Outdoor Alliance Takes Stand on Roadless Area Protection in CO, ID

Outdoor Alliance Takes Strong Stand on Colorado and Idaho Roadless Area
Protection

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven years ago, citizens from across
the nation flooded the U.S. Forest Service with public comments in support of
protecting at-risk backcountry roadless areas -- the last pristine but
unprotected lands in the Forest System. With new plans for roadless area
management in Colorado and Idaho up for review, a national coalition of
climbers, hikers, paddlers, mountain bikers, and backcountry skiers, is
speaking out for systematic protection of roadless areas as a vital component
of federal public lands policy.
Noting that more than half of our National Forest lands are already open
to industrial activity, representatives from the Outdoor Alliance, a coalition
of six national human-powered recreation groups, say that state and federal
governments should resist the urge to revisit whether these pristine roadless
areas should be opened to industrial special interests. The ancient forests,
peaks and wild rivers in roadless areas contain some of the best outdoor
recreation in the nation, from climbing in Idaho's Selkirk Mountains, hiking
its Centennial Trail, or skiing its Payette River Valley, to mountain bike
rides like Colorado's Rabbit Ears Pass outside Steamboat Springs and paddling
the Animas and its tributaries around Durango.
"These wild areas provide unmatched hiking, climbing, biking, skiing,
paddling and other recreational opportunities for millions of Americans,"
notes Thomas O'Keefe, Pacific Northwest Stewardship Director for American
Whitewater and leader of Outdoor Alliance's roadless protection campaign.
"Attempts to open pristine backcountry to industrial development underscore
the need for reliable, nationally consistent protections for all of America's
last roadless areas. These national forests are an important part of the
nation's heritage and way of life."
Outdoor recreation aside, roadless areas provide clean drinking water for
millions of people and contain intact ecosystems where everything from aquatic
insects to grizzly bears thrive in habitats undisturbed by centuries of
western expansion and development.
"The Forest Service heeded overwhelming public opinion seven years ago and
rightly decided to protect pristine lands, intact ecosystems and world-class
human-powered outdoor recreation," explains, Adam Cramer, Outdoor Alliance's
Policy Architect. "Outdoor Alliance is confident that the American people,
particularly those who know these places first-hand, will deliver the same
answer about how to treat our roadless areas in Colorado and Idaho -- leave
them the way they are -- perfect."
Member organizations of the Outdoor Alliance include Access Fund, American
Canoe Association, American Hiking Society, American Whitewater, International
Mountain Bicycling Association and Winter Wildlands Alliance.
SOURCE Outdoor Alliance

Thomas O'Keefe, PhD, of Outdoor Alliance, +1-425-417-9012,
okeefe@amwhitewater.org