Please take a momement to contact Congressman Simpson. We need to make sure that the WSA At St. Anthony is included in the WSA release part of this bill.

Details can be found here:
http://www.duneguide.com/sand_dune_action_wsa_release.htm

Congressman Simpson - http://www.house.gov/simpson/contact.shtml

Simply ask him to please inlcude the release of the 21,000 acre Sand Mountain WSA at the St. Anthony Sand Dunes in H.R. 3603.

WSA release is almost always inlcuded in a new Wilderness bill, and is just about the only way to get them released.

---------------------------------------------------------------http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/07/20/news/regional/04baed91da5743af872571b00078275d.txt

House panel OK's Idaho wilderness proposal
By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Associated Press writer Thursday, July 20, 2006

BOISE, Idaho -- The U.S. House Resources Committee Wednesday approved a bill designating 492 square miles of federal land in central Idaho as protected wilderness while conveying other public land to the state and local governments.

The measure now will be scheduled for a final vote on the House floor and then must make it through the U.S. Senate before the end of the year when this session of Congress concludes.

"I'm pretty confident it will pass the floor of the House," sponsor Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho said. "After that, it depends on how quickly the Senate moves it."

If the measure passes the House, it will go before a Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Craig has not taken a position on Simpson's bill, but Simpson said he planned to meet with Craig shortly to brief him on the final version passed by the committee.

The so-called Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act designates three new federally protected wilderness areas in the rugged mountain peaks of the Sawtooth and Challis National Forests -- the Ernest Hemingway-Boulder Wilderness, the White Clouds Wilderness and the Jerry Peak Wilderness.

It would also add another 600 acres protected from development to the existing Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

In return, local governments in Stanley, Clayton, Mackay, Challis, Custer and Blaine counties would get almost 4,000 acres of Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management property to sell, manage or develop into affordable housing or public facilities. Another 960-acre parcel of BLM land near Boise would be given to the state for a new off-road vehicle state park.

And, the Department of Interior would release from study 130,000 acres of public land that had been earmarked as potential wilderness, allowing federal land managers to issue permits for mining, logging or other commercial uses.

Environmentalists have been bitterly divided over the proposal. Some groups praised the Simpson bill as the first realistic chance to protect wilderness in Idaho in more than three decades while others said the privatizing of public lands is too steep a price for preserving just a portion of worthy wilderness area.

"This is obscene," said Janine Blaeloch of the Western Lands Project in Seattle, which has lobbied against the bill.

Sample letter for all of you. Always best to change it a bit if you can, but the most import thing is to send it!



Congressman Mike Simpson
1339 Longworth
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-5531
Fax: 202-225-8216

Idaho Falls Office
490 Memorial Drive, Suite 103
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
Phone: 208-523-6701
Fax: 208-523-2384

Sample letter to Senator Craig:
http://www.duneguide.com/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=193

Help keep St. Anthony open!

Cut and paste folks, and get it on out. Gotta get the SlapArmy helpin folks; the mission extends farther than Mother G. Thanks for the info Crow.