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Show m BONE-HEA- D . RAD1CA A COMMENT ON WILDERNESS AND WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS By Jerry Stocks I don't understand what some folks are getting so excited about in their push for designated wilderness. They have already gotten most of what they set out to achieve The public lands are even now being managed as wilderness. The Washington beltway and mainstream press and certain senators and congressmen have already proclaimed government ownership of the public lands. They are now going after private property rights. What with all their wilderness acts, clean air acts, endangered species acts, super fund acts, wetland rules and so forth their goal of total government control and supervision of the people in the west is nearly complete. Did you know that the supervisory personnel of the public land agencies are required to go through police boot camp training procedures and that they are required to have guns? They are trained to protect the land from the people. Miners, stockmen, oilmen and so on have all been portrayed as plunderers of this land. The sportsmen, 4 wheelers, bikers and so on are in the process of being branded as despoilers of the land. Pretty soon the only people that will be allowed to use the land will be backpackers and government rangers! Roughly 12 million acres of the Utah Federal public lands have been formally withdrawn for recreational purposes. Most of the remaining 20 million or so acres are being managed basically as wilderness. If private citizens or local government wants to do any development on the land, they have to apply for a permit. If the federal government agency tries to approve the permit they end up being sued by SUWA. This has caused the government to tighten up their permitting procedures so much that it is getting to the point where people don't even bother to apply. They forget their dreams and they go elsewhere and do something else. I have been trying to figure out what a wilderness is. My trusty old "Websters New Collegiate Dictionary defines it as an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community. An empty or pathless area or region. What them folks that want wilderness areas are trying to create is a thing that has designated paths patrolled by uniformed armed federal police that are enforcing gobs of rules. They want to invite humanity from all over the world to use the thing. Before long the area will be crawling with herds of people. The land will be well-usetrampled and spat upon. Its current resident life community will be disturbed. The thing will resemble a city block with traffic signs and call it what they want but it sure doesn't fit toilets can and everything. People paths, the designation of a wilderness. The local people that live amongst the proposed "so called wilderness areas" are looked down upon and are portrayed as plunderers of the land. For instance!, the big brother BLM went out and hired a bunch of people; put uniforms on them, gave them guns and fancy police vehicles with red lights, fancy writing and everything on them. The BLM sent them out upon their land to close the roads on wilderness study areas, apparently with instructions "to force people to obey their proclamations." As luck would have it, one day last deer hunting season, one of the federal cops decided to detain an off duty local sheriffs deputy (a real policeman that does real police work) for driving on a road that the BLM says isn't a road; in a BLM wilderness study area where BLM stoutly maintains that the roads that are there aren't really there. d, well-mark- ed well-polic- ed 31 m fl& RIVERSIDE PLUMBING HEATING . moab . 259-83- 24 Kohler - Grohe - American Standard Eer - Moen - Delta - Briggs Price Pflster HOT WATER HEATERS - GARBAGE DISPOSALS I . Confusing ain't it? It is bad enough that they go around bullying ordinary citizens but it really isn't too smart to pick on local cops. Unlike the federal wilderness cops who are trained to protect the plant life, bugs and the beasts from the people, the local police are trained to serve and protect the people. It is really starting to hit the fan now! If it is allowed to go on things could get ugly and it will be a terrible thing to behold. Where on earth did certain people in the environmental movement get the crazy idea that the way to enforce their political beliefs is by the use of police powers? They are going against everything that our Constitutional Republic and this country is supposed to stand for. In the case of the public lands here in Grand County it is certainly not a self governing government. It is a government of the bureaucracy, by the bureaucracy, and for the bureaucracy. The federal government has control of 78 of the Grand County land. They are paid the highest average wages and have medical and retirement benefits. 68 of the workers in Grand County are being paid below poverty level wages with no benefits. Housing costs have gone out of sight and taxes are the highest in the state. It brings to mind the medieval days of old when they had land barons, serfs and peasants. The present course that the ruling powers have set; which is government by force is not working and it will never work. I think that the folks that are trying to create wilderness areas by federal power and without local government consent ought to back up and take another look at what they are doing. This country was founded on the principal that the right to govern is derived from the consent of the governed. Government by consent is an achievable, necessary and desirable goal. I would be happy to debate the reasons for having withdrawn wilderness areas once the above mentioned matters are resolved. WHERE ARE THE CONSERVATIVES WHEN YOU NEED THEM? By David Swift Im thinking of two older women. One is standing on the brink of a canyon filled with yellow spires, looking at a series of yellow, improbable rock pillars, an old, old scene that always appears to be brand new and a tad shocking. She is gray and still strong, her arms shaped by bucked bales and hoisted Dutch ovens. She looks great. Below her a bus disgorges an organism that moves like lava. It's a shuffle of tourists moving directly toward my great old woman. This horde is, as one mind, infatuated in anticipation of right now seeing a beauteousness that has been aggressively They scuttle toward the edge in rabble excitement. The mob is going to ram my beautiful woman and send her hurtling over the edge. Lunging clumsily to save my woman I can't help it if I get a little rough. I stomp on a mother's foot, knock down her stupid kid, and loosen a guy's tooth. But the beautiful old woman is saved. The aforementioned is a daydream I had during a sleepless night of thinking about Jerry Stock's piece. He is right: us environmentalists are lousy people. We will step on some people's toes whether or not they deserve the hassle. So Fm sorry. But that's life if you're a conservative. Fm the most conservative SOB you'll ever meet Being a conservative means believing: pre-sol- d. individual rights are utmost group rights do not exist government is there to regulate what individuals muck up government is foolish trying to regulate that which is unregulatable government should not nurture; that's the job of church and other community organizations 6. life consists of lots of risks. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. When it comes to land use, many lay claim to items 1 and 4: they want public lands for any old thing they feel like. Fm thinking 6. Life has its risks. Life is unfair when not downright inconvenient It's bad enough that there all those crummy urban jokers collecting so much welfare. It's saddens me to see scrappy, hardy Utahns also laying claim to government 366 n. 500 Residential - Commercial - Sales Installation - Drain Cleaning COMPLETE LINE OF PLUMBING FIXTURES WHIRLPOOL BATHS WNteVMM-- . Hoo boy, this is Boris. And it look like if these Commies have their way in the general election, I am going right down the SEWER. - SPAS HP a |