Disappointment with Scotchmans Peak Wilderness
I would like to express my disappointment with aspects of the proposed Scotchmans Peak wilderness open house held at the Hope Elementary School on Wednesday.
On the upside Senator Risch’s staff was approachable and eager to receive feedback from constituents.
On the down side it appeared the Friends of the Scotchmans Peak Wilderness, along with the Forest Service and Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce had collaborated to put together the visual presentation which only showed one side to this controversial issue.
The most eye opening piece of the entire event for me were the statements made by Karen, Senator Crapo’s aide from Coeur d’Alene. Karen made it clear that my concerns with the washed out roads near the proposed wilderness don’t matter and were planned that way a long time ago when Senator Risch was Governor Risch.
She stated that Governor Risch worked with the Clinton Administration to prep this area for wilderness and there is nothing I could do to change that.
Hmm… I thought Bush was President in 2006?
~Grace Bauer, Bonner County Resident
If letting the roads go
un-repaired and grown over is part of their wilderness takeover, then they have the same plans for a huge percentage if not all of the National forests. I attended a US Forest Service meeting in Bonners Ferry about 6 years. It was to gauge public opinion re establishing more wilderness area near the montana border in the Purcells. I told one of their reps that they should tear down the gates, fix the roads and shrink the wildetness. His response was “Oh no, that’s going the wrong way.” There will be no end to this crap until we run the Federal government out of our forests.