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A Denver-based conservative legal foundation says a federal policy that barred development of about 58 million acres of forests nationwide illegally created de facto wilderness areas. The Mountain States Legal Foundation makes that argument in a brief filed Tuesday in support of the state of Wyoming's fight to overturn the so-called "roadless rule" approved by President Bill Clinton in 2001. Conflicting federal court rulings have upheld and overturned the road-building ban on the national forest land. The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August threw out a Bush administration policy that opened some of the roadless areas to...

This presentation presents information obtained from a National Park Study and a Department of Interior Threat Assessment report about the devastating impacts of designated federal Wilderness on our country's southern border: http://www.peopleforwesternheritage.com/PFPOWH_WildernessOnTheBorder/Presentation_Files/index.html According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, "Law enforcement work in the National Park Service is the most dangerous in federal service. National Park Service officers are 12 times more likely to be killed or injured as a result of an assault than FBI agents. Overall, NPS law enforcement has a morbidity rate triple that of the next worst federal agency."

Proposed wilderness designations for parts of the Colorado mountains could threaten the Army's only high-altitude training site for helicopter pilots, an Army officer said Tuesday. The proposed "Hidden Gems" wilderness designations would put all of the high-altitude landing zones used by the High-Altitude Army Aviation Training Site off-limits, said Col. Joel Best, senior aviation officer for the Colorado Army National Guard. "We really can't afford to lose any of that land for the security of this nation," Best said. He spoke at a briefing for Colorado county commissioners and legislators. The site, known by the acronym HAATS, is the only...

ORANGE, Va. — Officials in central Virginia approved a Wal-Mart Supercenter early Tuesday near one of the nation's most important Civil War battlefields, a proposal that had stirred opposition by preservationists and hundreds of historians. The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to grant the special permit to the world's biggest retailer after a majority of more than 100 speakers said they favored bringing the Wal-Mart to Locust Grove, within a cannonball's shot from the Wilderness Battlefield. Historians and Civil War buffs are fearful the Wal-Mart store will draw traffic and more commerce to an area within the historic...

SALT LAKE CITY – When he realized he'd been separated from his family on a weekend hike in a northern Utah forest, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne's thoughts turned to television. Grayson watches "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel every week with his brothers and his dad. On the show, host and adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in the wilderness and then shows viewers how to survive the sticky situations. That's where Grayson says he learned to leave clues behind to help searchers find him...

OUR HERITAGE VERSUS A BIG BOX VIEWPOINTS, 6/14/09: The Wilderness battlefield--Ferry Farm--Wal-Mart battles, by Bill Beck Date published: 6/14/2009 THE THREAT of a Wal-Mart on George Washington's Ferry Farm galvanized many local preservation groups: Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc., the Stafford County Historical Society, and ultimately the Kenmore Association. These groups were supported by innumerable individuals, many of whom may not have identified themselves as preservationists but held a firm sense of right and wrong. While every effort was made to influence the Stafford County supervisors, we quickly realized that our best hope for success was to force the corporate heads...

# Obama signs bill designating 2 million additional acres of public wilderness areas # Designation provides highest level of government protection from commercial use # Law, pooling more than 160 legislative proposals, extends across nine states # Highlights: New heritage sites and water projects, expanded park boundaries

<p>President Barack Obama has signed legislation that sets aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness.</p> <p>Obama said Monday the most valuable things in life are those already possessed as he signed a massive public lands management act at the White House. The law protects land from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, as well as expands wilderness protection efforts.</p>

A land conservancy from Oak Glen spent years amassing $45 million in private donations and negotiating the purchase of more than a half-million unspoiled acres in the California desert so it could be turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for protection. Now, the BLM is considering applications for wind turbines and solar-energy arrays on thousands of those acres. The proposals on the donated Mojave Desert parcels have riled residents, visitors and members of The Wildlands Conservancy, which orchestrated the land deals involving a broad scattering of parcels in eastern San Bernardino County. “It’s a violation of trust,...

For Immediate Release 03/25/2009 Pelosi: House Passage of Landmark Bill Will Conserve Public Lands for Future Generations of Americans Washington, D. C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement following passage of H.R. 146, the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009, by a vote of 285 to 140. The bill was passed by the Senate last week and now goes to President Obama for his signature into law: “Today, the House passed a landmark bill to conserve public lands for future generations of Americans.  This bipartisan legislation creates more than 2 million new acres of wilderness, and provides the...

