ACTION ALERT

BEAVER BASIN WILDERNESS PROPOSAL AT PICTURED ROCKS NATIONAL LAKESHORE IN FINAL PHASE

By the end of this legislative session in late October it is expected that the Senate will approve an omnibus lands bill that includes federal wilderness designation for the Beaver Basin at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It has passed through all the necessary hoops so far, but its biggest hoop may well be in the House, where it will be immediately referred upon Senate passage. It needs to go through the House without dissent or calls for revision.

Representative Bart Stupak is the key member of our Michigan House delegation. Pictured Rocks lies within his congressional district. He holds the fate of this legislation in his hands. He has said “I do not support this bill at this time.” It is widely assumed that means “before the election.” We need to get him to change his mind and allow the Senate version of this omnibus lands bill to pass through the House without dissent.

Here are arguments to use in your phone, email, and snail mail messages to Representative Stupak:

• The 2004 Management Plan for the national lakeshore made all the essential compromises that Representative Stupak pushed for. It represents a community consensus on the main issues. It reduced the size of the wilderness area, it allowed motorized boats on the Beaver Basin lakes (albeit electric motors), it kept the Beaver Basin campground outside the wilderness, and allowed boats to land on the Lake Superior shoreline within the wilderness.

• There has been no active opposition among locals in Alger County where the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located. Wilderness designation no longer seems to be a red flag.

• The Marquette Mining Journal gave the wilderness designation a positive editorial.

• Public access will not be changed, as this remote middle portion of the lakeshore has long been managed as primitive, non-motorized backcountry, and will continue to be so managed under wilderness designation.

• The national lakeshore is a valuable asset for Alger County. With the 2004 Plan’s improvements in developed visitor facilities on the east and west ends of the lakeshore, and the resumption of paving on H-58 along the lakeshore’s boundary, its economic value to the region is only being further enhanced.