PHOENIX - To celebrate this year's 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Arizona Highways magazine is organizing a series of wilderness hikes this summer in some of the state's most spectacular protected lands. According to editor-in-chief Robert Stieve, hikers will be joined by representatives of the U.S. Forest Service and BLM, among other agencies, along with members of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition.

"It's a unique opportunity, bringing together a lot of different experts and having them on the trail, and what better way to learn about the vegetation in the White Mountains than to be spending six or seven hours out on the trail with the people who write the books about those things?", he asked.

Hikes are planned for Mt. Baldy Wilderness in the White Mountains, the Bell Trail near Sedona, and Humphrey's Peak outside Flagstaff.

Stieve said the purpose of the hikes is to raise awareness and encourage people to enjoy the natural beauty of Arizona's 90 different wilderness areas.

"Most of these areas are free," he pointed out. "They're primarily on National Forest lands or BLM land and it doesn't cost anything to actually go out there. So, we really try to encourage families and get kids out there and let them see what's out there and have an experience that's a little different. Get 'em off the couch is kind of what we're shooting for."

Stieve said protecting additional wilderness becomes increasingly important as the state's urban areas continue to expand into previously untouched wildlands.

"These wilderness acres belong to the people of Arizona and the people around the world that might want to come here," he declared. "And as other areas do get developed, it makes these areas that much more important."

Hikers and horses are allowed in wilderness areas but roads and even mountain bikes are prohibited.

Stieve said the areas are especially valuable for teaching children about the natural world.

"If you want to go out and hike in an environment that probably looks a lot like it did two, three, four, five hundred years ago, the wilderness areas are the best bet."

He noted that wilderness also has economic value, by drawing visitors to dozens of Arizona's smaller communities that rely heavily on tourism. The Arizona Highways hikes are free of charge.

Arizona Highways photographers also will be along to provide photo tips.

More information is to be found at AZWild50th.org. Detailed information on hikes, and sign-ups, will be available in a couple of weeks.




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Months after the nation's highest court declined to hear a Utah case about ownership of public lands, a Montana House committee will debate whether to support it.

The Committee on Energy, Technology and Federal Relations is scheduled to hear a resolution today about "supporting Utah" in its 2024 lawsuit against the United States.

Utah claimed it's been deprived of "sovereign powers" because of the federal government's "indefinite retention of unappropriated public lands" there.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in January, but the suit could be refiled.

Kearstyn Cook - program director with of Montana Conservation Voters - said that could set what she calls a "dangerous precedent."

"The State of Montana showing support for such a motion," said Cook, "is just a blatant slap in the face to public land owners and lovers."

The federal government owns nearly 70% of the land within Utah's borders, and 30% in Montana's.

Still, 68% of Montana voters have said they oppose giving states control over national public lands, according to the latest poll.

Montana Conservation Voters collected over 1,000 signatures asking state lawmakers to denounce Utah's efforts. Cook said people want to make their voices heard.

"People who use our public lands," said Cook, "for recreation, hunting, fishing, hiking, for agriculture, for ranching - this in some way, shape or form would impact a majority of Montanans."

The same committee on Tuesday will hear Senate Joint Resolution 14, which would release federal Wilderness Study Areas from their protected status - across more than 1 million acres of Montana public lands - opening them to "multiple uses" including agriculture, timber and mining.

For decades to come, South Dakotans can make use of an expanded wilderness in the southeastern part of the state, as a new land deal will keep hundreds of acres off limits to developers at a time when resource protections are challenged.

The forest land in question sits next to Newton Hills State Park, south of Sioux Falls. The Conservation Fund helped facilitate a deal involving state and federal agencies, where the organization first purchased and secured more than 200 acres of a former Boy Scout campground site. Through the collaboration, those acres were eventually put under the state's control.

Clint Miller, vice president of the central Midwest region for The Conservation Fund, said it means the section of wilderness is no longer at risk of turning into something which does not align with enjoying nature.

"What this prevented is conversion to some other use," Miller explained. "The most likely use that this property may have been converted to would be rural residential homes, multimillion-dollar rural residential homes."

Instead, Newton Hills will take on another 36 acres for things like hiking, and another 176 is set aside for wildlife protection and hunting. For federal public lands, there is new concern about spending cuts under the Trump administration affecting national parks. There is also political pressure to sell off public lands for fossil fuel-related production, with Republicans arguing America needs to reassert its energy independence.

Miller noted a donation and a federal grant from last year helped push the deal across the finish line, key steps since the state lacked funds to cover all the costs. Beyond recreation, he added there is an ecological benefit, describing the unique piece of land as a "forested island" along the Big Sioux River.

"When you look at it from above, you can see this ribbon of green, usually inside of a big land of cropland of corn and beans," Miller observed. "The migratory pathways for the birds, for other animals to move along there is absolutely essential."

Polling has indicated most Americans, no matter their political beliefs, prefer to conserve public lands, not develop them. In a new poll from Colorado College, which reached out to voters in eight Western states, 72% of those surveyed preferred conservation.

Two new national monuments in California are in jeopardy after the White House announced a plan to revoke them and then appeared to retreat.

On Saturday, the White House told the Washington Post President Donald Trump planned to rescind President Joe Biden's order creating the Chuckwalla National Monument near Palm Springs and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in Northern California. Then language about the moves disappeared from a White House fact sheet with no explanation.

Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, which advocated for the creation of the two new monuments, said the move was not unexpected.

"This administration has been pretty clear that they want to utilize federal public lands as a giveaway to corporate polluters and private developers," Goldbeck noted. "We are anticipating, whether it's these two monuments or others, that there will be some attempts to reverse federally protected public lands."

Trump claimed the monuments "lock up vast amounts of land from economic development and energy production." But Goldbeck pointed out Chuckwalla has not been targeted for oil and gas drilling or mining but rather is most valuable for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat. The White House has yet to take concrete steps to rescind the monument designations.

Brandy McDaniels, national monument lead for the Pit River Nation, said the tribe has been fighting off geothermal development and other industrial uses for decades.

"This is not a Biden vs. Trump situation. It is a tribally led initiative that's been going on for a very long time," McDaniels explained. "This is a sacred landscape for our people. It is the actual place of the creation narrative of our people."

Sáttítla, also known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, is also home to the headwaters providing much of California's drinking water.


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