Plan to use helicopters in Arizona wilderness draws complaints

Using helicopters to reach bighorn sheep in remote wilderness would ruin the solitude of areas normally free from human impact, according to complaints from local and regional environmental groups. Five organizations filed an objection Monday against a U.S. Forest Service proposal to allow up to 450 helicopter landings over 10 years in the Tonto National Forest's designated wilderness areas. Land protected under the 1964 Wilderness Act is generally off-limits to the motorized vehicles and recreational activities allowed in other parts of the forest. The Arizona Game and Fish Department requested the exception for its bighorn-sheep management and relocation efforts. Sheep from herds throughout the state are being captured and reintroduced to the Santa Catalina mountains near Tucson, where the species disappeared in the 1990s. The proposal covers nearly 200,000 acres of bighorn-sheep habitat on parts of the Four Peaks, Hellsgate, Mazatzal, Salt River Canyon and Superstition Wilderness areas. In their complaint, environmental groups said the use of helicopters would harm the "beauty, peace and solitude found only in designated Wilderness areas."...more

..."beauty, peace and solitude found only in designated Wilderness areas."  What bunk. They can be found in abundance on other federal lands and on millions of acres of private property.