Simpson makes another run at Central Idaho wilderness

Rep. Mike Simpson is asking President Barack Obama to give him six to eight months to push for wilderness protection for the Boulder and White Cloud mountains in Central Idaho. "They're ready to move sooner than later on this," Simpson said in an interview with the Statesman on Friday. "What I've asked them to do is give me the opportunity to pass this in Congress." Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who visited Idaho earlier in the week, supports Simpson's legislative efforts. She said it would be the best solution to the complex Boulder-White Clouds question. "We'd love to see legislation passed," Jewell said. She noted, however, that "the president's not afraid to use his pen." At a wilderness conference in Washington last month, White House Counselor John Podesta said Obama plans to designate more national monuments - protection he can create with his signature. Podesta told Simpson that he'd better hurry if he wants to pass his Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, which includes wilderness for the now-storied mountain ranges as well as incentives for communities and ranchers to support the plan. Simpson has been working on legislation to protect 300,000 acres of the Boulder-White Clouds and Jerry Peak area for more than a decade. It died at the last minute in the 2006 Congress and was killed in 2010 when Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, withdrew his support. That prompted environmental groups and former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus to call on Obama to protect up to 700,000 acres as a national monument, using his powers under the Antiquities Act of 1906...more