Ketchum council favors national monument in central Idaho

KETCHUM, Idaho – The Ketchum City Council has approved a resolution supporting a proposal to have President Barack Obama designate a national monument in mountainous central Idaho.

The council voted 3-0 earlier this week to back a plan to create a national monument in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains, the Idaho Mountain Express reported. One member abstained from the vote.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho has attempted to pass the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, which would have created three wilderness areas in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains totaling 332,775 acres, while also releasing 130,000 acres from wilderness study area to multiple use. But those efforts have so far failed, leading conservation groups to lobby the Obama administration to establish a national monument in Blaine and Custer counties.