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Show THE ZEPHYR DECEMBER 1995 PAGE 10 The Canyon Country WATCHDOG By Scott Groene & Ken Rait cent Sneak Attack on Wilderness. back-u- p legislative plan to gouge Representative Jim Hansen is now pursuing a Utah wilderness, just in case he and the other Utah politicians fail to pass their Utah wilderness annihilation bill. This proposal is worse, because it also threatens National Parks, and would apply to public lands across the country. On Halloween, the goblins now controlling the House National Parks, Forests and Lands subcommittee passed Hansen's bill, HR 2081, which would allow the crowd to claim road (ROWs) through wilderness. National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks. The vehicle for this trick is Revised Statute 2477, a one sentence provision tucked in the Lode Mining Act of 1866. Hansen's 32 anti-wildern- right-of-wa- ys Revised Statute 2477 granted states a right to construct highways across public lands. Repealed in 1976, the moldy legislation was raised from the dead by wilderness opponents that now claim that cow paths and snowmobile trails are actually "public highways." Hansen's bill would turn this spooky interpretation into law. H.R. 2081 would give those armed with a postage stamp and grudge against wilderness seven years to hie a claim for a "highway" by merely mailing in a map and a brief description of the proposed route, including the width of the ROW. The National Park Service, Forest Service, or Bureau of Land Management would then have to file lawsuits against thousands of anticipated claims. If the United States is unable to respond to any claim, then the public loses by default. And then interests can convert cattle trails into future roads. Nor would the federal agencies fare well where they do challenge these claims. First, the standard for determining whether a ROW exists in states such as Utah and Alaska would be whether a jeep or snowmobile had managed to rumble across a chunk of land: if so, then a "public highway" was "constructed" and a ROW would be granted. Which means then a real road could be constructed. Second, the burden of proof is placed on the public agencies to disprove that jeepssnowmobiles had not traversed these areas prior to 1976, with facts decades old. The bill undoes the existing 12 year statute of limitations for such claims, and under the proposed statutory scheme some claims might not be litigated until the year 2015. Further, the public is prohibited from challenging federal agency decisions which y claims (as the Utah BLM did for the ORV trail in Arch approve frivolous Bush under the administration). The bill also exempts these decisions from Canyon the National Environmental Policy Act. County officials in Utah have already shown a willingness to make frivolous RS 2477 ROW claims. At the House resources subcommittee hearing, SUWA presented photograph examples of Utah county RS 2477 assertions (the photographs come from a Utah Wilderness Coalition effort to document these claims). The photos showed some of the "roads" Utah counties claim exist within wilderness that would be protected by HR 1500, America's Redrock Wilderness Act. These "roads" could not be driven by a jeep modified with lockers and monster tires. Our demonstration of course failed: logic is a weak selling point with this particular subcommittee. If Hansen succeeds with H.R. 2081, well, kiss our wildlands goodbye. Some 5,000 RS 2477 claims arc pending in Utah alone, many of them made for no apparent reason than frustrating wilderness protection. What you can do: The bill has been referred to the House Constitution Subcommittee. Please write subcommittee members Representatives Charles Canady and Pat Schroeder and ask them to hold hearings on the bill, as well as express your concern over the bill. Address: Representative , The Constitution 362 Ford House Office Building, Wash, D.C. 20515 Subcommittee, Clinton and asking Mm to vrto tMs redrock canyon, and mesas by writing Resident te Address. should it make Msttiw Houreand legislation (H.R. 1745S. 881), 20a00. Or call. 202- D C., White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW , Washington, 456-111- 1. Utahn's Want Wilderness, Part 19. . , Hansen s The Ogden Standard, the largest daily newspaper in Representative wilderness they wanted. 134 votes wot district, reSntly asked readers how much 5.7 million acres or more of the cast. The results: 68.6 of the respondents wanted redrock protected. D.C. Dynamics- - The Environment is Back was strong public Six months ago, conventional wisdom said that while there other issues were of greater importance to support for environmental protection, on issues ranging from clean water voters, and politicians could vote as they pleased to be no longer to wilderness without fear of constituent retribution. That appears is controlled congress extremist, and true. Polls show Americans think the Republican the environment has become a key public example of where the politicians have gone too far. As a result. Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich is finding it small core of more difficult to hold Republicans together on environmental votes. A the to break from Republican forty or so House Republicans are now willing leadership. ( anti-wilderne- ss right-of-wa- Utah Delegation's Wilderness Attack Update The Utah delegation's legislation, The Utah Public Lands 1745 H.R. S. 884, has moved no further and Management Act", designated through Congress since the last Zephyr update (at least as this is written). Representative Hansen pushed his wilder-les- s bill through the full House Resources Committee, but still has not reported the bill out for a full floor vote. On the Senate side, the bill awaits "mark-up- " in the Energy committee (generally, a committee first holds a hearing on the bill where selected witnesses talk about it, and then at a second committee meeting the bill is "marked-up,- " which means tinkering with the bill So far, at least five Senate mark-up- s have been scheduled and cancelled. language). anti-wildern- Hansen is still bogged down with problems created by the bill's land trade provision that would hand the State of Utah a sweetheart deal. The Congressional a budget buster, a result Hansen is still Budget Office would score this give-a-whave been cancelled. scrambling to avoid. It is uncertain why the Senate mark-up- s It may be just that the Republican controlled congress is so far behind in the budget process that other work is being delayed. Or perhaps Utah Senators Hatch and Bennett are concerned that they do not have the votes lined up to move the bill out of committee (the delegation should have enough votes to win in this committee, but they want to win by a large margin). All this delay is good for redrock wilderness lovers. With time, more Senators arc and both from the press and their constituents Representatives hearing that HR 1745S 884 is rotten legislation, aimed both at gutting southern Utah's wilderness and undermining the Wilderness Act of 1964. ay Please Help Stop The Attack on Utah Wilderness. What you can do: you can help stop the Utah delegation's ugly attack on the THE DREAM TEAM: SLlVA's Tom Price, Cindy Shogan & Groene. (photo by Dan Miller) These moderate republicans arc distancing themselves from the wacky positions being pushed forward by western republican members of the House Resources Committee as the Congress' attack on the environment now receives a great deal of national press. For example, both Utah Representative Jim Hansen and Alaska Representative Don Young have been portrayed in the national media as ringleaders in the assault on our public lands, including national parks. Sierra Club which rumor has upset the Representative magazine declared Hansen an It is unclear Hansen declines a title he has worked so hard to attain. greatly. why President Clinton has finally declared he will stand up for environmental as show this the protection, polls politically wise posture. Things are still grim. Utah wilderness, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Tongass, dean water and air could still be flushed down the toilet. But recent events give hope that the public sentiment may force the politicians to rethink whether they can really afford to let the oil, gas, mining and livestock industries set the agenda. "eco-thug- ", An Example The Republican leadership floundered trying to pass the thirteen annual spending bills that fund the different branches of the federal government. The deadline for this work was October 13: as of the end of November, only four of the thirteen appropriation bills have passed (one was for the Department of Agriculture which covers the Forest Service). In a rather startling set back for the Republican leadership, on November 15 a coalition of moderate republicans, fiscal conservatives, and democrats derailed a House-Senacompromise bill funding the Department of the Interior and natural resources programs. The coalition won with arguments that the bill made too many concessions to western interests and timber companies mining Egging Alaska's Tongas National Forests. To this political neophyte watching the vote, two incidents were of particular interests. First, as environmental hero Representative George Miller was speaking on the floor against the bill, he was interrupted by Alaska Representative Don Young, who essentially called Miller a liar. Miller, never one to shy from a fight, then engaged in a heated argument with Young as the acting House chair ineffectively pounded a gavel to restore order. Then after the vote was final, some Republicans swnched their vote to the camp. At that point they would not anger the Republican leadership since it was a done deal, and they could tell constituents they voted the right way. te Scott Groene is a staff attorney in the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's Cedar City office, now banished on temporaiy (it just seems like forever) exile to Washington, D.C. |