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Show THE ZEPHYR APRIL 1995 PAGE 16 The Canyon Country WATCHDOG By Scott Groene & Ken Rait The Eeo-Circ- A group including Desert Survivors, Patagonia, Red River Canoe Company, Tex's Riverways, Wild Rivers Expeditions, Ken Sleight, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society, and the Canyon Country Zephyr filed an appeal on March 13 with the Interior Board race. The Appellants asked the administrative court of Land Appeals against the to stop the race, which is scheduled to begin April 25. The State Historic Preservation Office originally opposed the race because impacts to archeological sites, and then reversed that position in a second comment letter. A friendly the Moab District manager successfully lobbied contract archeologist later explained the flip-floDistrict to the SHPO head reverse the position. Manager Kate Kitchell told me she did not speak to the head of the SHPO but that BLM staff did discuss the issue with the agency on the weekend prior to approval of the race. The SHPOs letter which changed its position was dated February 7, 1995. The race was approved mi February 8, 1995. The comment period was closed on January 13. Lobbying efforts by Representatives Bill Orton and Jim I Unsen, and Senator Bob Bennett may have affected BLM's decision on the race. The draft EA included a lengthy discussion about the negative impacts from the race which was deleted after the politicians intervened on behalf of Then again, maybe it was a coincidence. The good folks at responded to the appeal by claiming they had received Race promoters accused SUWA of telephone and electronic mail threats from threats. these told the Although press they had been warned of people inciting rocks behind and the race course, the company has not with on rifles hiding leaving explosives warned racers of the potential violence. p; More Wildlife in Danger willow flycatcher as an endangered The Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the southwestern threatened with extinction largely due is southern Utah, in found spcdcs. This small songbird, to a loss of riparian habitat. A Single Point of Light At several of the public hearings in southern Utah, the majority of the public spoke in favor of wilderness, but county organizations and city officials were opposed. Confirming again that behind the people. many of our politicians are twenty years of Springdale, which has written to support the Utah Wilderness An exception was the Town Coalition's proposal for 5.7 million acres. Among the reasons the Town supports wilderness is that "our economy depends on it." In Grand County He'd Push for the Book Cliffs Highway. I'm offended that the Ron Thompson was quoted in the Spectrum saying: if not it's that sell the to designated wilderness it will environmental community is trying concept believe in mouth that, you've got your high gear and your brain in all be nuked. If you really Water Mr. Thompson is the manager erf the Washington County idle." Conservancy District, w'hich hopes to dam just about every free stream in the County. Mr. Thompson opposed wilderness at recent public hearings because it would interfere with more water development projects. Scott Groene is a staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Groene is photographed shirtless and with a black cat this month because: 1) He thinks being seen ." Dixie National Forest and Supervisor Hugh Thompson: At it Again. The Dixie National Forest straddles the divide between the Great Basin and the Colorado River canyons in southern Utah. The Forest indudes the Paunsugant, Markagunt, and Aquarius Plateaus, as well as the angular Pine Valley and Escalante Mountains. There is no dispute, the Dixie National Forest is diverse and contains much beauty. Diversity and beauty which arc threatened by Forest Service management. In studies conducted some two decades ago, the Forest Service found that out of 1.9 million acres on the Forest that about 700,000 acres were still wilderness. Then in 1984, only 83,000 acres, or about a tenth, of the wilderness was protected with the Utah Forest Wilderness Act in 1984. The lands left unprotected have suffered since. By 1989, another approximately 180,000 acres of wilderness had been lost, according to the Forest Service. And the chain saws are still running. The Dixie National Forest is pushing yet another tax payer subsidized timber sale which will tear into more wilderness. The Forest Service now wants to cut 21 million board feet of spruce, fir and aspen from about 16,000 acres on Boulder mountain. This massive cut is known as the Jacob Swale Timber sale, or as the Forest Service prefers, the Jacob Swale "vegetation management project". This "vegetation management" project would require the construction of 32.6 miles of new roads and cost the taxpayers $999,717, according to Forest Service documents. The Dixie claims only a small portion of the sale is in w'ildemess, a daim which is probably false. But the agency has taken extraordinary steps to block public scrutiny on this sale, perhaps to ensure that Forest Service allegations go unchallenged. The Forest Service released an inch thick environmental impact statement for the Jacob Swale sale on January 20, 1995 and offered the public 45 days to comment. Unfortunately for titizens wanting to look at the site, the trees the forest service wants to cut are inaccessible due to snow (much of the sale is above 10,000 feet). In February, SUWA requested that the Forest Service extend the comment period until the snow melts so that the public can visit the site on the ground and review the Forest Services daims. Forest Supervisor I lugh Thompson waited three weeks to respond, until all but a few days of the comment period had expired. 