Big Wild Bi-Weekly 4.16.09

Dear Friends,

This coming Monday, April 20 is the last day to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Nez Perce National Forest's "Travel Plan." The Nez Perce National Forest has released its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) designating routes open to vehicle use across the entire forest, available at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/nezperce/recreation/index-dramvu.shtml. This "Travel Planning" effort is supposed to address the problem of unmanaged and unregulated motorized recreation, which has dramatically increased throughout the West over the last decade. This lack of management has already caused incremental damage of Meadow Creek and many other wild places in the Nez Perce National Forest. Wildlands that once experienced only quiet recreation via horse and foot travel are now being used by ORV enthusiasts. Please comment today! You can find out more including talking points here: http://www.friendsoftheclearwater.org/articles/help-protect-meadow-creek-orvs.

Have you ever envisioned a lower Snake River minus the dams? A free flowing Snake complete with stretches of sandy beaches and healthy salmon runs? Thursday, April 23, 2009, Jerry White of Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition (SOS) in Spokane will present a slide show featuring over 60 historic photographs of the lower Snake River taken between 1905 and 1975. Assembled from several photographers, museums, and historical societies across the inland Northwest, this collection of images documents the culture, landscape, and habitats of the lower Snake River canyons before inundation by four federal dams. These photographs reveal many lost values of the river and provide a powerful visual reminder of the potential benefits for the regional community of dam removal and river restoration.

This event is co-hosted by SOS, the WSU Museum of Anthropology, and Friends of the Clearwater. This public education event will take place at 7:00 p.m. in Room 202 of the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, Washington. SOS is a coalition of sport fishing groups and businesses, conservation organizations, commercial fishermen, clean energy advocates, taxpayer groups, and others working to restore wild salmon and steelhead to the Columbia and Snake rivers.

for wild forests and rivers,

Will Boyd, Education & Outreach Director