WASHINGTON – Congress has voted to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness — from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. The legislation, which opponents, mostly Republicans, called a "land grab" that would block energy development on vast swaths of federal land, is on its way to President Barack Obama for his likely signature. The House passed the bill, 285-140, Wednesday, the final step in a long legislative road that began last year. The vote came two weeks after the House rejected the bill amid a partisan dispute over...

WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness - from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. The legislation is on its way to President Barack Obama for his likely signature. The House approved the bill, 285-140, the final step in a long legislative road that began last year. The vote came two weeks after the House rejected the bill amid a partisan dispute over gun rights. The measure was brought up again in the Senate and approved last week, setting up Wednesday's vote. The bill...

Earlier this month, we asked you to call your U.S. Representatives to show support for the national Omnibus Public Lands Bill, containing wilderness desig- nations for over 700,000 acres in California. (If you haven’t called your representative yet, please do so now.) Now we have an opportunity to get even more of California’s wild desert places formally designated as wilderness — the highest protection our public lands can receive from the federal government.All you need to do is write a quick, heart-felt note to Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioning why you love wild desert places in general, and mentioning a few...

WASHINGTON – The Senate is moving forward on a much-debated bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness. ... The package of legislation would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range and Oregon's Mount Hood to parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

“From the Water to the Wilderness” (Mark 1:9-15)Today is the First Sunday in Lent, and that means our Gospel reading today is an account of the Temptation of Our Lord. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this early episode that took place right after Jesus’ baptism. But whereas Luke takes thirteen verses to tell us about the temptation, and Matthew takes eleven, our evangelist for this year, St. Mark, as is his style, covers the temptation of Christ in just two verses, as follows: “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty...

WASHINGTON – In a rare Sunday session, the Senate advanced legislation that would set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness. Majority Democrats assembled more than enough votes to overcome GOP stalling tactics in an early showdown for the new Congress. Republicans complained that Democrats did not allow amendments on the massive bill, which calls for the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 25 years. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democrats said the bill — a holdover from last year — was carefully written and included measures sponsored by both Republicans and...

One of the greatest privileges of living in Virginia, especially for history buffs, is that we are neck-deep in Civil War country. I live within 50 miles of some of the most significant battles, and have walked the battlefields of Bull Run (I and II), Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and many others. The one thing that has remained nearly unblemished, especially in the face of the building boom in Northern Virginia over the past 15 years, has been the fields and vistas of the hallowed ground where tens of thousands of brave men fought and died. If you want...

Fellow Freepers, I know all hope is not lost. And I do believe our numbers are stronger than the media says. Though I do wonder if we are facing another 1964. In the sense that we have a Republican Arizona senator facing the onslaught of a liberal Democrat, liberal media and liberal Congress. I do NOT believe John McCain represents conservatism the way Barry Goldwater represented our ideas. But I think we may be in for a "long, hard slog", as Rumsfeld once put it in another context. The socialists/big tax and spenders may seize our government in January. And...

A couple of pictures of the White Cliffs of the Missouri Breaks. There aren't very many! Click the bottom one for full-size, but it actually looks better at this size.

A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more than 100,000 light-years from the galaxy's bustling center. The striking image, a composite of ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array in New Mexico, shows the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, also known simply as M83. In the new view, the main spiral, or stellar, disk of M83 looks like a pink and blue pinwheel, while its outer arms appear to flap away from the...

The parents of the 11-year-old boy killed by a black bear last summer in American Fork Canyon are suing the U.S. Forest Service and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. They say more should have been done to prevent their son's death. Step-father Tim Mulvey, his wife Rebecca Ives and Sam’s father say they have lived with the horror of that father's day weekend every day since and now they want to make sure it never happens to anyone else's family. It is grief beyond comprehension for most of us; a child ripped away from his family in the middle of...

Mountain bikers worry proposal could kill ‘epic ride’. Many of the area's skilled mountain bikers are concerned about a proposal that would ban them from some of their most-prized local trails, including a segment of the Colorado Trail. The proposal is part of a draft plan by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to guide management of 2.4 million acres of public lands in Southwest Colorado. The plan recommends classifying 55,000 acres as new wilderness, including 51,000 acres west of Hermosa Creek. Congress is ultimately responsible for establishing wilderness areas, which cannot be used by motorized vehicles...