1 lis belated response was no. The Forest Service has provided no legitimate reason for refusing to extend the comment allow as the to to the site. visit period public Supervisor Hugh Thompson offered that "unnecessary delap impact our ability to conduct other important work which we arc currently doing" It is unclear why extending the comment period would interfere with the Forest Service's ongoing work. Thompson also offered that the public should have looked at the 15,000 aces of land before the Forest Service ever released its detailed proposals and studies. Thompson's decision to block public involvement on the Jacob Swale timber sale could be reversed by Regional Forester Dale Bosworth who can be written to at: United States Forest Service, 324 25th Street, Ogden, Utah 84401, (801) 625-560- 5. Missiles over Moab. The Army sap it will release a final decision on its scheme to fire missiles from Green River to New Mexico, dropping boaster rockets on SE Utah in the process, the end erf March. A KSL TV story reported from an unidentified military source that Utah would be spared this project. The military has since denied the report. Almost 50 community, environmental and native groups wrote last to November to President Clinton asking him to protect us from the military's project. President Clinton responded alright, by letting the Department of the Army write on his behalf. The military's letter assures us there is no reason to wony our pretty little heads over big like missiles. complicated machinery Bruce- - It Could be Worse. Jim Watt, President Reagan's Secretary of Interior, pleaded innocent on March 13 to charges that he Led to Congress and a federal grand jury about his use of political connections at I iUD. Watt has been charged in a 25 count indictment with lying about consulting work for which he was paid more than $500,000 in the mid-80- s. How Bad Is It? Senator Ted Stevens, from Alaska, managed to get an amendment through the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee which would prevent the Department of the Interior and other agencies from regulating commercial uses on environmentally sensitive lands, protecting wildlife, or withdrawing lands as wilderness. Stevens stuck the provision into a bill which would place a moratorium against new federal regulations for one year. The Senate bill generally exempts from the moratorium federal rules and regulations having less than a $100,000 economic impact. However, the 100 million threshold would not apply to the restrictions under the Stevens amendment. The amendment has not come up for floor vote as this is written. with a kitty will soften his image with the EcoChallenge folks. 2) Three words: Cedar City Babes 3) That's no cat...it's Ken Rait! 4) all of the above. Big Oil Zeros in on White River Canyon Denver-base- d Samedan Oil has diligently tried to penetrate the White River Canyon roadless area with one of their oil drill rigi for the past several years. Despite its outstanding wilderness as well as wild and sceruc river qualities, BLM overlooked the area during the wilderness inventory, leaving the 10,000 acre area open to various multiple abuses. During the last bout, environmental groups turned Samedan back with a successful appeal of the BLM Vernal District Office's issuance of the well permit. The Interior Board of Land Appeals sided with enviro concerns about the well's potential impacts on endangered raptors, including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. BLM is accepting comments on the BLM's latest environmental assessment until March 27. To give the public more time to comment, SUWA hjs requested a thirty day extension on the comment period. Write to Byron Tolman, Vernal District Oifice, Bureau of Land Management, 170 South 500 East. Vernal Utah, 84078 Andalex Coal Mine Update It has been said that environmentalists' victories have a shorter half life than cryptogamic soil race course. No where is that more true than on the wilderness- along the (and coal-- ) rich kaiparowits Plateau of Utah. A proposal for four coal mines and coal fired pow-eplant died in the 1970s. And now, the old leases have been swiped up by Andalex Resources in an effort to develop coal on as much as 47,000 acres. yea.rs' cnvronn'etjlisis have been tangiving against (or does one tango with .) Andalex at virtually every step in both the state and federal permitting process. By no means is the coal mine isolated from politics in Utah. In their rush to approve the coal mining permit, the Utah Division of Od. Cas and Mining has twice apprwed various stages of the coal mining permit only to have to rescind their decisions because Ae Pmuittin8 Poss. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resource's (UDWR), commission the National Parks and lands to give concern, S,CWart' substantive about the raidnC haW magically PPM" on literally dozens of issues which the agency previously raised in correspondence. Eco-Circ- south-centr- r Dutch-owne- d J" J aT" son!bT,'Tn,?vlal.i,naCtLS,a,0nU,n AnWLw. P"15 has Put aboU how b,S a minc th7 9' aC' 2 5 mUllon ton Wr year 8 a 47(000 BLM is aac' result of Andalex having While the U.S. Ration, die Andalex boy. peryear project. As a result. confused about what size of minc to analyze in the EIS. have abo ,rolLCnv'tlr0nr?t,liStS, Wh? Ns one. The League of Women Voters of Coal on the Kaiparowits Plateau." In )n,Pads Mining their thirty naiwrerort raiscs serious concerns about the fiscal as well as thC 1 proPwl League is also dati0n Coahlion and facts and without who, 1UPPrt sTyT project, one go on for year Z t cS WorlLay L 2 ae nZrhe l T On Dec- k- Regional Wilderness Meetings d.cl8ation wUI travelling road show to hear public testimony onthe formulated 'mmcnljtlns by the counties. Environmentalists expect the county recommit i ends APril L will produce little more than rccommcndatin X to uuh &t TTTgngTr-r--i r pr.' u 8 ma locath3IU hav mk' thrtr hrard r not been finalized, the propos |