Interior proposes wilderness protection in blatant politcal ploy

[Viking12]

About 80 percent of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin will be protected permanently as a wilderness if final recommendations accepted Thursday by the U.S. Interior Department are adopted by Congress.

Park Superintendent Bob Krumenaker said that most of the area already is managed as a wilderness, so the park's estimated 180,000 annual visitors would notice few changes.

-snip-

Under the proposal, published earlier this year by the National Park Service, most of the islands would be designated as wilderness, ensuring that motorized recreation, logging, mining and other development would be prohibited. Lake Superior portions of the park surrounding the islands would remain open to motorboats.

Melissa Lindsay, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, noted that the final Apostle Islands wilderness study was published in March. She charged that the timing of Thursday's announcement during the campaign season was designed to divert attention from the Bush administration's "abysmal environmental record."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/531/4962369.html

Guilty as charged.

[hatrack]

1. No coincidence in timing - nothing to see here, move along!

Also interesting that most of the park is under wilderness management - this is basically legalistic window dressing, though it may afford some extra protection.

Only one other question - will this still be in the cards on November 3rd?

I didn't think so either.

[Viking12]

2. True, it is already under wildnerness management..

but without Congressional designation that management plan can be changed willy-nilly by NPS.