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Show i iVMW.WWAWATW.WM'A'M'AWM1 t S i THE CANYON COUNTRY WATCHDOG Rait 6 Dave Pacheco of the Southern Utah Wild.crncss Alliance By Ken c elsewhere. way to pursue its mining operations A MONUMENTAL MONUMENT Grand Staircase-Escalant- is a National Monument c step in the right direction. BY KEN RAIT While the proclamation honors existing rights, it also states that the monument is the dominant reservation for the area. Somehow, Andalex would have to convince the federal and 450 coal trucks a day for forty government that paved coal haul roads, new powerlines, which the monument was set aside. Simply years are consistent with the purpose for Pacific Rim export coal dreams, ADIOS. Dutch-owne-d their and Andalex for stated, as reckless not move, President Clinton keeps the reins In an unprecedented, and hopefully of the monument in the hands of the BLM. The Utah BLM, long a pawn of local county commissioners, oil companies and cattlemen, has an opportunity to turn the comer and manage the monument lands consistent with the nation's interest in their protection. BLM has named Jerry Meredith, former Cedar City District Manager and public affairs officer former BLM state director Jim Parker, as interim director. No under the wilderness-hatin- g bad decisions will be tolerated; each of Meredith's decisions will be examined g under a microscope. To allay local concerns about potential displacement of ongoing economic activities, the Proclamation allows for continued hunting and livestock grazing. These concessions are prccedented by similar allowances in both previously designated national paries and monuments. sugar-coatin- The cool, cloudy day gave way to warming, intermittent sun as President Clinton signed the proclamation creating the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument (GSENM). With the bold stroke of his pen, the President brought an end to the decades-ol- d conflict over energy development versus conservation which has plagued much of the 1.7 million monument region. The idea for a large national monument in southern Utah was borne decades ago by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickos who proposed, to no avail, a 4.5 million acre monument The White House the Ickes proposal with a different alignment, Escalante the westward basin covering through the Grand Staircase, rather than eastward to the Canyonlands region. Despite allegations by conspiracy theorists that the idea was hatched by "outside organizations" (presumably with evil, Communist tics), the concept was formulated within the White House. Just as people from Colorado, Japan, and Germany value the splendor of the America's Redrock wiMlands, White I louse personnel also intimately know and adore this nations' most superlative landscape. What conservation organizations know came from published reports about the proposal which began surfacing in early September. The idea went public with a brief mention in a broader article about the Andalcx coal mine in the Los Angeles Times on September 3. A story four days later in the Washington Post brought the issue to the forefront, sparking the firestorm of debate here in Utah. While supporters called the proposal visionary and bold, the usual cast of naysaying opponents called it cowardly and dictatorial. The proposal may have grown in part from President Clinton's desire to shore up environmental support, but even more so, it grew from the arrogance of Utah politicians on the divisive wilderness issue. In January 1995, the newly elected majority party in Congress was salivating at the prospect of turning back the clock to the Pleistocene on environmental laws. Parks and Public Land Subcommittee Chairman Jim Hansen of Utah (our very own) proposed decommissioning national parks (against the opposition of even his republican colleagues), turning forest lands over to ski developers (against their opposition), and giving public lands to western states (against their opposition). The coup de grace was the proposal which would have opened nearly half of Utah's protected lands to development and overturned the concept of wilderness as defined in the 1964 Wilderness Act. Rebuffed in the House in December of 1995 and in the Senate the following March, the embarrassed Utah politicians returned home having accomplished little on their agendas. Their legislative blunders did, however, embolden the Clinton Administration on public lands issues in Utah. In response to a request from Rep. Hansen (presumably made while in some apoplectic state of mind), Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt launched a survey of wilderness-qualit- y lands in Utah which were omitted from the initial, fatally flawed inventory from the late 1970s. This survey has been challenged by the State of Utah and reactionary Utah Association of Counties. This frivolous lawsuit challenges the authority of the agency to simply survey the resource values on lands it manages. The Leave it to Beaver analogy would be Eddie I Iaskel suing June and Ward Cleaver for making sure that Wally and the 'Bcav are tucked into their beds at night. To put it simply, Utah's Republican politicians were up 45-- 0 in January 