mean the are is still designated a park. However, the place is changing fast. The effects of GW on planet and animals is ongoing and devastating. You can "save" a place, but you can't put a bubble over it. The effects of nearly 8 billion humans and 330 million Americans, not to mention millions of visitors on the park, and to the larger environment we all live in cannot be altered by saving a few pretty places. We need to reduce our numbers to a sustainable level (something no scientist thinks we are anywhere close to now) and adopt a low impact lifestyle if we are to save any of the natural world. No one on the right or left is even talking about this.
11
Donald Trump and his buddies will sell mining rights, pocket the change, and save the untouched land to build vast spreads and golf courses.
From the air you'll be able to see TRUMP outlined in arborvitae.
18
Clear cut logging, and unregulated mining is what you get with a republican conservative government that cares only about $$$.
I have seen what loggers do to large swaths of forest in the state of Washington and Oregon. Take the logs and leave the mess behind like a wasteland. No one is ever held responsible for the devastation. It's all about jobs and money in the red states.
49
@USMC1954
The land is stripped of trees by multinational corporations with paid lobbies and ad campaigns built around the promise of jobs for locals but the logs are not even milled locally, they are shipped raw to China etc.
The paper products industry doesn't even depend on these types of logs any more for the pulp they use. Clearcuts are a blight, only allowed because of the ignorance of a public that lets greedy resource extractors have free reign in wild places.
8
So, senators from New York and Rhode Island are proposing legislation to designate millions of acres in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as roadless wilderness? Maybe they should start with their own states and leave the west to people who know something about it.
5
@Southern Man
This is a completely inadequate response. The Senators, from whatever state they are from must have a majority to pass any legislation, have a national obligation to protect for our nation's uncontestable beauty and its use in it's pristine state. And from a completely utopian point of view, one of the things this legislation will do save lots of money not spent for development, not to mention the on-going business potential of vacationers that can perpetually come visiting in the area.
And let us also note in the South, much land there has also been protected. Have you ever driven the Blue Ridge Parkway or been to the Everglades?
17
The reason politicians from the areas involved do not generally sponsor wilderness bills is due to campaign financing. The extractive industries have bought our local politicians. The people who put this proposal together know the areas involved quite well, often from the inside after many days of exploration on the ground. @Southern Man
26
@Mac Lingo Hey, I'm all for wilderness protection. Just found it ironic that senators from two of the most developed states were pushing it. Also, in my experience, I have seen people who are not that well versed in either forest management or wildlife management pushing emotion based opinions (and legislation) and in most instances they do not have the experience or facts to the same degree as those "closer to the resource."
The sad truth is that decades of government conservation efforts can be undone in months by a presidential administration that is hostile to those aims--particularly if that president's party also controls Congress. Landscapes we manage to save in 2019 may become mining sites or timber sale areas in 2020. Environmentalists are always fighting to protect resources that are finite and irreplaceable--and each landscape or species lost is gone forever.
17
Like kidnapping children at the border, the assault against the environment by the Trump administration is a Crime against Humanity. Forests provide carbon sinks and must be preserved. In wilderness areas, new logging operations should be banned.
Clear cutting should be banned across the board to stop deforestation, protect waterways, provide carbon sinks, and protect biodiversity. Long term yields will also be higher in managed forests.
Destroying the natural environment for short term profits is a losing proposition. That the Trump corporate grifters control any part of the government is a travesty.
54
Please leave nature alone. Its beautiful!!
13
Perhaps a massive PR campaign, inviting President Trump and Senator McConnell (and staff/family) to a week-long camping trip, (a la Teddy R). Extend that to include the Saudi prince, other heads of state.
I doubt it will work, but cards and letters, without substantial campaign donations enclosed, won’t either. Good Luck. Idaho is itself a national treasure.
6
@Jo Williams If you said "camping" to Trump he'd probably think you said "campaign." He and his enablers are of a mindset that will never let them comprehend that "value" can mean anything but "price."
10
He is a contrarian. The very fact that no one would expect him to accept an invitation, might gain an acceptance. And once you have him by the....camp chair, hearts and minds could follow. An added advantage- Fox News would be there, with cameras. Cameras, in this battle, are key.
5
Cutting of trees, while ugly at the time, provide important browse from regenerating trees for elk and deer. The low, dense young pines provide cover for larger animals as well varied habitat for smaller birds and mammals. The western alpine forests are more sensitive than those in the east, where clear-cuts of a few acres yield a decade-long surge in diversity and density. Western habitats need more consideration than eastern ones, especially when so often the Forest Service is cutting the roads for the timber companies. Lets not get too puritanical about timbering in the West.
2
@Jason Beary While regeneration used to make timbering at least somewhat sustainable, Inside Climate News reports that, due to climate change, western forests are no longer regenerating at a sustainable rate. Here's the link:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11032019/forest-wildfire-climate-change-tipping-point-study-douglas-fir-ponderosa-pines-west
9
Another example of the Tragedy of the Commons: the benefits (profits) of development (exploitation) are privatized while the costs are socialized (we all lose something Irreplaceable).
39
@Ed, not only those two items, but we also pay directly, with piles of tax $, for the profiteering and the damage it causes.
8
Living in Idaho for the past 12 years I can attest to the incredible beauty of this wilderness area. To go quietly into these areas and listen to the sounds of Mother Nature is a Zen-like experience. To see the gin-clear streams with native trout is incredible. Spotting animal tracks, nests for birds of prey and even identifiable scat lets us know that we, humans, are only visitors. We need to preserve this space for future generations to peacefully enjoy. Thank you for this article.
125
@Kathy J
Fortunately most of the residents and property owners of Idaho want it preserved. As Michelle Stennet, state representative from Blaine County said in her recent letter to her constituents that the people know what they want. It is just a matter of getting it across to the majority Republican legislators! As a property owner who only comes part time now but has family living there full time I do care about the environment and local politics. Actually farmers in Idaho generally know which side their bread is buttered on, but they tend to vote Republican out of habit and tradition. That may change if Trump and his minions try to damage the public lands there.
8
Thank you AWR for the work you do. The more I read the more I learn that " We The People " seem to pay a lot of money to help corporations build their corporations " all by them selves " . Maybe we should end the road building. I would think that if corporations had to build the infrastructure to access the lumber and minerals they would look else where.
30
This treasure passed down to us must be preserved! Keep up the good work holding the thin line against the looters of this wilderness for future generations. Thank you for this awareness and news!
25
Thank you, Alliance for the Wild Rockies for your vital work, and NY Times for publishing. Readers, please call your reps, ask them to support legislation protecting public lands, wilderness, wildlife preservation.
55
The only thing left out of this piece is the need for concerned citizens to write their Senators and Rep in the House to encourage them to support this legislation. Having been to Yellowstone a few years ago I can attest to the importance of preserving this part of the USA.
37
@richard
Call and/or write a real letter, on paper, and send it via snail mail. That forces a staffer to at least glance at it. Email is worthless. You often get an auto-response seconds after sending your useless email.
4
I hiked through some of this designated and de facto wilderness during my 2013 hike on the Idaho Centennial Trail, and I can testify that the de facto wilderness is just as wild as the designated wilderness.
13
@Dan Styer
With this horrible excuse for a human being in the
WH, everything is for sale. He values nothing and no one. I'm reminded of the old saw, "He would sell you the rope by which to hang him."
8