Northern wilderness areas at risk
A report released today by Wilderness Watch, a national wilderness conservation organization, warns that 73 U.S. wilderness areas in 12 states covering more than 32 million acres are threatened by border security measures along the northern border with Canada.
The threatened areas stretch from Maine in the east, westward to Minnesota and Montana, on to Washington on the west coast, and north to Alaska. The 22-page paper, “Wilderness in peril: Border security measures threaten wilderness along the northern border with Canada,” may be downloaded online at www.wildernesswatch.org/pdf/Wilderness_Watch_Northern_Border_Paper.pdf.
“Wilderness in Peril” documents threats from a variety of sources, including legislation sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and passed by the House of Representatives which would waive federal laws within 100 miles of both the northern border as well as the border with Mexico.
But flying under the radar and potentially having far greater impact are actions by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agencies, like Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol. These agencies are seeking to replicate much of the infrastructure, construction and motorized patrols used on the border with Mexico to the northern border via a 2012 programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), and a flawed 2006 inter-agency memorandum of understanding (MOU) that allows damage to wilderness areas along the northern border.
Even more insidiously, under existing law the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally waive any law he or she so chooses with no prior consultation with Congress or the federal land management agencies and with no ability for citizens to seek recourse in the courts.
“Congress should never have put so much power in the hands of a single, unelected bureaucrat,” said George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch, “and it’s imperative that it put that power back in the hands of elected officials and the public process where it belongs.”
Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff waived dozens of federal laws, like the 1964 Wilderness Act, in 2008 along the border with Mexico using this authority. “Wilderness in Peril” documents damage to wilderness areas by border security measures along that border.
Wilderness Watch believes that our nation must protect our wilderness areas along the northern border, and that this can be done while still keeping our country safe. The new paper suggests several ways that this goal can be accomplished.
“We must repeal the dictatorial power of the Secretary of DHS to unilaterally waive federal laws,” said Kevin Proescholdt, Wilderness Watch’s conservation director. “We must correct the flaws in the 2006 MOU, revise DHS’s programmatic environmental impact statement for the northern border to safeguard wilderness, defeat pending legislation like the Bishop Border Bill that would harm wilderness, and restore wilderness protection to the national priority it deserves and formerly enjoyed.”
The threatened wilderness areas within 100 miles of the Canadian border include some of America’s most well known and loved wilderness areas, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Olympic Wilderness and North Cascades National Park’s Stephen Mather Wilderness in Washington state, and iconic Alaskan wilderness areas like those in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Misty Fjords National Monument.
George Nickas is executive director of Wilderness Watch and Kevin Proescholdt is Wilderness Watch’s conservation director. Wilderness Watch is a national nonprofit wilderness conservation organization based in Missoula with an additional office in Minneapolis.