Kootenai plan drops 'recommended wilderness' labels

The Kootenai National Forest has released a draft forest plan revision that

eliminates "recommended wilderness" designations, drawing harsh criticism from wilderness

advocates and praise from a local snowmobiling organization.

The Kootenai National Forest has released a draft forest plan revision that eliminates "recommended wilderness" designations, drawing harsh criticism from wilderness advocates and praise from a local snowmobiling organization.

Efforts to revise the forest plan, a long-range strategic guide, started nearly four years ago and have since involved disputes mostly over motorized use., particularly snowmobiling access. Snowmobilers view recommended wilderness as a change that would close off areas that have been popular, while wilderness advocates see the designation as a way to provide protections that can't be easily whittled away.

The draft plan released Monday replaces the "recommended wilderness" designation with new categories that Supervisor Bob Castaneda insists will provide protections to maintain wilderness values. At the same time, snowmobiling will be allowed in many of those areas, especially in areas where it has become an established use.

The Montana Wilderness Association viewed it as a stunning turnaround for the forest, considering that some 93,000 acres initially were slotted as proposed wilderness. Those areas included the Scotchman Peaks in the West Cabinet Mountain Range, the Ten Lakes area and parts of the northern Whitefish Divide, and the Northwest Peaks area in the extreme northwest corner of the state.

"There is no science behind this," said Cesar Hernandez, field representative for the Montana Wilderness Association. "It was just whoever was the loudest and most aggressive got what they wanted."

But Donna O'Neil, president of the Kootenai Snow-Kats, said the proposed wilderness designations would have created de facto wilderness without the required congressional designation. The new designations established by Castaneda will maintain the wilderness values while allowing snowmobiling in "premier riding areas."

"We are absolutely thrilled. Bob has done a a wonderful job. He has found a way to uphold the wilderness viability of these areas without taking away the recreational attributes," O'Neil said.

"He defused a bomb," she added. "Because he protected it in a way where it will always be viable for wilderness."

Hernandez said he's been attending forest plan meetings for the past two years, and at every venue, the majority crowds have loudly protested any wilderness designations.

Completely bending to local sentiments undermines the forest's efforts, said John Gatchell, the Wilderness Association's conservation director.

"That kind of approach shouldn't have much credibility," Gatchell said. "I think the hope of the Forest Service was that with the new (planning) process could emphasize collaboration. But collaboration is both powerful and fragile."

Gatchell said the wilderness association was fully prepared to accept a wide range of forest uses, from timber management to snowmobiling to off-trail vehicle use. But it did not expect to have absolutely no areas formally recommended for wilderness, he said.

But Castaneda said there is nothing about the change that will preclude the Scotchmans, the Northwest Peaks and the Ten Lakes area from a wilderness designation by Congress.

The new "Wild Lands" category will ban snowmobiling throughout most of the Scotchman Peak area, but through a new winter motorized category, it opens a high-elevation basin to the north that currently is closed to snowmobiles. That areas was selected because it lies outside known winter range habitat for a small mountain goat population that is a long-standing source of concern for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Continued snowmobiling will be allowed in parts of the Northwest Peaks and the Ten Lakes areas under a new "special interest area" designation.

Castaneda said the current forest plan, adopted in 1987, calls for about 9 percent of the forest to be managed for "wilderness values." The draft plan released Monday expands that to about 11 percent of the 2.2 million acre forest.

The draft plan also decreases the amount of forest managed for general purposes, including timber harvesting, from 1.6 million acres to 1.4 million acres. But in doing so, at least two areas that had been considered "roadless" are now proposed for "general forest" management.

Hernandez said he's skeptical of the protections that Castaneda says the new designations would provide. Under new regulations for developing forest plans, there are no standards backing up the "Wild Lands" designation, said Hernandez, who is concerned that without firm protections as "recommended wilderness," the door will be open to snowmobiling throughout the Scotchman Peak area in particular.

That won't be the case, Castaneda said.

Other areas on the forest that had been considered roadless are now proposed as "motorized" roadless areas, Hernandez noted. And that shows how protections can be eroded.

Castaneda explains that "motorized" roadless areas on the forest are places were current roads may be kept open, but no new roads can be built.

Castaneda said many of the changes in the draft forest plan came from suggestions provided by the Lincoln County Commissioners.

The draft proposal is currently outlined through a map and some information sheets. The detailed draft document will be released in February. There will be a 90-day comment period after that, followed by development of a final revised forest plan.

"Between draft and the final, I would expect that we would make changes, and that's based on the comments we get," Castaneda said.