On Monday, members of the coalition gathered in Hamilton to call on Burns to stop what they see as a multimillion-dollar giveaway of public lands.
“We'd heard rumors that Burns was planning to insert the bill as a rider in an upcoming appropriations bill,” said George Nickas of Wilderness Watch. “We're happy to hear that's not the case.”
“We're absolutely certain that it will not be added as a rider,” Mackowiak said.
Burns doesn't have any hearings on the wilderness bill scheduled either, Mackowiak said. Appropriation hearings are filling Burns' schedule right now, he said.
Burns wants to provide Bitterroot Valley irrigators rights of way into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to maintain a series of dams scattered across the Bitterroot Range.
His legislation would provide, at no cost, rights of way of up to 60 feet along the trails leading into the dams and up to 500 feet in areas adjacent to the structures. Under Burns' bill, dam owners would be able to drive and operate motorized equipment inside the wilderness on those rights of way. Water users wouldn't be subject to any federal law for any activity they conducted on the right of way under Burns' proposal, nor would they be liable for any damage that might occur in their efforts to maintain the dams.
The coalition says the bill would allow up to 100 miles of road to be built into the wilderness to access 17 dams. It would also allow water users to sell the rights of way.
“Sen. Burns needs to hold a hearing out here where the local people most affected will have a chance to be heard,” said Nickas.
The coalition wants Burns to abandon this legislation and instead push for a congressionally mandated study that looks at alternative ways to address the long-term management of the dams. The group has developed four alternatives that include:
Allow the Forest Service to take over the maintenance responsibilities of the dams. The dam owners would pay a reasonable fee for the work. They say the agency has the expertise to maintain the dams using traditional skills that will preserve the nonmotorized wilderness character of the area. Allow the public to buy the water rights from willing sellers. The dams would be stabilized and lakes restored to naturally functioning condition. Develop new off-stream water storage sites at lower elevations and transfer the storage rights from the wilderness dams. They say that would facilitate management of the stored water. Acquire other existing water rights and trade those rights for water rights associated with the wilderness dams.Bill Worf, a former head of the Forest Service's wilderness program and founder of Wilderness Watch, said Burns' legislation could set a precedent for other 200 or so wilderness dams scattered around the country.
“If this happens in the Bitterroot, it could go around the country like an electric shock,” Worf said. “I just think this is a terrible plan, another land giveaway.”
Irrigators say they were assured of reasonable access to maintain the structures when the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness was proposed. They've maintained all along that should Burns' bill pass, there won't be miles of new road built into the wilderness.
“Some of the claims about what this would do have totally mushroomed out of control,” Tex Marsolek of Darby told the Missoulian earlier.
The Missoulian was unable to contact Marsolek or Wayne Olsen, president of the Bitterroot Valley Water Cooperative, for this story.
Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 523-5259 or at pbackus@missoulian.com
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