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Show JULY Forging A New Wilderness 1995 Alliance: & The Rural by Stephen Trimble Nes the Utah egation Congressional submitted Wilderness proposed by Coalition. shifting the BLM propos- Utah lands Wilderness For a of the century, and sold eventually West we and used ourselves make on have about way to be it and which fall ness... seen God Author, to Stephen not creatures silent as to Species and we Clean make complete Wilderness human Act, the the Clean Act, Water Air Act, the televised nature proEarth grams, A few dissenting voices turned up along the way. John Muir, Teddy Day reinforced these environmental values. But as we become more and more urban, as the West fills in, we have fewer and fewer direct experi- and turned the corporate back century ago. twentieth watched the to that pillagers a middle recede we replace American Pinchot Aldo century, wilderness losophized ethic” In Gifford people, ences with nature. the on the teach a “land Rural westerners the land. They destiny they marginal- generation to enact legislation based on a belief that the Earth and its creatures have our SOCIETY important We rights passed know the have land still work a local well. in the WW: cannot with brandishing pistols in interests corporate on it. Misplaced angers have clouded the debate about Utah wilderness. Every side is too fed up with the others to trust anyone. This leaves the door open for the powerful and the while we all forces of the past who have yet to recognize that our land is finite, our population exploding, and that we both — spiritual desperately need refuges greenbelts, dally stubborn about old loyalties, old antagonisms. We need a new alliance talists and of rural urban environmen- ranchers and _ vil- lagers to fight the real enemy: the unreconstructed the and believers in sustainable rural these lands belong to all Americans, not the federal government or a_particular designated administrator, such as the Bureau of Land Management. All Americans hold Utah wilderness in trust for all people. The enemy includes all those primarily driven by self-interest. Arrogant and spiteful politicians dedicated to preserving their power and the faces of Forest Service and BLM rangers have picked the wrong enemy. If you can convince them to base, intent only on the quick greedy profit extractable from the Earth, land users who still believe they are entitled to solvency underwritten by all taxpayers while they put to hard use land owned by all Americans — land inappropriate for the uses they force stand on the sidelines and holler at each other. The land loses. We lose. Most of all, our grandchildren lose. We have reached the end of the gold rush. This wild country is our home, not simply one more stop on the way to the next boomtown. Respect for our home, thinking as natives, begins in our backyards, with our children. We move outward from there to local preservation of to be suici- economies. they financial selfish to have their way, continue wisdom, to do. commissioners their way...” But I think that sagebrush rebels, “wise use” advocates, those county in the 1960s, we began fundamental us are embattled. They are ready to fight anyone who tries to tell them what beyond US: a less and can the effects of our actions seventh know less about wild places and what they phi- ized and impoverished, reminded us to consider We Leopold and needed manifest Indian of the media focus on domination. Roosevelt, and to have Endangered Act Schools This leaves the door open for the powerful and the selfish Trimble like the rose, tame toward — and have from bloom it and environments our We time. “Misplaced angers have clouded the debate about Utah wilder- treated developed up a mission the desert to civilize worry long This battle epitomizes the values western land as a commodity, used del- a bill to Congress, ing less than a third of the wild West drop their defenses for a moment, many have values that may not be so very different from those they call Both value the “envarmintalists.” land. Both want to preserve open space. Both plan on being here for a We must remember that and from there to big wilderness. We need all of these. he truly conservative action comes clear: to preserve as many wild lands as possible for future generations rather than to hand them over to casual development, to fritter their value away without even noticing. The longer we refrain from using up resources, the better chance we have of having them there when continued on next page Holly Flanders, i iz 367 WEST former World Cup champion downhill racer gets psyched on Fuggles pizza before practicing her famous tuck at home in Park City. 2 « SECOND SOUTH © S.L.C. 363-7000 PAGE 8 |