Simpson optimistic about wilderness bill

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, gave an upbeat assessment Sunday about the chances his Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill has in the current session of Congress.

"I firmly believe it will be in the next lands bill," he said. 

Simpson, who was the original sponsor of the legislation, called the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA), made his comments during the Idaho Conservation League's annual Wild Idaho conference at Redfish Lake over the weekend. Simpson has been attending the ICL conference for about a decade.

Simpson's bill would establish about 318,000 acres of new wilderness in local mountain ranges. Most of the lands targeted for wilderness designation under CIEDRA are within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, with a small share in the northern Boulders dropping over into U.S Bureau of Land Management lands south of Challis. The bill would designate a 110,438-acre Hemingway-Boulders Wilderness in the southern Boulder Mountains outside of Ketchum. Further to the north and east, the legislation would establish a 76,657-acre White Clouds Wilderness and a 131,670-acre Jerry Peak Wilderness. 

This year, Simpson was joined at the Wild Idaho conference by his colleague in the U.S. House of Representatives, first-term Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho.

Simpson and Minnick have reintroduced CIEDRA into Congress as co-sponsors. It seems likely that having a Democrat as a co-sponsor in the Democrat-controlled Congress may give the wilderness legislation better momentum, an observation the two legislators noted. So far, the new Congress has been more wilderness-friendly than previous ones, having already approved a package of land bills that designated just over 2.1 million acres of new wilderness across the country, including 517,000 acres in Idaho's Owyhee County.

"I'm enjoying working with Walt," Simpson told the crowd of conservationists. "He gives us some insight of what's happening on the other side of the aisle."

The Owyhee Canyonlands legislation established the first new wilderness areas in Idaho in 29 years. Its passage bodes  well for CIEDRA's chances, Simpson said.

"The second one will be the Boulder-White Clouds," he said.