European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 3, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Protecting the hush of the land continued of Tom p.ifjt1 13 wilderness to 3 acre Pelican or Lind a Haven Loi songbirds Oil the Florida cons Noah two thuds of inc nation s wilderness is in Alaska anal inc Wool holds most of the other Large chunks but smaller areas Are scattered Iron sea to shining sea All hut is Stales Conn Calicut. Rhode Island Maryland. Delaware. Iowa and Kansas Havo some designated wilderness covering 4 percent of the country wilderness areas comprise a Sampler of he american landscape great Gulf and lost Creek. Mud swamp and Thunder Ridge ii folds terror and hell Hole Bay evoke the pioneers Imaye of wilderness As a fearsome foe. Then shining Nock and wonder Mountain rolled a Kinder View a new land ethic lauding wilderness As a connection to our roots and a source of National character. In wildness is Iho preservation of the  Henry Thoreau wrote in 1861 but it was t until 1924, when Iho u s Forest service set aside Iho Gila wilderness in new Mexico that Thoreau s poetic words became Public policy and it took conservationists 40 More years to get what they really wanted wilderness with Law Lorce and permanence of Lav shielded from bureaucratic whims. The 1964 wilderness act enacted alter eight years of debate and 60 versions gave Congress the sole Power to declare wilderness in wilderness the Lav said there would be no roads no buildings no travel by mechanical Means. Hunting Lishing and camping were allowed but commercial exploitation and development octo generally prohibited like Thoreau Iho Law was Long on poetry but it was Short on details setting aside isl 9.1 million acres of Nan controversial wilderness that had already been designated administratively it Tell Iho real Bailies to Lulu re sessions of Congress Federal agencies were instructed to study National Park Forest and wildlife refuse lands Lor wilderness is Tabi ily and make recommendations the agencies lumbered about this Gargantuan task or years and As recommendations started coming out in the 1970s, the designation process gained Speed since 1980 Congress has passed wilderness Bills Lor 31 slates this year it laces Bills Lor 19 million acres in Alaska. Arizona. California. Colorado. Nevada Utah and Idaho Idaho s debate has been hot. Persistent and in Many ways typical this year there arc two Idaho wilderness Bills to choose irom one is a conservationists wish list Tor 4 million acres introduced by Hep. Pele Kos Mayer. A a the other More politically feasible one is a 1.4 million acre Bill sponsored by Idaho s senior senator Republican James Mcclore Lynne Slone entered this fray As a Volunteer soon alter moving to Ketchum near Sun Valley in 1981 now she Calls herself a working conservationist scraping by with seasonal govern men work or Grants from environmental groups last year she Lew to Washington to a slab at lobbying. She says she d Raiher slay in the mountains to be sure that s where she seems most comfortable Ami Sho strides up the sleep Trail with ease narrating natural history As she goes she stops to inspect an Elk track then reels Oil the names of plants anchored in the dry Mountain soil Sage and Sego lilies color Lul cinquefoil of. An ancient White bark p be with gnarled branches scratching like claws at Tho sky pretty yes. But the wilderness is Good Lor Mere Nan scenery she says wild plants and animals contribute to biological diversity and maintain a Slock of wid genes for Buluro scientists who might just discover that something growing hero cures cancer. Wilderness also protects watersheds and contributes to clean air. Stone says such arguments Are familiar to Joe Hyson of the  forestry Industry association which opposes Bolh Idaho wilderness Bills every time there s a wilderness Bill somebody gets up and says this completes the wilderness system Hyson says five years later they re at it again As Long As an area does t have a Road in it you re going to Havo a debate Over it " some wilderness is Fine. Hinson says but you have to Slop somewhere or at least guarantee some areas for development while you re Locking up others Idaho to Points out. Already has 4 million acres of wilderness 7 6 percent of the stale others charge that environmentalists Aren l As interested in biological diversity As they arc in creating Eli Lisl playgrounds for wealthy Urban backpackers at the expense of local residents trying to make a living off the Public land these lands belong to the people thai Means All the people not a chosen lev says Butterfield of the Blue ribbon coalition Lynne Stone raised on an Eastern Oregon ranch says she s no Yuppie Backpacker and there Are More ways to make a living off the land she adds than by logging or mining it. Tourism is one of Idaho s biggest industries she says and it s hard to lure tourists to a clearcut. In 20 years roads have Boon pushed through More Jhan 8 million acres of Idaho s wild country according 10 Iho Idaho conservation league. We re destroying everything thai in t  Slone says. Ii we Don t Sot it aside Well lose  Bolh sides Havo Strong arguments strongly stated 11 not overstated in virtually every wilderness debate we re told Iho area in question is a Crown jewel of America s wild lands to be saved at All costs. We re also told by the opposition that Locking up the land in wilderness would Deal the death blow to an already ailing pick one logging mining or ranching Industry Congress is loll to sort it out. And the politics of Compromise leave no one completely satisfied. It s amazing thai this is going Lobo decided in some room in the Capitol 3,000 Miles  Stone says. Ii does t have anything to do with Idaho wilderness. It s who owes Mcclure a Lavor Al the  whatever happens with Idaho. Congress laces enough other wilderness issues to keep Busy Lor another 25 years it must decide whether 1 5 million acres of Tundra in Alaska s Arctic National wildlife Refuge is world More Lor the Caribou that Migrate Over it or Lor the Oil reservoirs that May lie under it Battles also loom Over vast Bureau of land management holdings in the deserts of Utah Nevada California and other Western slates. The blk has inventoried Aboul 25 million acres of potential wilderness and is Likely to recommend some fraction of that Lor designation the wilderness society says in will push Lor far More protecting entire ecosystems has become preservationists latest rallying cry they Hope to expand existing wilderness areas around Yellowstone National Park and in the Greal Smoky mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee Lynne Stone meanwhile focuses on her own wild Idaho backyard when lobbying she argues the dollars and cents of tourism but her real motives Tor saving wilderness prove More elusive More personal. In an Alpine Meadow hushed purple Wilh Blooming Lupine Slone gazes Al a horizon of saw toothed peaks end tries to explain her love Lor the land she talks vaguely of hiking with Inanda of the world she Hopes her 11-year-old son will inherit finally she settles on words borrowed from a Friend who has guided Hunters and fishermen in the wild for years. He says they Don t really come Lor the Hunting or Lishing they come Lor the hush of the  a Breeze rustles through the White bark Pines and sweeps across the Lupine. A far Oil Chickadee squeaks out a song thai s whal i m trying to protect Stone says the hush of the land " a pack train in Idaho s Salmon River Canyon. Pack trips Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday of