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The Scotchman Peaks area needs to be protected. It needs to be protected from the misguided souls who want to lock it up forever. This would prevent our future generations from having any say in the management. This is extremely shortsighted. Conditions change over the years.

We are facing continuing climate change. Scientists agree that warmer temperatures will causes forests to experience more mortality from pests and disease. Motorized equipment will be needed for treatment. Dead and dying trees are ripe for catastrophic fires as we have seen recently in eastern Washington. Scientists agree that with climate change, wildfires are likely to become worse. This area is too close to the communities of Hope and Clark Fork. The concerns of the folks in this area, on this issue, have been ignored for too long.

This area is not true wilderness in the classic since anyway. The wooded areas have been logged more than once. There are old logging roads all over the place. For a real wilderness experience, we need to head south to the Frank Church, River of No Return Wilderness, almost 2.4 million acres of rugged scenic beauty. Scotchman Peaks just does not compare.

DAVE REYNOLDS

Hope