WA SAWS News: COW
Forest Plan Revision Proposed Action - 238,800 acres recommended for additional
Wilderness
WA
SAWS Members,
I
hope all of you have an enjoyable Independence Day with your family and
friends! When your fun and good times are over for the holiday and it is back
to the norm, I am requesting and need your help.
As
I mentioned in my WA SAWS News email a week ago (Monday June 27), the Forest
Service (FS) proposed action for the Colville, Okanogan and Wenatchee (COW)
"will most likely contain thousands of acres of Recommended Wilderness
Areas (RWA)." Well that turns out to be quite the understatement. It
seems the actual number of RWAs is 238,800 acres additional land the FS is
recommending for Wilderness. 125,800 acres – Preliminary Administratively
Recommended Wilderness (Okanogan/Wenatchee), 12,000 acres - Wilderness Study
Area (Okanogan/Wenatchee), and 101,000 Preliminary Administratively Recommended
Wilderness (Colville).
This
amount of RWAs are not only outrageous, but the fact that there is clearly not
a need (as required by law and FS policy) for this amount of additional
RWAs in these three forests makes me very angry that the FS would even propose
so many acres for wilderness. If the FS had actually done any real planning and
studied the facts in front of them during their effort, there would be very
little to no areas proposed as RWAs. As a reminder, SAWS does not support ANY
additional proposed wilderness in any forest, but clearly some areas in these
forest will end up as RWAs in the final Record of Decision (ROD) no matter what
SAWS or any other snowmobile pro-access organizations requests, so we need to
concentrate on fighting to keep open the areas that are most important to us as
snowmobilers. This approach is not a compromise, and does not indicate that
some of these areas are OK to lose, but merely a fact that we need to
concentrate our attention and time to those areas we care about most.
This
is where I need your help. I cannot address this terrible proposal alone
without active involvement from our SAWS members. We all need to fight this as
a united and determined team or we will lose. It is not a good strategy for any
of us to sit back and hope that others will take care of this proposal and that
your favorite riding areas in the end will somehow through a miracle remain
open to snowmobiling without any effort on your part.
I need your help to identify the areas, be
it townships, ranges, sections, drainage basins, valleys, mountains, hills,
etc., where you currently ride and why these areas are unique or important to
you. This will allow me to not only submit a detailed SAWS comment opposing
these areas as RWAs, but I can then also alert our members to some of these
areas that could be lost that are of value to snowmobile enthusiasts. And most
important; YOU need to tell the FS why these areas are important to
you as a snowmobiler. I know the areas I ride that could be lost that are
important to me and my family, but I do not have ESP to know the areas that are
important to you.
Here is a link to the FS document titled
“Preliminary Administrative Wilderness Recommendation” that reflects where and
why areas in these forests are proposed for wilderness:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5313069.pdf
Here
are a few quotes from this document:
“Snowmobiling – Use
expected to increase by 350 percent by 2050. Some PWAs have
popular marked routes and play areas. For all three forests, all but two miles
of groomed trail are outside PWAs. Climate change will alter winter use. High use on the Wenatchee and Colville, where projected increase
could have impacts. A relative low use activity on
Okanogan.
Backcountry Skiing
– A low use for all three Forests. Many of the
popular or important areas are in PWA’s. Groomed Nordic trails are mostly
outside PWAs and many are associated with ski areas.
Need - The Forest has eight wilderness
areas. It would seem there is no need for additional wilderness.
Analysis shows several PWAs can contribute significantly to the factors the
handbook directs us to evaluate. Washington State has over 4 million acres of
wilderness.
Forty
percent of the Forest [Okanogan-Wenatchee] is in wilderness. The
wildernesses on the Forest are not overcrowded as a whole; however,
individual wildernesses and specific areas are managed through party size and
permit quotas to control use. The population of the greater Seattle area as
well as local counties is undergoing significant growth, which will increase
demand for a range of outdoor recreation opportunities. Recommended PWAs can
offer a high quality wilderness setting in conjunction with existing
wilderness; and/or a wilderness setting (landform or ecosystem) currently not
widely available in the system. The recommendation would increase somewhat the
amount of wilderness available for a growing demand.”
Here
is a link to the FS document titled “Proposed Action for Forest Plan Revision
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5312322.pdf
“Total Forest visitors in 2005 were
estimated to be 2,130,800, of which 129,900 were estimated wilderness
visitors. Recreational use of national forest contributes 154 million
dollars annually to local economies.
The six
top primary activities engaged in by visitors sampled in 2005 included—
·
hunting (22.7 percent totaling 483,692
visits)
·
snowmobiling (13.9 percent totaling 296,181
visits)
·
hiking and walking (11.7 percent totaling
249,304 visits)
·
developed camping (8.9 percent totaling
189,641 visits)
·
backpacking (6.9 percent totaling 147,025
visits)
·
viewing natural features (6.3 percent
totaling 134,240 visits)”
There
you have the FS opinion in a nutshell and why they feel there is a need for all
of the new wilderness areas. Snowmobile use is “expected to increase by 350
percent by 2050”. Back country skiing has “low use for all three Forests”. Approximately
6% of forest visits are to current wilderness areas (129,900/2,130,800 = 6.1%).
