Protecting Our Public Wildlands Legacy-A Comparison Between HR 980, Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (the House bill) and S. 1470, Tester Wildlands Logging Bill (the Senate bill)

S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, written, funded, and promoted by the timber industry, fragments the Northern Rockies Ecosystem, the ONLY functioning ecosystem in the lower 49 states where all native species still reside.

The most vital components of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem are our public wildlands, belonging to all Americans.

The Tester Wildlands Logging Bill strips away protection from these public wildlands currently provided by the Clinton Roadless Rule, the Obama Roadless Initiative, and the late Sen. Lee Metcalf’s incredibly farsighted Senate Bill 393.

By fragmenting the Northern Rockies Ecosystem, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill is a direct assault on the scientific principles of biodiversity and biological integrity for which so many dedicated citizens have worked so hard for the last quarter century.      If the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill passes:  Secluded, rare, threatened, endangered, and at-risk species will be severely and adversely impacted at best and extirpated at worst.

By forcing unsustainable industrial-scale logging upon our public wildlands, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill would irrevocably harm essential habitats of species that characterize the wild nature of the northern Rockies, such as:  Gray wolf, otter, mountain goat, mountain sheep, pika, elk, northern goshawk, boreal owl, pileated woodpecker, ferruginous hawk, sage grouse, Montana vole, sage thrasher, wild bison, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, pine marten, fisher, lynx, wolverine, arctic grayling, bull trout, cutthroat trout (Montana’s official state fish), and grizzly bear (Montana’s official state animal).

The scientifically-unsound “wilderness” areas proposed in the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill are fragmented and unconnected islands of “rocks and ice,” with no biological integrity and no potential for sustaining biodiversity.

These minimal “wilderness” designations in Tester’s logging bill defy all principles of conservation biology and fail entirely to protect different elevation habitats and their dependent species with core areas, buffer zones, and connecting biological corridors, or linkages.

The Tester Wildlands Logging Bill promotes numerous abuses and violations that are clearly incompatible with the 1964 Wilderness Act, including motorized access into and through “wilderness,” low-level military overflights of “wilderness,” military aircraft landings in “wilderness,” possible “wilderness” logging, and other intrusions that violate the intrinsic principles of Wilderness.

Thankfully, there is a sound and well-written alternative to the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill that complies with existing Federal environmental and forest management laws.

HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, is a well-researched option to the environmentally, economically, and scientifically unsound S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill.

Twenty-four years ago, in 1986, after years of talking with our region’s leading wildlife and aquatic biologists, botanists, other scientists, silviculturalists, political leaders, and grassroots conservationists, I wrote the first draft of what was-to-become the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA).  Since then, the bill has continually been refined by the dedicated efforts of nearly one hundred people.

To preserve the biological integrity of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem, the LAST remaining functioning ecosystem in the lower 49 states where all native species still reside, NREPA designates as wilderness nearly 7 million acres of public roadless wildlands in Montana, 9.5 million acres in Idaho, 5 million acres in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington.  Included in this total are over 3 million acres of backcountry wilderness in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks.

The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act is currently sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, Rep. Joe Baca, and 100 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Detailed Comparison:  HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (the House bill) to S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill (the Senate bill).

1. By officially designating our remaining public roadless wildlands as wilderness, HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), provides the strongest protection that the federal government can confer on public wildlands and dependent species.  Instead of protecting different elevation habitats and their dependent species, S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, would only set aside meager high-altitude “rocks and ice,” with no biological integrity and no potential for sustaining biodiversity.

2. Since it was co-written by our nation’s leading wildlife and aquatic biologists, HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), protects the habitat essential for the survival of species that characterize the wild nature of the northern Rockies, such as the gray wolf, otter, mountain goat, mountain sheep, pika, elk, northern goshawk, boreal owl, pileated woodpecker, ferruginous hawk, sage grouse, Montana vole, sage thrasher, wild bison, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, pine marten, fisher, lynx, wolverine, arctic grayling, bull trout, cutthroat trout (Montana’s official state fish), and grizzly bear (Montana’s official state animal).  S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, does not.

3. At last count, HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, is sponsored by 103 members of the House of Representatives.  S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, has but one sponsor.

4. HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, is completely compatible with the 1964 Wilderness Act.  In stark contrast, S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, sanctions motorized access into and through “wilderness,” low-level military overflights of “wilderness,” military aircraft landings in “wilderness,” possible “wilderness” logging, and other intrusions that are totally incompatible with the 1964 Wilderness Act.

5. It should come as a secret to no one that HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, has consistently been supported by the original 1964 Wilderness Act’s leading proponents, former Wilderness Society Executive Director Stewart Brandborg, former Wilderness Society Field Director Clif Merritt, and former U.S. Forest Service Deputy Regional Forester Bill Worf, all Montana natives.  S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, has no prominent supporters from the 1964 Wilderness Act era.

6. HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, has been subjected to careful review by the public for 24 years now.  Every section of HR 980 has been gone over with fine-tooth combs by hundreds of scientists, conservation and outdoor groups, agency officials, business leaders, Congressional staffers, and attorneys.  While HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, may be the best written public lands legislation since the original 1964 Wilderness Act; S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, ridden with cleverly designed and incomprehensible loopholes, was cobbled together behind-the-scenes; with NO scientific input, NO comprehensive legal review, NO Congressional review, NO agency review, and NO public involvement.

7. HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, is supported by over 100 grassroots groups.  S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, is backed only by a handful of “collaborationist” staffers from top-heavy, out-of-touch, Pew Charitable Trusts-funded Beltway-based “Big Green” or “Gang Green” bureaucracies.

8. HR 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, will hopefully pass the House this year (2010).  S. 1470, the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, has been deemed unsupportable by the U.S. Forest Service, due to extremely high subsidies from taxpayers, entirely unsustainable timber quotas, and severe damage it would wreck upon our environment, National Forests, and public lands legacy.

Further Information:

A.  For extensive in-depth analyses and commentary about the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill and for information about The Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign, a coalition of 55 conservation groups opposed to the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, go to: http://testerloggingbilltruths.wordpress.com/ .

B.  For information about the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, or to lend your support, go to the NREPA On-Line Petition and Action Site located at:  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Support-NREPA .

C.  For specific maps and other details about the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, including a listing of groups supporting NREPA, go to:  http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/issues/nrepa/index.html .

D.  The full text of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act is available at:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.980:
or at:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h980ih.txt.pdf

E.  The full text of the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill is located at:  http://tester.senate.gov/Legislation/upload/forest_jobs_and_recreation_act.pdf .

In support of lasting protection for our Nation’s priceless and irretrievable public wildlands legacy,

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Richards
PR  Media Consultants®
Public Interest Media Since 1968
30 Brown’s Gulch Road
Boulder, MT   59632
Paul@PRMediaConsultants.com

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