| OCR Text |
Show By Jock Wallis fsCMv ' How much wilderness? Once again political leaders and special interest groups will lock horns over federal land wilderness designations. designa-tions. The big problem seems to be to decide on how much, how strict and how often wilderness areas should be designated. An important meeting for the local area will be held Monday, July 11 in Ballard. The hearing will be of monumental significance because the six committee members who are scheduled to be present and conduct the hearing are the top state leaders. They include U. S. Senators Jake Gam and Orrin Hatch, U. S. Representatives Represen-tatives Dan Marriott, Jim Hansen, and Howard Nielson and Governor Scott Matheson. What a powerhouse of Utah politicians. politi-cians. If they all make the Ballard meeting it will be one of the most influential in-fluential meetings we can recall. And this is all in the name of wilderness. Wilderness must be an important subject to draw such a prestigious group to the Uintah Basin to discuss proposals to designate more wilderness areas. We have always been advocates of multiple-use concepts when it comes to the use of our federal lands. But it seems that pressure is being applied to make formal designation of certain federal lands to insure their preservation preserva-tion for mankind against man-made abuses. The greatest concern for the local area is the total number of acres in the High Uintas that will be decided upon to include as wilderness designation. Eleven areas in U. S. Forest land in Utah have been proposed for wilderness designation. The High Uinta Uin-ta area is the largest area of the 11. If the most recent proposal of the wilderness designation is modified to mean a ban of buffer zones, and an end to future wilderness reviews, and authority for state, local and federal agencies to use motor vehicles for search and rescue, law enforcement, maintenance and use of water resources, installation and maintenance of seismic and weather instruments, dealing with avalanche hazards and other natural disasters, and the treatment and control of noxious nox-ious weeds, insects or fire, we could go along with wilderness designations. But when wilderness means that no vehicle use is allowed and that the area is protected by a buffer that can be interpreted to mean ten to 50 miles around the wilderness, we see no way we can compromise with our multiple-use multiple-use concept. Environmentalist groups are screaming that large wilderness designations are necessary to preserve and protect our unique natural resource attractions. Eastern groups are also concerned that scenic areas in the west be preserved. Why can't these scenic wilderness proposal areas be preserved without locking them up in federal bureaucracy designations that are inflexible in-flexible and can't be changed if the need should arise. Wilderness issues have become an issue of who controls the federal lands. Do federal lands serve the local area, the state or the nation? How can they be used by all? What is preservation anyway? Answers to these questions are probably the reason the six top guns of the state are willing to come to this area and discuss what they feel must be done. None of them claim to have all the answers, but they have demonstrated a willingness to work together for some kind of a proposal that will best serve everyone. Hopefully we can get some good input in-put from the Monday meeting in Roosevelt. It will be held in Uintah Area Vocational Center from 9: 00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Anyone interested is invited to attend. This should include almost everyone in the Basin. July 8 is the deadline for a spot on the agenda. |
