FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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DARK DIVIDE WILDERNESS

The U. S. Forest Service persists in promoting and expanding motorized recreation in the Dark Divide roadless area in Washington state. Proposals have included reconstructing and relocating the Langille Ridge trails to reduce their difficulty for motorized users and constructing new trail connections to provide 52 miles of new motorcycle rides over a 225-square-mile area of the Cispus River watershed. At the same time, these projects would destroy nonmotorized recreation opportunities and exacerbate conflicts between motorized and nonmotorized users.

Citizens in Washington state have been interested in protection for the Dark Divide since the mid-1970s, when E. M. Sterling proposed a Shark Rock Wilderness for this area in his book, The South Cascades. Dark Divide was not included in the 1984 Washington Wilderness legislation owing to strong opposition by the timber industry, which hoped to log the old-growth forests. In 1992, twenty-four conservation and recreation organizations adopted a resolution favoring long-term protection for the Dark Divide through wilderness legislation. This goal is broadly supported both regionally and nationally.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs has a long history of supporting wilderness designation for qualifying lands, and it adopted a resolution in 2001 in support of the Dark Divide Wilderness. Furthermore, the FWOC has encouraged Congress to designate wildernesses which are not encumbered by special provisions that allow activities not allowed by the Wilderness Act of 1964.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs reiterates its support for wilderness designation for the Dark Divide area in Washington state. The FWOC further calls upon the 108th Congress to pass legislation which will designate these magnificent wildlands as wilderness and not include special provisions or exceptions which weaken the protections contained in the 1964 Wilderness Act.


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