FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area Preserved as Roadless

Second Judge Refuses to Allow Taxpayer Extortion

Contact:     Mary Conley, Western Environmental Law Center,                     (541) 485-2471

(Eugene, OR) – For the second time in 5 months, a judge in federal court has struck a blow for the American taxpayer and preservation of wilderness. Judge Michael J. Hogan upheld an earlier ruling that a group of land speculators had waited too long to challenge restrictions on motorized access into the heart of the pristine Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. The speculators, who paid only $150 for 60 acres – had tried to demand that the U.S. Forest Service either buy them out for $850,000 or allow their plan to irreparably alter the area’s landscape.

“The ruling recognizes that Congress intended Wilderness Areas to be permanently free from roads and vehicle use. It’s an important precedent that will have broad and direct application across the entire Wilderness system,” stated George Nickas, Director of Wilderness Watch, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

The Kalmiopsis was designated as part of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and is nationally renowned as a home to three spectacular National Wild & Scenic Rivers, as well as many rare and endangered flora and fauna. The judge set national precedent when he ruled that the Act’s language, which prohibits permanent roads within a Wilderness Area, triggered a 12-year statute of limitations on claims for motorized access. The speculators’ claim, filed in 1999, fell long after the limitations period expired.

Dave Bahr, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center representing Wilderness Watch and the Siskiyou Regional Education Project said, “This decision gives all Americans some certainty that the lands they have designated as Wilderness will be protected from irresponsible development and the schemes of those seeing to make a quick buck by extorting it from the taxpayer.”

The Western Environmental Law Center is a non-profit public interest environmental law firm that uses the tools of law to help protect and restore the environment, and to serve as an advocate for people, wildlife and communities throughout the West. For more information, visit: www.westernlaw.org.

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