“To Fulfill What Was Spoken by the Prophet: ‘The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness’” (Matthew 3:1-12)Last week we entered what I called, “The Year of St. Matthew,” a new church year in which most all of the Sunday Gospel readings will come from the holy evangelist Matthew. We said that one of the characteristics of Matthew’s account is his frequent use of introducing quotations from the Old Testament with a “fulfillment” formula, something like, “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. . . .” Something like that. In fact, today is the second of...

Mother-in-law of shooter says he had no choice but to shoot. A man who shot and killed a mountain lion last week in defense of his puppy should face criminal charges in the incident for "baiting" the animal, a wildlife-advocacy group said Tuesday. Wendy Keefover-Ring, director of the Boulder-based Sinapu Carnivore Protection Program, said state prosecutors should cite Jeremy Kocar for baiting the mountain lion by leaving his dog tied up outside overnight. Kocar also should face charges of shooting a cougar out of hunting season, which runs Nov. 20 through March 31, shooting without a hunting license and animal...

In the mid 1990s, while living in southwest Montana, I did a lot of hunting and exploring around the mountains in the area. This included those ranges bordering the Beaverhead, Ruby, Red Rock, and Big Hole Rivers. I also got up on the Bitteroot and over the mountains onto the Selway which is where this web page and story has its origins. I learned of a road out of Darby, Montana that followed the Nez Perce indian trail over the monuntains into Idaho, which conected to a primitive road that continued across the Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Chuirch - River...

Gov. Schwarzenegger recently escalated a battle of words with federal officials over how to manage the remaining wilderness areas in Southern California's national forests. In an August letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Schwarzenegger accused the federal government of not doing enough to make sure wilderness in the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Angeles and Los Padres national forests is protected from road construction. The state and environmental groups want more restrictions on forest roads than are outlined in new forest management plans, 10- to 15-year master plans for land use in the forests. Schwarzenegger charged the federal government with not...

Firefighters in this mountain resort town love to tell the story of the couple from Texas who wanted to know where they could buy one of those beautiful red evergreens that surround Lake Dillon. They offered the couple a chain saw and told them to take as many as they wanted. The trees aren’t red, they’re dead. The stately green lodgepole pines that once provided million-dollar views high in the Rockies are turning red and then brown in waves as tiny bark beetles eat their way across the Continental Divide. But environmentalists say that’s no reason to chop them down....

'Utterly cared for': Minister writes of finding peace, link to God in nature http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/Lives/707260476/1047/Lives http://tinyurl.com/2uf995 Jul 26, 2007 CHRISTINE COX Tribune Staff Writer John Lionberger, a United Church of Christ minister and religious author, admits there are times when he is tempted to not believe in God. "Faith just isn't a head thing at all. I could talk myself out of God just in a heartbeat," he says in a telephone interview. "But if I listen to my heart, I think that's the truer voice. That's the grounded voice. I guess, the ancient voice." It's a voice he didn't hear...

The words “roadless” and “wilderness” should be of utmost concern to all those whose recreational pursuits include snowmobiling and other activities that require motorized access to public/federal land. Knowing their meanings will help readers understand my concerns as stated in this article. “…there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area.” – The Wilderness Act of 1964. Many elected officials in America’s western states have cast a pall over the 110th Congress, which is ominous...

Conservationists say U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's plan to designate 2.4 million acres of California mountains as wilderness ---- including areas in San Diego and Riverside counties ---- would preserve a back-country treasure for future generations. But off-road enthusiasts say Boxer's new wilderness bill would lock up that treasure forever so that only a privileged few could use it. California already has one of the nation's most extensive wilderness systems, one that covers more than 14 million acres or 13 percent of its sun-splashed lands. Local examples include the 16,000-acre Agua Tibia Wilderness just north of Palomar Mountain along the San...