The second highest use of the forest at approximately 14% is snowmobiling. Not
to mention the fact snowmobiling brings in over 21 million dollars “annually
to local economies” (154 million times 13.9% = 21.4 million).
These
are all FS figures. The math just does not add up for more wilderness.
The maps I have viewed to date are very poor and with little
detail so it is very difficult to determine the exact boundaries. I have
contacted the FS and requested better maps and they have responded that better
maps are on the way. But even with these poor maps you can get a good idea of
what could be lost.
I
am also very concerned about the “Backcountry” designation, but no acre figures
were provided that I noticed. It states that “Summer off-highway vehicle use” is not authorized and “The
proposed action does not include site-specific changes to where winter
motorized uses are allowed.” It is pretty clear about the summer OHV
ban in this designation, but even the winter motorized wording could lead to
very limited areas in “backcountry” where winter snowmobile use is authorized,
so SAWS will not support this designation as currently worded either.
Here
is a link to the Proposed Action:
Colville and
Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Plan Revision - Proposed Action
Below
are the details for the first three meetings that are currently scheduled to
review this proposal in more detail. More meetings in additional cities are
forthcoming.
Colville and
Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Plan Revision -- Public Meetings
Colville, WA -- Saturday, July 16
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Community College, Institute for Extended Learning Center
Colville Center, 985 South Elm
Colville, WA 99114
Republic, WA -- Thursday, July 28
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Republic Elementary School Multi-purpose Room
30306 E. Highway 20
Republic, WA 99166
Okanogan, WA -- Saturday, July 30
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Okanogan County Fairgrounds, Agriplex Building
175 Rodeo Trail Road
Okanogan, WA 98840
Is
there a bright side to this repulsive proposed action? I guess possibly the fact
that the FS service in Region 6 (WA and OR) at this time still appears to be
following FS guidance to some degree as they currently indicate that the RWAs
will remain open to snowmobile use until Congress passes a law to officially
designate these areas per the Wilderness Act as part of the National Wilderness
Preservation System. This is not the case in Region 1 (Montana) where the FS
closes all of the RWAs to all mechanical use as soon as the ROD is final. But
the current management practice in Region 6 could change in a heartbeat. Once
recommended for wilderness, it is a downhill slope before these areas become
permanently off-limits to snowmobiling.
I
will not have a chance to get back to this very important issue for about a
week or so. Once I do have some additional free time, I will begin to put
together a SAWS Alert, but I thought I would give you a heads up as to what we
are up against.
Once
again, please provide me your input as requested above. I will need quite a bit
of help from our members fighting this proposed action if we want to have any
hope to be successful.
Dave
Hurwitz
Snowmobile
Alliance of Western States
Previous
SAWS email regarding this proposed action below.
WA SAWS members,
Two very important
issues that our WA SAWS members need to be made aware of that have active
comment periods; Colville and Okanogan-Wenatchee (COW) Forest Plan Revisions
Proposed Action Comment Period and Yellowstone National
Park Draft Winter Use Plan/DEIS Comment Period.
Colville and
Okanogan-Wenatchee (COW) Forest Plan Revisions (FPR) Proposed Action
Comment
Period:
June 30 – August 29, 2011
The
long awaited COW
FPR Proposed Action will be released June 30, 2011
for a 60 day comment period. This will then be followed by the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) comment period
which will contain multiple alternatives, including the Forest
Service preferred alternative.
“The proposed
action is not a decision. It represents our current thinking based on what we
have learned so far. We have worked hard to prepare proposals for this
document, incorporating many ideas that we heard in community meetings and from
groups and individuals since the project was initiated in 2004… Your comments
on the proposed action will help us determine the issues that will shape the
analysis and decision. These issues will be used to help the
team build alternatives and to determine the scope of the analysis that will be
documented in the DEIS, which we plan to release summer 2012.”
Read
more about the COW FPR Proposed Action in the Forest Plan Revision News from
June 2011 containing the notification:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/wenatchee/forest-plan/documents/20110613PlanRevisionNewsletter.pdf
Not having seen a
preliminary copy of the proposed action, I cannot state with any certainty as
to what it actually says, but I will go out on a limb and state that it will
almost certainly propose some snowmobile closure areas and will most likely
contain thousands of acres of Recommended Wilderness Areas (RWA).
Since 2004, SAWS has informed our WA SAWS members about the COW FPR through numerous alerts and news items requesting
that our members submit comments during previous scoping activities. Listed
below are a few of these previous alerts on this issue:
SAWS
alert from 7/10:
http://news.snowmobilealliance.org/2010/07/colville-okanogan-wenatchee-national-forest-plan-revision/
SAWS alert from 03/06:
http://news.snowmobilealliance.org/2006/03/washington-oregon-forest-plan-revisions-recommended-wilderness-areas/
SAWS alert from 10/04:
http://news.snowmobilealliance.org/2004/10/washington-state-forest-plan-revisions-information/
Once the proposed
action has been released and SAWS has had time to read the document, we will
send out a SAWS Alert with our comments and recommendations, but please don’t
hesitate reading the document yourself and sending in your comments proposing
no new recommended wilderness areas, or any other limitations placed on
snowmobilers.