1995, but scads of fumbles, interceptions, and blocked punts helped conservationists blow the politicians away in the latter part of the forth quarter. The national monument adds only shame to the politicians' embarrassment. The delegation's disgraceful wilderness proposal and their numerous attempts to ram it down an unwilling public's throat provided the backdrop for the designation of the GCENM. Because of its coal reserves, the Kaiparowits Plateau was the region Utah politicians would have fallen on their sword over to prevent wilderness. With the inclusion of the Kaiparowits in the monument, the politicians' coal dreams have been gored. The Chicken Little (oh no the sky is falling) in the aftermath of the monument designation appears to be fading away. opposition to the monument has dropped below 50; the monument approval ratings arc 50 higher than the delegation enjoyed for their sham wilderness proposal last year. While the devil will be in the details, in terms of how the monument will be managed, the proclamation itself provides fairly strict guidelines. The artfully written proclamation extols the region's frontier-lik- e qualities which "greatly enhance the monument's value for scientific study. It acknowledges the area's outstanding geological, paleontological, archeological and ecological values as core reasons for its enduring protection. The language frees the 1.7 million acre region from the shackles of claim and location under the slaveiy-er- a 1872 Mining Act. It prohibits new coal, oil, and gas leasing, sale, or other disposition under public lands laws. In other words, no more coal fights in either the Kaiparowits or Alton areas ever again, beyond what misplaced hope remains for Andalex. anti-wildern- ng In-sta- te In his speech at the Grand Canyon, President Clinton spoke directly to the Andalex issue with the following words: t The southern edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau At the dedication ceremony, the President announced his interest in exchanging school trust lands from within the monument This issue has been a from day one. In an act of blatant cowardice, monument under-fundeschool held the opponents up children as a reason to not designate the monument, claiming outrageous losses in education dollars. A close examination of the numbers, however, suggests that school children would have to forego $2 in funding per pupil on an annual basis (the cost of an egg salad sandwich without tomatoes) now that the Andalex coal mine proposal is effectively dead. Historically, trust lands have produced less than one percent of the annual education budget. Conservationists have suggested that education interests ought to tiy to mine the state legislature instead of the Kaiparowits, given that this state provides among the lowest per pupil funding levels in the nation. Once the 50 black balloons were released in Kanab after the monument was designated (launched by school children marking the death of states' rights), local elected officials turned their attention from to slobbering over the prospects of making the monument into a three ring circus. Local county commissioners are drooling at the unlikely prospect of paved roads and visitors' centers and Governor Leavitt has already floated the idea of making the monument something of a "Cowboy Theme Park." According to Leavitt, this nation has spent millions protecting both the railroad and American Indian heritage and somehow we owe the same (in the form of expenditures above and beyond price support programs, subsidized irrigation projects, below-cograzing fees, etc) to the cowboy as well It will be SUWA's mission both here in Utah as well as in the Beltway to block appropriations and authorizations for paved roads and visitors centers within the monument. If interpretive facilities are necessary, they can be built within the incorporated areas of local towns to bolster the local economy. These and other details will be worked out three-yea during management planning process. To facilitate their participation, the counties will receive $200,000 from the feds (a lame effort to "buy" local support for the monument). SUWA has petitioned the feds for $480,000 (we have 2.4 times more members than they have county residents) to facilitate our involvement in the democratic process, and we even stipulated we won't use the money to illegally bulldoze faint trails into file frivolous roads, lawsuits, or hang the President in red-herri- d hate-mongeri- st ar For conservationists, the monument doesn't change our outlook regarding wilderness. prize remains 5.7 million acres. About 1.3 million of the 1.7 million acres within the monument have wilderness qualities. We will continue to advocate for their protection as wilderness within the monument, as well as 4.4 million acres of BLM lands outside the monument The monument has not resolved the wilderness issue, but has provided a stepping stone to the realization of our 5.7 million acre vision. The Ken Rait is Issues Coordinator for SUWA ... we can't have mines everywhere, and we shouldn't have mines which threaten our national treasures... I hope that Andalex, a foreign company, will... work with us to find a HU ng EIGHT in Salt Lake City, |