Climbers are off the hook and back on their bolts
(HCN, 8/17/98). Undersecretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons halted a
U.S. Forest Service ban on fixed anchors in wilderness – for now.
USDA official Stephanie Hague says public groups will begin
“negotiations’ about a new rule in the next few months. Climbers
and wilderness advocates want to know how much will be negotiable.
Forest Service deputy Chris Wood says, “Whatever we do, we won’t
compromise the integrity or intent of the Wilderness Act.”
Idaho says, “Not so fast.” Two weeks after a
federal judge told the Coeur d’Alene Tribe that the southern third
of Lake Coeur d’Alene will return to Indian hands, the state said
it will appeal, reports the Spokane Spokesman-Review (HCN,
8/17/98). “It isn’t surprising,” said the tribe’s Bob Bostwick. “We
pretty much expected an appeal in an election year.”
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has lost a
name from its advisory board. After publisher Gibbs Smith made
plans for a tourists’ “trading post” in the town of Boulder, Utah,
some environmentalists thought it would be best if he and the group
parted ways, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Now that he’s stepped
down, SUWA is downplaying the move. Says the group’s director Mike
Matz, “He’s just been a name on our masthead.”
At Yosemite National Park, county and park
officials have agreed on a new plan that will limit car traffic on
park roads – eventually. The new bus system approved earlier this
month could transport 80,000, or 2 percent, of the park’s 4 million
visitors next year, reports the Los Angeles Times. Motorists now
pay $20 per car to enter the park; a ride on the bus will cost only
$3 per person. Critics say the project isn’t all that ambitious:
Even with the new buses, the park will still build a 1,800-space
parking lot.
A plan for a nine-hole golf course
expansion into the Inyo National Forest near Mammoth Lakes, Calif.,
has landed in the rough (HCN, 2/16/98). The Sierra Club filed a
suit against the Forest Service July 27 to stop a local developer
from turning 95 acres of public land into emerald-green fairways.
Sierra Club attorney Rebecca Bernard says, “We shouldn’t be
building golf courses on national forest lands.”
* Dustin Solberg and Taffeta
Elliott
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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