Scotchman Peaks Wilderness Campaign: A Shared Vision by Phil Hough

During our 2004 hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, my wife Deb and I encountered the best and worst of what wilderness offers. In the High Sierras we walked for over 200 miles without ever crossing a road. We endured three weeks of steady September rains in Washington, helping us to forget the arid days in southern California where 100-degree temperatures and 20 miles between water sources were the norm. But we met our “wildest” wilderness last summer when we bushwhacked for four days along the rugged spine of the Scotchmans Peaks on the Montana/Idaho divide. Our last night of the trip brought us the kind of intense summer rains this area of basins and divides seems to specialize in. There was no avoiding the wet. We slept a damp, fitful sleep, rain slowly filling the swale surrounding out tent. Then we awoke in a large pool of cold water. Good morning!

Keeping the Heart
The heart and soul of the Scotchmans Peaks is this high, un-named ridge, a rugged watershed divide. It creates unique microclimates, separating dry slope Ponderosa from interior rain forest. This divide is so prominent that the Idaho Panhandle and Kootenai forests ignore the north/south state line and use the divide to define their forest boundaries. The ruggedness of the Scotchmans compels the two forests to share each state. This same ruggedness is bringing together communities from both states to share in a vision for this wild landscape.

We who are fortunate enough to live in northern Idaho and western Montana know that we inhabit a very special place. The Forest Service calls it the “Scotchman Peaks Inventoried Roadless Area (IRA).” But that dry, bureaucratic term is misleading. Much of the Scotchmans hasn’t truly been “inventoried” at all—it hasn’t been catalogued, defined, and entered as a line item on a list. Many of the tallest peaks don’t even have names. Most of the basins, passes or ponds leave marks on a map but none on the lips. Sometimes locals agree on a common name so they know where to meet up. But they whisper these names, because we take away a little wildness the first time we name something—and the people who live here know it. This area remains a wild place, not a series of line items in an inventory. And that is its beauty, its specialness, and its promise. It’s why the Scotchmans deserves to be protected, now and for all time.

These 88,000 acres of rugged backcountry remain pristine because they have been largely forgotten—unnamed, tucked out of sight and out of mind, just beyond the reach of our speech and our development. What timber and minerals exist are hard enough to get to that they’re not economically attractive. But as our society grows it continues its desire to develop and “own” the last unnamed, untamed places. So concerned citizens from both sides of the border have come together in the last two years in a shared vision for the Scotchmans—a vision to protect this area as Designated Wilderness.

The “Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness” group was born of this shared vision. We envision a Scotchmans that remains “untrammeled” by humankind.

Access to the Scotchmans’ interior is made difficult by imposing mountain slopes, as well as by rock and alder choked creeks. Yet the Scotchmans holds more than mere “high elevation rock and ice.” These steep divides are separated by high basins and deep valleys, producing great wellsprings of biological diversity, harboring numerous and varied habitats. As a vital link in the Yukon to Yellowstone Corridor, the Scotchmans provides special habitat for a number of “threatened and endangered” species including grizzly bear, bull trout, lynx, and wolf. The Scotchmans is home to sensitive species such as mountain goat and wolverine. Big game abounds—trophy elk and mule deer are common; magnificent moose and black bear are found in the Scotchmans’ hidden glens.

A Common Past, a New Future
Our region’s communities share an economic past that was based on the traditional extractive industries of timbering and mining. We also share an awareness that change is coming, and that there is a new economic reality. The people of the Scotchmans region are developing a New West economy where people and business thrive on the “quality of life” and on the health of our wildlands.

We can look back to forest plans that produced hundreds of millions of board feet a year in timber sales, recognizing the vitality and energy of that era—but knowing those days are past. And we are all awaiting the Kootenai and Panhandle forest plan revisions due out this spring that will guide the future of the Scotchmans. Lovers of this landscape share a responsibility to encourage the Forest Service to recommend Wilderness both for a healthy environment and for a healthy economy for the people of the area.

A recent study by the Sonoran Institute concluded that counties in the West with Designated Wilderness have the greatest economic vitality. Wilderness attracts people who telecommute, who relocate independent businesses, who are looking for retirement or second homes. Such immigrants bring high levels of personal and investment income to the area’s economy. This leads to an increase in high-paying professional jobs in such fields as architecture, finance, business support and medical services.

Our surrounding communities will share in the benefits of this economic development as well as in the increased tourism which Wilderness Designation brings. But change has it bumps and detours, and it’s sometimes hard to recognize the benefits when change is occurring. We need to educate ourselves and our communities about the value of Wilderness as a vital component of a balanced strategy for managing our public lands.

Carrying the Message
Friends of Scotchman Peaks has spent the last two years sharing our vision for protecting this special place, reaching out to residents and talking about the benefits of Wilderness to our communities. We haven’t been working alone—we share this vision with groups such as the Idaho Conservation League and the Montana Wilderness Association, who fully support Wilderness Designation for the Scotchman Peaks. Perhaps most significantly, average citizens and mainstream organizations in our communities also share the vision. The Sanders County Ledger, the Thompson Falls City Council, The River Journal, the Bonner County Daily Bee, the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce and the Bonner County Commissioners have all voiced their support for Wilderness Designation for the Scotchmans. And as I write this we are about to add 1,000 friends to our support list!

Benton Mackaye, a founding member of the Wilderness Society and the “father” of the Appalachian Trail, once said that the purpose of that path was “To walk; to see and to really see what you see.” It seems simple and undeniable—the idea that a walk in wilderness can open our eyes more widely and allow us to see, to achieve a clearer vision. Wilderness brings clarity to our minds and to our senses. This clarity of vision, this refining of perception and understanding, is why Deb and I go on long hikes, why we go to the Wilderness, why we go to the Scotchmans—to really see. That’s why we share this dream of protecting the Scotchmans with Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, Montana Wilderness Association and others. We hope you will join us in our vision of Wilderness for the Scotchmans Peaks!

Learn more at The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.