Volume 15, Number 3
Fall 2003

Letter from our Executive Director

We have much to celebrate this year at the Wild Rockies Rendezvous, September 26th, and 27th at Caras Park in Missoula. We are continuing our mission of securing the ecological integrity of the Wild Rockies bioregion through citizen empowerment and the application of conservation biology, sustainable economic models and environmental law. In Congress, thanks to Carole King, the hardest working environmental lobbyist on Capital Hill, a record number of representatives, 155, signed on to support (H.R. 1105) the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). NREPA will protect over 20 million acres of the wild Rockies, save taxpayers $245 million over the first ten years, and create 2300 jobs restoring wildlife corridors and other important habitat.

Bull Trout will benefit from recent legal victories. MontanaFWP photo

In another branch of our government, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan, the Ecology Center, American Wildlands and Montana Environmental Information Center won a tremendous victory for clean water in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling mandates that no new pollution discharge permits or increases in existing permits may be issued for waters already in violation of state water quality standards until clean up plans are finalized. As we've seen with the proposed removal and cleanup of Milltown Dam, restoration of water quality is a very positive economic contribution. By cleaning up Montana's rivers we can create jobs, make our water safe to drink and recover our native fish including bull trout and cutthroat trout.

The case centered around the Environmental Protection Agency's 19-year delay in establishing pollution limits on Montana's polluted streams and rivers that did not meet state water quality standards in 1996. The ruling may also affect other states besides Montana that have failed to finalize their clean up plans for polluted streams and rivers.

With so much happening in the court system, we are very excited about our Wild Rockies Rendezvous keynote speaker, Professor Karin Sheldon. Professor Sheldon is Assistant Dean for the Environmental Program and Director of the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School. She teaches Natural Resources Law, Watershed Protection, and Environmental Policy and Management. Before going to Vermont, Professor Sheldon was Acting President and general Counsel at The Wilderness Society. Prior to that she won precedent-setting cases as a staff attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, and as a partner in two public-interest law firms.

We are also honored to have Robert Wolf. Mr. Wolf helped write the Wilderness Act and the National Forest Management Act while a staff member on various congressional committees. He also worked with the BLM, Forest Service, Bureau of the Budget, Comptroller General, and the Congressional Research Service.

Joining Mr. Wolf to discuss the economics of environmental law and how conservationists can make persuasive economic arguments will be Professor Thomas Power, chair of the University of Montana Economics Department and longtime defender of wildlands in the Northern Rockies.

AWR President Gary Macfarlane will lead a panel on wilderness in today's climate, which will discuss how back room deals undermine wilderness and public lands. Our tireless defender of wolves, Renee Van Camp, is organizing an excellent panel to discuss wolves and the proposal to take them off the endangered species list. Mike Bader will give everybody an update on critical habitat for bull trout and our grizzly bear campaign. Finally, Professor Sheldon will lead a legal panel. Our member groups will have an opportunity to update everybody on what they have been working on and there will be plenty of food, entertainment, and refreshments. This is our annual get-together and celebration, so we hope all of you can make it.

Sincerely, Michael Garrity