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Show .....: 'WCWXWWXWWOWV!'I,!,MM,WWyAM(),!!XtotaW;wx;':x,x,:swx'xy ... a M'v.v.'.v.yVvA-w.v.v.wawwyv- r n? iiu,. ; v ""m. vt- - ry.hj i rf s v.o) s'rtf: i A m' l! S 'f, o.v.uko.io - i ,j 5 ama'.'.v.v ,VAV.yW.,MSyW.SW.VA,MW.,MWVAN.W.WM'V..V.W.,IVMW;w;,rtWVWW.V,V, We have a tie for Letter of the Month. First Mr. Murie. Then Mr. Rauber. Dear Zephyr. Owen Severance informs us (AprilMay Zephyr) that there are several volumes of Forest Service manuals on "Landscape Management." I am shocked. environmentalists push bureaucrats How did this come about? Did scenery-deprive-d do Or was own? their it hatched in Congress as a way of on the did it? 'crats it Or into seeming to do something about "the environment"? I didn't know, until Severance pointed it out, that each of our National Forest managements is supposed to create a Visual Resource Inventory. And, from that inventory, Visual Quality Objectives (VQOs) are derived. Further, each forest is to be zoned for degrees of Visual Retention, which I interpret to mean "degrees of being messed up." What are these "visual amenities, anyway? Here is a thought experiment: Imagine you're on a scenic highway bordered by tall trees. You, naturally, visualize unseen trees behind the ones alongside the So, you're passing through a forest, right? kill-jotells little y not. you that those front trees are screens, hiding Suppose a Maybe clearcuts? The whole scene changes, doesn't it? imaginative process. There are at least thirteen ways Looking at land is a of looking at a blackbird, or a telecommunications tower on a mountain. Admit this, and we see the impossible tasks faced by federal personnel when they zone huge chunks of environment Places are haunted. They have a spirit, each and every one, because of us, because of our imaginations that can't help but inform our senses. We aren't wired in ways that shut out information. Ed Abbey was a good one for investing scenery with thoughts and visions. "There's mesa. Blue, a mesa out there on the horizon, a beautiful high steep-side- d 14, '63) (Journal, July purple, dark, Here's another experiment: You're wandering in a desolate chained, ou Sinclair site or a There's Conoco name it Wyoming-yUtah, Montana, drilling boring. on the horizon and in the near distance an Interstate roars. It gradually dawns on you that this place is full of life. Homed Larks. Ground Squirrels. Badger? Trapdoor Spider? Whatever. Bring back one of your adventures in some unspectacular wasteland. Remember it? Worth remembering? Well, then. The conclusion is obvious. We animals tend to cross artificial boundaries. To each his own, and the manuals can only pretend to zone us in, or out. As for citizen participation in zoning affairs. . .wilderness, visual amenities, etc.r . .the deck is stacked ahead of time, before any of us even gets to the scoping session. I've tried manuals that are based on a false idea of how we to suggest one of the reasons-tho- se humans actually use and get around in, and sometimes marvel at, the world. And so, we've been reduced to fighting over pricey scraps of terrain while the rest goes to the dogs. Here's Stiles on the subject: "Not all the places I mentioned. . .are considered 'wilderness' by anyone. They don't meet the official criteria. But sometimes I worry that wilderness, in a congressionally-designate- d way, will somehow suggest to the world that is of land the remainder of the any respect at alL" (Zephyr, AugSept.'96) unworthy That word, respect. There is a bark on it. Compare it to the finicky, jargon-ridde- n d country. How much longer can we support such parcelling out of an already elaborate official hierarchies of worth? on Just think, if only we had, forty-od- d years ago, gotten down to basic this to for that bit bit trade What Glen Canyon. (Pollution Credits, anyone?), if, refusing we'd taken a respectful look at the land, all of it, and of ourselves. We might have decided that we don't really need that dam all that much. Oh, well, we can still dream of draining Lake PowelL Not today. Tomorrow, though. Politically unrealistic? Pie in the sky? Not sufficiently tied into the "consensus" way of doing things? That's what they'd like us to think. Who's "they"? I think I've run out of space. right-of-wa- give-and-tak- . . . . ... .v. :..... Editor. Atiitnr at Sierra magazine, and also the author of the feature article on