"The Committee is concerned that the FS continues to ignore congressional
direction provided in the fiscal year 1988 appropriations bill that encourages
the agency to place greater emphasis on on-the-ground impacts to wilderness
areas from human activity and move away from management by the subjective
concept of solitude. The committee continues to believe the primary focus
of the FS in wilderness areas is the protection of the physical environment
and ecosystems of the wilderness resource. However, the agency's land managers
have developed regulations that attempt to bring wilderness into compliance
with standards which artificially set numbers of allowable encounters per
day between human being. The regulations limit the number of people who
are allowed to use a given trail on a given day, purportedly to achieve
solitude in the wilderness. Rather than regulating solitude by limiting
the number of encounters on a given trail or the number of tents seen from
a given point with a view, the Committee directs the FS to manage human
activity in wilderness areas for on-the-ground impacts such as trampled
vegetation, human waste, uncontrolled fire pits, and soil erosion, with
the goal of protecting the resource and mitigating damage.
The Committee is very concerned that the Forest Service issues a decision
prohibiting the use of fixed anchors in wilderness areas of the national
forests without sufficient public involvement. Therefore the committee
has included bill language on the use of fixed anchors and to reconsider
the issue using a process that ensures adequate public involvement."