Editorial: Boulder-White Clouds is a careful compromise a decade in the making and it deserves action

Willderness bills have long divided Idahoans - and the people Idahoans elect to represent them on Capitol Hill.

But not this year. All four members of the delegation have signed on to Idaho's next good wilderness bill, the product of years of patient work by GOP Rep. Mike Simpson. They have agreed to cross party lines. They are moving forward, in an election year.

They have set aside smaller political concerns of the moment to focus on something bigger: Central Idaho's majestic Boulder-White Clouds roadless area, and a consensus-based plan for managing the region.

As advertised in its title - the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, or CIEDRA - this bill skillfully balances varied interests:

• For wilderness advocates, 332,775 acres would be preserved in pristine form.
• For multiple-use advocates, the bill relaxes restrictions on 131,616 acres of wilderness study areas, now managed as de facto wilderness.
• For off-road vehicle enthusiasts, the bill preserves key access on the Germania Creek trail, which would cut between two wilderness areas.
• For Custer County, struggling with the constraints of a meager local tax base, the bill provides more than $2 million in grants for economic development, a community center, EMT services and health clinics.
• For ranchers, the bill allows continued grazing in the wilderness. Some ranchers would qualify for private compensation if they voluntarily retire permits.

The word "compromise" often gets a bum rap, but CIEDRA reflects compromise at its best. No one gets everything. Everyone gets something. The result, says Simpson, charts "a more secure future for this rugged, beautiful and productive heart of Idaho."

Granted, not everyone sees it this way.

An off-road group, the Idaho Recreation Council, has continued its fight against CIEDRA with radio ads targeting Simpson and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. The ads are unpersuasive, and rehash the tired, unyielding rhetoric that has left the Boulder-White Clouds in management limbo for decades.

More troubling, potentially, is where Gov. Butch Otter stands. The state has some concerns, Simpson said on KBOI radio Tuesday night, after securing the GOP's 2nd Congressional District nomination.

"(Otter) has asked all the germane state agencies to review the CIEDRA legislation and provide input from the perspective of their own mission areas," Otter spokesman Mark Warbis said. "That process is continuing. Those comments then will be compiled and shared with Congressman Simpson's office."

Fair enough. But ultimately, Otter should bring forward any concerns, publicly. The delegation deserves that. So does every Idahoan who has worked to sweat the details of the bill now before Congress.

It shouldn't be a surprise that it has taken nearly a decade to reach this point. A point where Idaho can, and should, protect another one of its most precious places.

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Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/05/30/v-print/1211239/careful-compromise-a-decade-in.html

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