Stephen Waltcher

What do you think about the proposal to designate the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness?

“I am very pro wilderness. I think that the White Clouds have had many uses and abuses. Everything from mining to motorized vehicles…My experience last year was that I saw some areas that got some pretty major snowmobile impacts. The whole focus of the industry is to make these vehicles lighter and more powerful. They can get to places now where they used to not be able to…The technology will grow and grow…And where is it going to end? Does it end when they can get to the to Castle Peak on a snow machine? To me that’s sacrilege, and there’s no place for that…The mountains aren’t about motors and big machines. It’s about walking around, listening to the wind, looking at the animal tracks. You know, experiencing nature. I love the turns, but if I didn’t have the turns, I would still be walking around nature and appreciating it.”

Can a compromise be reached between the different user-groups?

“I know that the mountain bikers have been trying to get some well-known, national-level mountain bike routes through the White Clouds that some of the groups have tried to get grandfathered in or excluded from the wilderness. Some of this might be possible. But I am having a real hard time with the motorized issue…There’s a tremendous amount of motorized recreationalists in this state. Also, communities like Challis are trying to draw more from around the country. It’s such an impactful use of the land through noise and smell. It’s just a difficult compromise, and I don’t see where it is going to go.”