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Show Commission Should Sue This week the Spectrum reported that Garfield, Kane and Iron Counties met in closed-door wilderness meetings with Governor Leavitt and members of the Utah delegation. The delegation evidently wants to expand Garfield Countys' wilderness proposal even beyond the 15 of the entire county that was recommended by our commissioners. In the article Louise Liston was quoted as saying "We have the canyon and the slick rock and the rivers and all those places where the environmentalists like to recreate." Liston also said that the commissioners have been told a wilderness bill must include the state's "crown jewels" to pass. If our governor and our congressional delegation pass a wilderness bill and designate wilderness in areas that contain roads, "crown jewels" or not, they will be violating two federal laws. The Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Federal Lands Policy Management Act (FLPMA) both state very clearly that only those areas which are roadless can be considered for wilderness designation. Our commissioners have a moral as well as a legal obligation to file a lawsuit against our governor and congressional delegation if they expand their wilderness recommendation and include areas in which roads exist. If our county commissioners are unwilling to enforce the law in our county, then state and federal agencies will know that they can break federal laws in the future without any consequences. If Commissioner Liston is concerned about financing a lawsuit, then perhaps she should appeal to the Federal Lands Legal Foundation (FLLF) of which she is a member of the board of directors for assistance. The FLLF's written charter is to force state and federal agencies to comply with their own laws through the court system. The commissioners could and should sue the Department of Interior and the BLM right now for having designated tens of thousands of acres of "road-laced" areas as wilderness study areas in direct violation of federal law. There was such a blatant and obvious disregard for federal law in the designation of these areas by the BLM that our county would almost certainly win in such a suit. According to the Equal Access to Justice Act, when the county wins a law suit against a federal agency, they not only get their damages but also every penny in legal expenses is returned. How long can our county continue to turn its back on arrogant federal agencies who believe they are "above the law?" Joel Greer Boulder, Utah |