Vermont Wilderness Association

Press Statement
March 22, 2006

Contacts: Jamey Fidel: (802) 223-2328 x 117 - jfidel@vnrc.org
Richard Andrews: (802) 885-3201 - techcomm@vermontel.net

 

VWA recognizes the amount of work that the Forest Service has invested in this plan and the inherent challenge of the forest planning process. Trying to balance the needs of Vermonters is no easy task and we thank them for their efforts.

We are pleased that the Forest Service proposed more wilderness than it did in the draft plan. However, this recommendation is inadequate given the amount of lands that qualify for wilderness designation and that the over 10,000 public comments demonstrated an overwhelming public support for wilderness in Vermont. The debate now moves to Congress, which has the sole authority to protect additional Wilderness.

The need to create more Wilderness areas was repeated and consistently supported by thousands of Vermonters. The support was reiterated with over 90% of the comments on the draft plan asking for more Wilderness. The public input process has been very thorough with dozens of public meetings and opportunities for written and oral comments on how best to balance the uses of the Green Mountain National Forest. Vermonters want to assure that future generations will continue to benefit from the clean air and water, wildlife, recreational and economic opportunities this remarkable forest has to offer.

However, despite the overwhelming public support for creating a large wilderness system in the Green Mountain National Forest and the plan’s recognition that wilderness is an important management strategy many critical areas were not recommended as wilderness study areas. The 27,473 acres recommended falls far short of the potential the Green Mountain National Forest has to provide in wilderness values. Indeed the roadless analysis used by the Forest Service to identify potential wilderness study areas identified 117,591 acres of roadless forest. The Vermont Wilderness Association believes that 78,000 acres of ecologically important roadless areas like Romance Mountain and Lamb Brook and forestland adjacent to Lye Brook need to be included in any new Wilderness system.

The VWA now asks our Congressional Delegation to move quickly to introduce a Vermont Wilderness Bill that will create 78,000 acres of new Wilderness including a 40,000 acre Glastenbury Wilderness, a 15,000 acre Romance Mountain Wilderness and 4,300 acre Lamb Brook Wilderness and a Moosalamoo National Recreation Area.

The public has spoken, the planning process is ending, now is the time to pass the 2006 Vermont Wilderness Act.