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Show Our Readers Write Reserves limit progress Dear Editor National parks and congressional congres-sional ly designated wilderness are federal reservations that are managed manag-ed according to an agenda of national priorities established by Congress. Both reservations demand de-mand preservation of naturalness. When the Alton Coal Field northwest nor-thwest of Bryce Canyon was proposed pro-posed for coal production, the Sierra Club protested that the human activity might be visible from the park and, thereby, detract from the visitor's enjoyment To prevent this "detraction the Department of Interior declared some 184,000 acres as unsuitable for mining and no mining will ever be permitted. This declaration included some 20,000 acres of school trust land that will also never produce mineral revenues for the permanent school fund to support public education. More recently the National Parks and Conservation Association, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club have filed suit in the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court to stop construction of a safer replacement airfield ten miles from Hall's Crossing and well outside the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. The petition for review states that "members of the petitioner organizations, e.g.. Sierra Club members, have expressed their desire for their organizations to take necessary action to protect (natural, scenic, wilderness and aesthetic) values in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area The petition goes on to identify that the members ''experience and belief indicating that increased overflight and beacon lighting will impair the natural and wilderness values (of park or wilderness lands in proximity to GCNRA) which they experience and enjoy..." The message here is that federal reservations of park or wilderness have been and will be used by self-serving self-serving extremists to harass and kill any and all development projects including natural resource and tourism projects. Ail that is needed to administer the coup de grace to the southern Utah economy is more reservations scattered around. Wayne Owens wilderness bill proposes 5.1 million acres of wilderness reservation consisting of 136 new separate areas. That ought to just about do it. Thanks for nothing, Wayne, because that is what we will have when you are through with us. Gordon Parker East Carbon |