OCR Text |
Show mend whether there is. Wilderness, or not. Within any three more years, we'll know if the analysis points to more Wilderness." N Short of Wilderness, Gardiner explained, \ WEBER are designations that protections without One of them is called "Semi-primitive is \ RIVER \ \ , SMITH-MOREHOUSE CREEK \ : \WEBER \WHITE \\ FORK PINE CR. \RIVER { ; HELUS KITCHEN \ j ‘ hs { MOUNT. MAISON ~~ ERICKSON BASIN BIG ELK L. Z Peak . Yy,NOTCHMT. ” My © OB 3 | CHyDEN PEAK >= g ; G (HIGHLINE [RAI LAKE \ BALDWT. | MG |SLANDL. > MinROR, WALL LAKE TRIEL LAKE offer environmental as many restrictions. "semi-primitive." not something so spe- cific that each area (carrying that designation) has the same restrictions,” she explained. For example, timber and oil exploration may be allowed or restricted in semi-primitive areas. Presently, the Forest Service is determining whether to allow tim- J known as human impacts." And already there are signs of that. The Forest Service has just established a fee for recreationists. A fee of $3 for day use and $10 a week, is now collected at a booth on the Mirror Lake Highway. "It is a user-fee to subsidize forest land management activities: maintaining toilets and trailheads and campgrounds," Gardiner explained. Presently violators - those who don't pay GROUND S Vy lakesRoadless Area (~100,000 acres) _+— High Uintas Wilderness boundary =~ river Ze. mnowmobile activity RL timber harvest Wi... forest/logging road Proposed Mount COVER STORY Watson Wilderness. continued course. "The model we used then, was seven or g years before (the bill passed Congress). We did what we are doing now: Make sure we have a constituency, make sure we are watchdogging the agencies, so when there is a time for a designation, we are ready.” The time for a Mt. Watson Wilderness may indeed be years away. But there are pressing environmental issues now in the Uintas. Among them is timber harvesting, as well as gas and oil exploration. Grazing, too, remains a concern. Carter explains that the time is near when important decisions will be made. "Grazing is a huge problem in the high country. It isn't just the over-grazing. The reason we don't have grizzlies and wolves in the Uintas isn't because they aren't happy there. A sub- set of grazing is that livestock people kill bears and wolves. The livestock industry feels that five cougars in the state is too many.” Similarly, timber harvesting has a larger WW impact than just cutting down trees that are @. homes to many species. "A subset of logging ™ is road building,” Carter explained. "The W more roads you build, the more you frag- ® ment the wildlife population and ecology.” But if grazing and timber harvesting present environmental problems, they aren't © Nearly as bad as gas and oil exploration, ™ Carter pointed out. "It probably is more ofa © threat ecologically than the others com- a bined. It changes the very nature of a moun- tain range from a natural place to an industrial setting. Given enough time, it can recover from grazing and timber harvests. But not from oil and gas." Carter would like to frame the question this way: Is a mountain range for grazing, timber production, oil and gas production or : eyes ‘ is it for wuld critters: MULTIPLE USE But according to the federal government and its land managers, in this case the US Forest Service, the answer is "Multiple Use." It is that doctrine that continues to guide agencies like the BLM, as well. It means that extractive industries are as welcome as recreationists. In fact, it may mean they are more welcome. But he does not rule out more Wilderness designation for the Uintas. "If someone just has in mind, let's close it up because we need more Wilderness, I'm not for that," he said. "I'm all for Multiple Use if we can have sustained yield. But I don't want to close the door. | don't want to say no more Wilderness, no matter what." The commissioner did note, however, the importance of oil and gas from the Uintas as tax base for Summit County. Those taxes are important particularly in the North Summit exploration. area, now gy for human impact," Gardiner said. "The bottom line is, there will be an emphasis on LEGEND based on sustained yield. designated 'semi-primitive.' In the Mt. Watson Sena STONE The retired forester says he fully supports the Multiple Use philosophy, as long as it is tracts of roadless areas on the north slope of the Uintas. Those areas, however, are not within the Mt. Watson area, but like it are the "Lakes Roadless Area," human impacts from recreation are significant. "A new management plan would identify a zoning strateMIRROR LAKE SCENIC BYWAY Sotter could well be the swing vote for Wilderness in the Uintas. and the South Summit areas, the rural twothirds of the county east of the Park City area. Existing oil wells will be exhausted within the coming decade. That means there will be political pressure to continue oil and gas ber harvests and oil exploration on large | WASHINGTON LAK e AU Se a Og oe = EN ge A Se NR a A a plan, which is revised every 10 to 15 years, Gardiner explained. "We are coming up on a revision time frame. The plan will recom- - are warned rather than cited. But that will soon change. Like Carter, Gardiner says the Forest Service considers the Uintas a special place. "It is a unique geological and ecological system. We want that to remain in perpetuity." But the Forest Service sees things somewhat differently than the High Uintas Preservation Council. "Their goal," Gardiner says of Carter's group, “is to have much of the Uintas as low impact. Our mis- sion - we feel compelled to balance the range of human uses with that of remote use.” LOCAL POLITICS In order to succeed in their ultimate goal, the High Uintas Preservation Council must have the support of local government. That means the Summit County Commission. The same board that recently chipped in The four lumber mills in Summit County are hurting, Soter explained, and only take what he termed "insignificant" timber from the Uintas. "I have full faith in the Forest Service for their expertise on the recommendation vests),” he said. (for further timber har- Up to this point, the Summit County Commission has not discussed Wilderness or a new management plan for the Uintas, Sotter said. He added that he could not speak for the other commissioners. BEYOND MULTIPLE USE But Carter contends that it's time to move beyond the old theory of Multiple Use on lands, like the High Uintas. "It's time to re-think the concept of Multiple Use and start thinking more about sustainability and biodiversity." In order to that, it may be necessary to redefine economics of the wild lands and expand the definition of economics to include quality of life. "Right now, the incentive is to graze the daylights out of the place because it is so inexpensive. If the grazer had to pay a fairmarket value and predators were thought of as having value, then. the incentives would change," Carter explained. "Right nowyetaxpayers pay for the new roads, rather than the timber operators,” he continued. "If they had to buy the roads, then it would be too expensive and a lot of the timber harvesting would end." Are the Uintas valuable enough to save as “| came on a coyote and we just stared at each other. On the way back, | not only came across the coyote, but the whole family. They were fishing in a creek. That did it.” —Dick Carter "Society, as a whole, is deeply divided over this question," said Pam Gardiner, deputy forest supervisor for the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, of which the Uintas are part. "There are strong voices in the public and in Congress who don't want the multiple use concept weakened at all. But others want to move toward a more protection-oriented plan,” she said. The Wasatch-Cache, Uintas, are managed and therefore the under a long-term thousands of dollars to help the Utah Association of Counties bring a lawsuit in federal court against the designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. On the far right of the commission is Sheldon Richins, a rancher from Hoytsville. More to the Park City. In Kamas, who Service - most center is Eric Schifferli, from the middle is Jim Sotter from spent 30 years in the Forest of it in the Uinta Mountains. a natural habitat for wolves, grizzlies, cougar, pine marten, goshawk and cutthroat trout? Or, are they a resource for a tax base in gas and oil exploration? Much of that will be decided in the coming two to three years.@ Anyone interested in learning more about High Uintas Preservation can write to: High Uintas Preservation Council, RO. Box 72, Hyrum, Utah, 84319 |