Millions of acres of prime recreational opportunities in Montana are threatened with closure. Your action could mean the difference between a "closed" sign and a "trail open" sign. Please take a moment to read the information below and act on the action items. the U.S. Forest Service is planning a de-facto Wilderness management regime on all "Recommended Wilderness Areas" (RWA). Under normal circumstances, the "Recommended" Wilderness classification is just that: a recommendation. The decision of "whether Wilderness" is supposed to be left to Congress and the American People. Sadly, the Northern Region of the U.S. Forest Service seems to think...

The federal judge who overturned the Bush administration’s Roadless Rule declared Wednesday that energy companies can’t set up their drill rigs on any undeveloped oil and gas lease issued since 2001 within a roadless area. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. LaPorte ruled in September that President Bill Clinton’s 2001 Roadless Rule be reinstated, protecting 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in Colorado national forests and more than 58 million acres nationwide. Her ruling Wednesday prevents the U.S. Forest Service from approving or allowing any surface disturbance of a mineral lease issued after Jan. 12, 2001, on which drilling or development...

After 18 hours in the snow and cold at 12,000 feet, three 9-year-olds and a mother arrived at the aptly named Lost Man parking lot to cheers from dozens of waiting family members and search-and-rescue teams that had worked through the night. The Lost Man Loop Trail, a popular hike just west of Independence Pass, is a partial loop with two trailheads on Highway 82. Rescuers couldn't confirm exactly how the group got lost, but several members said it was likely the hikers thought they began at the upper trailhead, when they were actually at the lower trailhead... The snow...

The ongoing wildfires that are currently burning, or that have already burned this summer in Washington State and all across the western United States, may be a shock to some people, but isn’t this what some of our appointed public land managers and many of our elected officials have been allowing to happen for quite some time by not properly managing these public lands that belong to all of us? At last count when I wrote this article on 9/8/06 there has been more than 8.5 million acres that have burned nationwide, with Washington State leading the pack with 310,966...

Scouting survives: Even in high-tech age, youths learn to 'Be prepared'http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=144116 Sunday August 6, 2006 by CANDICE BOSELY candiceb@herald-mail.com TRI-STATE - These are a few of their favorite things: Cell phones and cookies, iPods and pop-up tents, video games and wilderness badges. Seeing teenagers - and children even younger - talking or sending text messages on cell phones, fiddling with mp3 music players and playing video games are common sights. Girl Scouting and Boy Scouting might almost seem passé, given the associated images of camping, surviving in the wilderness and sleeping in wooden cabins at camp. But it's not antiquated...

A boy tries to light dry grass under a pyramid of twigs. Eventually, it catches and he lies on his side to blow the embers into crackling life. Tonight he and his friends will dine on a thin stew made of thistles and heather leaves, cooked over the fire. They will sleep in a makeshift bivouac on a bed of ferns. This is not a scene from Swallows and Amazons. It is an increasingly popular kind of educational holiday for children. On this particular course, groups of children aged from nine upwards will be pretty much alone. They have a...

As many as 200 people may be stranded on the middle fork of the Salmon River. Debris from two flash floods is completely blocking the river 21 miles downstream from the main put in at Boundary Creek.

WASHINGTON The House approved legislation Monday to create about 277,000 acres of federal wilderness in far northern California, one in a series of bills to protect national forest land in Western states. The bills would create nearly 670,000 acres of new wilderness areas and protect 47 miles of wild and scenic rivers in California, Idaho and Oregon, as well as ban drilling in northern New Mexico's Valle Vidal. The House also passed legislation to establish National Heritage Areas in several states, including New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. The three wilderness bills would protect about 277,000 acres in California, 315,000 acres...

Nearly 4,000 firefighters worked in blistering temperatures Saturday to corral a huge complex of fires in rugged wilderness while investigators found the body of a man who vanished in the flame-blackened area days earlier. The body of Gerald Guthrie, 57, was found shortly after 11 a.m. by a search-and-rescue crew, said Cindy Beavers of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Guthrie had been missing since Tuesday, when fire swept through the historical community of Pioneertown. His body was found in a charred area at the base of a small hill less than a half-mile from his two-story domed home, which...

Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday became the first Western governor to petition the Bush administration for protection of all roadless national forest land in the state. "I'm going to fight to protect 1.7 million acres of pristine New Mexico land," he said in a national telephone news conference. "New Mexico's roadless areas promote the health of rivers and streams. Roadless areas support significant and complex wildlife communities and ... create unique valuable recreational opportunities." Richardson has been a vocal critic of President Bush's decision to replace a Clinton-era rule protecting all roadless forest land with a state-by-state petition process. Richardson...

