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Show High Uintas Preservation es ; ce a photos by Cbristopber Smart Looking toward Mt. Watson from the top of Bald Mountain Pass. The High Uintas Preservation Council wants to protect this “roadless area.” he word 'wilderness' is so politically charged in Utah, that Dick Carter seemed hesitant to even utter it when talking about his beloved Uinta Mountains. To let that word pass your lips in public these days means you're ready to fight. If you're an environmentalist, it means you're ready to take on Orrin Hatch and Jim Hansen, as well as the governor and the Utah Association of Counties. Utah's governmental institutions have boiled the tar and readied the feathers for those who would intrude on their Western way of life. By Christopher Smart U ™ a @ = » 9 uw The word ‘wilderness’ these days, also is synonymous with ‘stalemate.’ The war over how much federally designated "Wilderness’ should be set aside from those lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management is deadlocked. —-Yet, wilderness is precisely what is on Carter's mind along with members of his new group, The High Uintas Preservation Council. Quietly, they are setting the stage for the designation of 100,000 acres of what now is categorized formally as 'roadless area’ to federally protected 'Wilderness.' The land in question lies west and northwest of Bald Mountain at the top of the Mirror Lake Highway. It extends north of the highway to Smith and Morehouse and encompasses what is known as ‘The Lakes Roadless Area.’ This land, however, is man- aged by the US Forest Service. It is one of the most easily accessed areas in the Uintas. And one of the most popular. It's beauty is breathtaking. The Uintas are unique. With the exception of the Brooks Range, which parallel the Arctic Circle, the Uintas are the only mountain range in this hemisphere that run east and west. Beyond that, the flora and fauna are more similar to the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana and Canada. In the Great Basin, there is nothing like the Uinta Mountains. Carter and Margaret Pettis, partners in environmental activism and in life, know they must usevall the skill they have acquired in the past 25 years, in order to achieve the goal - what they have named "The Mount Watson Wilderness.” For 20 years, Carter directed the Utah Wilderness Association (UWA). An organi- zation that went into deep hibernation a little more than a year ago. As the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) grew in numbers, funding and strength, UWA seemed to be sapped of its lifeblood. It all seemed related to the war over vast tracts managed by the Bureau of Land Management and how much of it should be deemed "Wilderness.' When Carter and UWA attempted to strike a compromise with State and county governments over the BLM Wilderness war, they were hung out to dry by SUWA and other environmentalists seeking 5.7 million acres of federal Wilderness on BLM lands. Gov. Mike Leavitt and the state's congressional delegation wanted only 1.8 mil- |