Proposed Boulder-White Cloud Boundaries Expanded

Conservationists looking to protect the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains have changed the boundaries of a proposed national monument, adding 20,629 acres. Groups such as the Idaho Conservation League and Wilderness Society had been pushing the Obama administration to designate 571,276 acres north of Ketchum as a monument. They now are asking for 591,905 acres. The decision expands the boundaries to include Malm Gulch, a Bureau of Land Management-maintained site containing petrified sequoia trees, the product of showers of volcanic ash. The gulch is within the proposal’s northeastern border off Idaho 75, 10 miles south of Challis. “Multiple explosive volcanic eruptions from volcanic vents near the Yankee Fork area sent up clouds of hot gas, ash and pumice, and engulfed the entire area,” says a BLM brochure about the area. “The white and pastel colored soils and rocks in the Malm Gulch area are the visible remnants of those volcanic ash deposits. Most of the redwoods or sequoias in the Malm Gulch forest were destroyed by the heat of the eruption, but some trees were buried by ash and eventually became the petrified remnants you see today.” The boundary redrawing now excludes private land around the edge of the Salmon River and a large rock quarry east of Clayton. While other sections of the proposed monument still include private land, the groups say a monument designation would “have no impact on private property rights,” according to a news release...more