Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Compromises wafted in the air of the U.S. House of Representatives on July 25. When everyone was done inhaling, three Western wilderness bills passed by unanimous voice vote.

Associated Press sketches some details:

The bills would create nearly 670,000 acres of new wilderness 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.

Among the winners so far: Rick Johnson, the determined centrist leading Idaho’s biggest enviro group, the Idaho Conservation League, and his crucial ally on wilderness issues, Idaho’s jack-Mormon Republican Rep. Mike Simpson. Both men led a long effort to hammer out one of the bills, to protect more than 300,000 acres in the beautiful Boulder-White Cloud mountain ranges.

Among the losers so far: hardliners on all sides. They include wilderness advocates who don’t like many aspects of the Idaho bill, such as its giveaways of federal land; and snowmobilers and mountain-bikers who don’t want to lose access to high peaks.

For an exploration of the surprising politics, check a High Country News package in November 2004. It took this long for Simpson to coax the Idaho bill through the House, past obstacles such as the dreaded California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, chairman of the key House committee.

The Idaho Statesman’s environment reporter, Rocky Barker, covers the latest news like a wolverine on a whatever-it-wants. Excerpts from Barker’s recent reports:

The bill would establish the first wheelchair access trail into wilderness anywhere in the United States.

A provision that would have paid ranchers for giving up grazing permits in the proposed wilderness was pulled from the bill after opposition from the Public Lands Council, an arm of National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. … National and state cattle groups were unwilling to support setting a (precedent) that compensated ranchers to quit grazing.

Because of all the opposition from left and right, the Idaho bill may face tough going in the Senate …

The Statesman, a supporter of the compromise politics, has an editorial calling for Idaho’s Sen. Larry Craig to apply his muscle now. Craig has been silent and passive to date — unusual conditions for him.

For a sense of the political suspense, check the rest of the Statesman’s coverage of the unfolding events, in sequence: July 19, July 20, July 24 and July 25.

And let’s close with a memorable quote from a leading hardliner on the enviro side, Jon Marvel, who heads the Western Watersheds Project. From the HCN story:

“I like him personally,” Jon Marvel says of Rick Johnson. “But I think he’s become too enmeshed in the legislative system — it’s a spider’s web.”