Sheep don't mix well with grizzly bears and wolves. Now they won't mix at all on more than 70,000 acres in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment south of Big Timber in the Gallatin National Forest has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to move their sheep elsewhere... The agreement is the eighth -- and second-largest -- in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in recent years that has led to the retirement of about 300,000 acres from grazing. The latest involves the Ash Mountain and Iron Mountain allotments used for generations...

Kathy Kelly was arrested at Senator Richard Durbin’s office in Chicago, on April 5, along with three other anti-war activists.  The Senate Appropriations Committee is to consider a spending bill on April 6 to provide nearly $80 billion more to fund the war in Iraq.  They sought a pledge from Senator Durbin to vote against the bill. Kelly was informed that that Senator Durbin will vote for the supplemental spending bill.  Kelly and her group then disrupted the operations of the senator's office by reading the names of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives in...

Other group helping in Iraq not prosecuted Friday, March 07, 2003By Renee K. Gadoua The same federal act used to indict three Central New Yorkers accused of illegally sending money to Iraq has not been enforced against at least a dozen local residents who openly violated U.S. law by traveling there. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes U.S. sanctions against Iraq. Four Muslims, including three Onondaga County residents, were indicted Feb. 26 on charges that include violating the act by using the Syracuse-based charity Help the Needy to send money to Iraq without a license. About 600 people have...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Finally, more than four years after its hideous birth, the Clinton "Roadless Rule" is dead. The Bush administration and the Forest Service just announced a final rule that effectively undoes Clinton's reckless decree. Dying with the "Roadless Rule" are the following: - threats of catastrophic wildfire - threats of forest infestation and disease - lack of public access to public lands - improper resource management - unhealthy forests - top-down federal overreach Recall that Bill Clinton, just eight days before he left office, in the dark of night, penned his infamous, unilateral, executive order that locked up over 58 million...

Arnold pledges to save trees Governor says California's roadless areas will be safe from Bush policy Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Thursday that the Bush administration's attempt to open a third of national forests to logging, mining and development will not diminish protections for California's remote forestlands. Announcing an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to protect about 4.4 million California acres left vulnerable to construction under the new Bush administration rules, Schwarzenegger said those largely undeveloped areas will remain untouched. "I am committed to protecting the vibrant health and sustainable future of our forests," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Roadless...

Most timber wars between tree-huggers and tree-harvesters occur in Oregon or Washington. But as Sam MacDonald writes in his new book "The Agony of an American Wilderness," environmentalists and loggers are engaged in a fierce and potentially precedent-setting struggle in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. Allegheny National Forest's 513,000 acres had been clear-cut by 1923, when it became a federal forest and was known as the "Allegheny Brush Heap." Over the last 80 years, however, it has been turned into a vast and profitable ocean of black cherry, a hardwood valued for making furniture. It also has more...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a government-approved program used by five Western states to improve their air quality and visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. Siding with an industry coalition, the court said the states' program was based on Environmental Protection Agency methods that the court, ruling in a case three years ago, had found to be "inconsistent with the Clean Air Act." Friday's decision deals with efforts by Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming to cut sulfur dioxide pollution that contributes to regional haze, particularly at the Grand Canyon. Mike Leavitt, now...

WASHINGTON - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed a North Coast wilderness bill that swiftly cleared a Senate committee Wednesday, and proponents said they hope the legislation has the momentum to be enacted into law. The legislation sponsored by California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, in the House, would designate more than 300,000 acres of federal lands as protected wilderness. "This bill protects the natural beauty that is at the heart of California's identity," Boxer said of the measure. --snip-- Last year, the legislation was approved by the Senate but died in...

RENO, Nev. - President Bush (news - web sites) has signed into law a measure creating what conservationists say will be the largest piece of federally protected wilderness in Nevada — an area about half the size of the state of Delaware. The measure is seen as a compromise between environmentalists and developers who want to tap more water for the Las Vegas area. It creates 14 wilderness areas measuring a total of about 1,200 square miles, but also establishes a utility corridor that would allow authorities to build a pipeline to tap into groundwater in the region. Officials want...