the I am a Staircase-EscalanNational Monument that Andrew Gantenbein attacked in the Grand Feedback column of your JuneJuly issue. I find it depressing on several levels, not least because of the smug innuendo in your introduction that Sierra might not dare print his criticism. Gantenbein's letter appeared, in fact, in our July August issue From the cover-lin- e promo for my story ("Bicycle our Newest National Monument), Gantenbein inferred that the Sierra Chib is in league with the "bikers and big-timoney and "a historic towns like to in mess Hanksville, Escalante, canyon grubbers" campaign up Kanab." I assure Mr. Gantenbein and your readers that the Sierra Chib, whose activist members have worked for years to protect Utah wilderness, has no such intention. The Sierra Club believes that the best way to recruit people to help save a wild place is to let them experience it in a responsible manner; traversing the Kaiparowits by mountain bike, I found, was an effective, enjoyable, and way of doing so. Gantenbein, however, can only see visions of Moab. Oddly, he notes, "many of the old midwestem industrial towns have...set aside downtown commercial zoning and protected historic areas. Why couldn't Utah towns do the same? In any event, powerful as the Sierra Club may be, we are not granted veto power over the zoning plans of Utah towns. local d A more appropriate object for Gantenbein's ire, I think would be politicians who see city planning as an attack on private property. Most depressing of all, however, is the readiness of those who profess an interest in wild places to attack their allies at the slightest provocation, real or imagined. "You people have no real values," concludes Gantenbein, "it's just money money money." Shame on him, and shame on you for promoting him. te low-impa- ct short-sighte- y. e, Yours, Paul Rauber Sierra Magazine I wasn't "promoting " Mr. Gantenbein by publishing his letter and I wasn't "If I only printed letters I agreed with, I sure wouldn't be publishing yours. But Note to Mr. Rauber: trying to be "smug. I do wonder if Sierra Club members ever go anywhere by themselves. Instead of group outings, do you guys ever go it alone out there? I hear John Muir, your founder, used to do it all the time...JS. flat-topp- ed far-awa- y, place-overgra- zed, no-accou- over-divide- mud-wrestli- Martin Murie ng Mr. Stiles: I'm surprised at you, talking about Rush the way you did in the July paper. Shame on you. We love Rush, and you should listen to him. He makes sense. A. Guida Pethan, New York received admonishments ("Shame on you.") from a Rush Limbaugh Dittohead and a professional environmentalist, all in the same issue. After aU these yarn, I think I'm a really big I have now success.. JS. Dear Editor. I enjoyed the letters about private airplanes, Ed Abbey and funny environmentalists. I started rafting in the Colorado Basin over 26 years ago and hiked in many parts of it before mountain bikes and Pathfinders. Also, I had the luck to meet five "God of the Radical Environmentalists," Ed Abbey. He was a fun guy who, I am sure, would bust a gut at some of the views now held by many people in his name. If they truly believe in following the path of Ed, I ask diem to get an NRA membership like he held! As a member of the Utah Backcountry Pilots' Association, I enjoy taking many desert lovers out to see remote parts of the Basin. We use old uranium strips outside the National Parks; these strips have over 40 years of historical use. Currently, Red tail Aviation of Moab stresses to pilots new to the area to stay 2,000 feet above the ground as a courtesy to other users. Yes, there are pilots who do not do this, just as there are rude mountain bikers, hikers, rafters and other users. To steal an idea from Ed's NRA, it is the users, not their method of transportation, that is the issue. Thanks for the fun publication. Scott Fasken Palisade, Colorado Dear Zephyr. I recently spent a couple of weeks in the Moab area and read your JuneJuly issue r. Very informative and entertaining. I noted how the editor and many of the writers used my name to make their points, as if using the name "Abbey" proves anything. That makes me think that you're not taking North Bangor, New York cover-to-cove- Nelson's Heating & Refrigeration "Serving Moab since 1 962" 1075 BOWLING ALLEY LN. 259-5B2- 5 needed you Iz. If Tyson had kept I in the ring, I might have kept my ear. cool |
