Simpson vows to pass wilderness bill

KETCHUM, Idaho – Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, says he will pass a bill to create a wilderness area in central Idaho while allowing public land to be transferred to private use or “die trying.”

“I’ve got very many vices and very few virtues,” Simpson told participants Sunday in the 20th Wild Idaho conference here. “But when I say I’m going to do something, I do it or I die trying, and we will get this bill done with your help.”

Simpson created the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act to designate 300,011 acres as federal wilderness. It would also transfer 162 acres to Stanley, and 3,000 to 3,500 acres of federal Bureau of Land Management rangeland to Custer County.

There would be some restrictions, but the county and city would be able to sell some of the land for development.

A provision added in March would trade 630 acres of state land along the Salmon River northwest of Stanley for federal land in eastern Idaho. That would increase the size of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area by a net 468 acres and provide state land in eastern Idaho for a park.

The Sawtooth recreation area includes 1,200 square miles of public and private land, with 50 peaks that top 10,000 feet and some 500 alpine lakes.

Simpson said a key to passing the bill would be the Senate and urged supporters to write letters.

“There will be a concerted campaign against this bill, and I think it will be towards the Senate,” Simpson said.

The Idaho Conservation League and Boulder-White Clouds Council support the bill as a compromise that will lead to a wilderness area.

Lynne Stone, president of the Boulder-White Clouds Council, said “this is the last best chance” to designate wilderness in the Boulder-White Clouds.

But the Sierra Club and other groups oppose the bill because they said too many concessions are being given to Custer County. Singer-songwriter Carole King, a Custer County resident, has used her influence against the bill. She favors a wilderness designation but not the compromise.

Stone said she didn’t like parts of the compromise but accepts them, and said she was frustrated with the Sierra Club and King.

“I’m so disgusted with some of my so-called fellow conservationists,” Stone said. “If they’re going to disagree, do it with facts, not baloney.”

The last time Idaho had an area designated as wilderness was 1980 when 2.3 million acres in central Idaho became the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.