Volume 12, Number 3
Autumn 2000

Emerald Islands - The Kettle River Range
Article and Photos by Timothy Coleman

The Kettle River Range, on the Colville National Forest in northeast Washington, rises between the Kettle, Sanpoil and Columbia rivers. The Kettle Range, the name by which it is commonly referred, gets its namesake from the Kettle River which over tens of millions of years has gracefully separated the Kettles from their mother Monashee Mountains. This region is also known as the Okanogan Highlands and forms the furthest westerly extension of the Rocky Mountains in the Pacific Northwest.

Unlike the easterly front ranges that rise abruptly from the windswept Great Plains, the western Rockies rise gently, if not persistently, from river basins formed by the union of the eastern Cascade and the western Rocky Mountains. Flora and fauna of the Kettle River Range are similar to those found in the central Rockies.

The great diversity of species found here results from the combination of Pacific and continental climates and low elevation river valleys (< 1,700 ft.) to sub-alpine meadows (> 7,000 ft.). In this unique environment one can find a combination of western larch, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, whitebark pine and Engleman spruce growing adjacent to sagebrush.

The Kettle River watershed and adjacent wildlands cover approximately 750,000 acres. The area contains outstanding natural characteristics that exemplify high quality wilderness attributes. A diversity of dry, wet, cool, warm meadow, aquatic and forest ecozones and associated plant associations provide abundant food sources for a multitude of aquatic and terrestrial species. Grizzly & black bear, wolverine, cougar, lynx, marten, river otter, bull, cutthroat & red-band trout, mule and white-tailed deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and three specie of forest grouse find refuge in the Kettles. The last documented wolf pack in Washington State resided here until their brutal extermination around 1930.

Within the Kettle River watershed an estimated 30-50 grizzly bear currently exist. But most are on the Canadian side of the border where there is protected habitat of sufficient size to support them. The Granby and Mt. Gladstone wilderness parks (approx. 200,000 acres) and Nancy Greene Provincial Park offer core refugia for the great bear. In this area, over 200,000 acres of unprotected Canadian wild forest on public land are under the threat of clear-cutting by Portland-based Pope & Talbot.

The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) calls for protecting substantial roadless areas in the Kettles. Currently under consideration, is a modification to the NREPA proposal for the Kettles that would protect 250,000 acres. The biological and ecological importance of the region for migrating species of wildlife that move between the U.S. and Canada and Rocky and Cascade Mountains is high. Less than three people per square mile inhabit the region.

Wilderness and Economics
Backcountry recreation in the Kettles is increasing by as much as 25% per year. Poor management decisions have up to now more or less taken a free-for-all approach to recreation uses. Motorized use is crammed together with non-motorized use. Enforcement of violations of non-motorized areas by snowmobilers & dirt bikers is non-existent.

The Forest Service has consistently managed the Colville National Forest for timber, minerals and livestock fodder. This is clearly portrayed by the maze of roads designed to get to primary highways as expeditiously as possible. As a consequence, roadless areas are often separated into narrow, ridgeline strips. Closing roads and rejoining roadless areas is a necessary and cost-effective way to protect amenity values and enhance wildlife habitat. Congress must recognize that to protect the long term economic stability of the region, large portion of the Kettle River Range should be protected as Wilderness. The highest economic value of lands proposed for wilderness designation in the Kettle River Range is in providing recreation, pure water, and as biological "anchor points" for terrestrial and aquatic species. If developed, these public lands will yield marginal levels of resources at excessive costs. The American public will pay with tax dollars for permanent reductions in recreational values, water quantity & quality, fish and wildlife habitat, and biological diversity

The Kettle River Range has been proposed for Wilderness protection since 1976. The Washington Wilderness Act of 1984 completely excluded the area despite widespread support for its protection; Rep. Tom Foley of Spokane blocked any designations there. Today, there is not one acre of Wilderness in the range.

Opposition to Preservation
Logging, road construction and mining threaten the Kettles. The Deadman timber sale would log 10 million board feet and build seven miles of road in the Twin Sisters and Hoodoo Roadless Areas. Over 500 acres of the Bald-Snow Roadless Area and adjacent Paradise Mountain were recently experimentally thinned using ground-based feller-bunchers operating at 50-foot spacings. Salvage logging following the 22,000-acre White Mt. Fire (1988) and 10,000-acre Copper Butte Fire (1994) destroyed over 1,000 acres of roadless area.

The recently announced Forest Service Roadless Policy offers a ray of hope, but under the preferred Alternative 2, all unspoiled wild forests in the Kettles can be logged. Over 150,000 acres of uninventoried roadless area is not even considered for protection by the proposal even though most meet the Forest Service roadless definition of 5,000 acres. Opposition to preserving the Kettles comes from timber interests whose tactics include a disturbing combination of direct threats and behind the scenes organizing.

In the face of declining fish and wildlife populations, but an explosion in human development, we must protect the Kettle River Range as Wilderness if we hope to maintain keystone species such as lynx, grizzly bear and bull trout, and safeguard the region's clean water, air, and beauty.

For more information, contact the Kettle Range Conservation Group
or E-mail: tcoleman@kettlerange.org