Jan. 24—GRANGEVILLE — A proposed land management plan for the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest raises the risks for endangered species and other animals, as well as humans, the Idaho County commissioners said Tuesday.

In a six-page objection letter to the Forest Service’s Northern Regional Office at Missoula, the commissioners said a plan to include certain areas, particularly the East Meadow Creek area near Elk City, as recommended wilderness, “will have adverse effects on listed species” and will not meet other conditions in the Forest Plan.

“The Forest Service looks to manage (these areas) as non-motorized and manage other activities as if it was wilderness,” the commissioners said in their letter.

Currently these areas allow motorized activities and that should continue, the commissioners said.

Managing these areas as wilderness with a “hands-off approach” is not consistent with current science that recognizes the impact of climate change on wildlife species.

“The 1964 Wilderness Act, applied in today’s world as a means to protect fish and wildlife without any type of management strategy would be a catastrophic failure,” the commissioners said. “There must be a realization that to establish an area as wilderness and to falsely believe that a hands-off approach within a wilderness will provide adequate protection would be to deny current scientific research.”

The commissioners point to recent wildfires that burn “hotter, longer and larger. With fuel loads higher than natural conditions, increases in insects and disease, and climate change, the fires in the future will continue to adversely alter the habitat of fish and wildlife.”

The measures needed to protect these species, the commissioners said, cannot be implemented in designated wilderness.

The commissioners also noted the effect of wildfire smoke on human health. Forest Service management decisions to allow fires to burn with minimum suppression will adversely affect the elderly, those with asthma or other breathing conditions, hospital patients and nursing home residents.

“Only Congress can designate wilderness,” the commissioners said in conclusion. “Managing areas as wilderness or as close to wilderness as possible is different from protecting the wilderness character. … Region 1 has taken an approach beyond the intent of the Wilderness Act. … We believe that the Forest Plan, as it relates to (the proposed wilderness area — particularly East Meadow Creek) is outside of the Wilderness Act.”

The commissioners suggest that the Forest Plan should not establish more wilderness area, but instead designate the proposed areas for special management that would allow continued use of motorized activities such as bicycles, motorized trails and use of chain saws to fight wildfires.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.