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Show THE CANYON By Liz Thomas & Herb COUNTRY McHarg of the THE BIG PICTURE... HANSEN'S Southern Utah WATCHDOG Wilderness Alliance CONSERVATION GROUPS SUE BLM TO CONTROL ORV ABUSE: SUWA and seven ANTI-GREAT BASIN WILDERNESS BILL: On October 7th Utah Rep. Jim Hansen introduced another Utah "wilderness" bill designed to keep the amount of designated wilderness to a minimum. He tried this in 1995 and was stopped, thanks in large part to people like you making their voices heard in Washington. This is the most serious threat to. Utah wilderness in the past four years. In order for this threat to be averted, we need to act now. Hansen's Utah National Parks and Public Lands Wilderness Act, H.R. 3035, covers the western third of the state-the Great Basin and Mojave Desert portion of Utah. This region contains 9.5 million acres of BLM public land, of which only 2.6 million acres still qualify as wilderness. Hansen’s bill would designate less than 1 million acres of BLM land in the region as wilderness, leaving almost two thirds of the remaining 2.6 million acres of de facto wilderness unprotected. (If the non-federal Utah School Trust Lands are counted, then Hansen’s bill includes a little over 1 million acres out of a total of 2.9 million acres of de facto wilderness). But Hansen’s bill doesn’t stop there: it attempts to prevent protection of the 1.6+ million acres of de facto wilderness left out of the bill by (1) eliminating existing Wilderness Study Area (WSA) designations and (2) shutting down current BLM efforts to designate additional WSAs in the region. This reveals the true purpose of Hansen’ s bill: to prevent wilderness designation for over 1.6 million acres of sp quality lands. Hansen’s bill also designates 1.3 million acres of wilderness within existing National Parks. While there’s nothing wrong with this, it is essentially fluff, intended to divert attention from the inadequacies of the BLM portion of the bill. These National Park units other groups (including Friends of the Abajos, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, American Lands Alliance, Utah Council of Trout Unlimited, and Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads — combined membership of these groups total almost 800,000), represented by attorneys from SUWA and the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, filed suit in federal court to force the BLM to begin controlling runaway abuse of public lands by off-road vehicles (ORVs). This is the first time the BLM, which manages 23 million acres in Utah, is being sued on a statewide basis for failing to control ORV abuse. Public lands are being damaged everyday, and everyone from conservationists, to ORV groups, to the BLM itself agrees ae there is a serious problem. The suit seeks to close proposed wilderness areas that logical damage from lated ORV use, and follows a year and a half long investigation by SUWA into the growing problem. There needs to be some balance between motorized and non-motorized users, and right now there is none. Ninty-four percent of BLM land open to ORVs, and it is increasingly harder to get away from the roar of an engine and sights of the land wrecked by these vehicles. Over 68% of Utahns believe that ORVs:are damaging public lands, and 88% think that there should be areas off limits to ORVs. Visit SUWA's recently released report, “Overriding Utah Wilderness: The Search for Balance and Quiet in Utah's Wilderness,” online at www.suwa.org for more information and documentation. Please photograph any ORV abuse you come across while in the wilderness, and contact SUWA online or at (801) 486-3161. are already being managed as wilderness and face few if any threats. BLM public lands are in much more need of wilderness designation, and this is where H.R. 3035 falls far short. Here’s a more complete list of problems with H.R. 3035: * It protects less than one million acres of BLM lands in Utah’s Great Basin and Mojave Desert areas. The citizens’ proposal would protect 2.6 million acres. "Do we take our jobs seriously? Of COURSE we take our jobs seriously... Why do you ask?" * Key wilderness areas are ignored, including much of the unique Mojave ecosystem. These areas include: Joshua Tree, Beaver Dam Mountains, Beaver Dam Wash, Doc’s Pass, as well as Tule Valley, Mountain Home Range, Paradise Mountains, Newfoundland Mountains, Rockwell Dunes, San Francisco Mountains, and many others. * We have not yet seen the maps for this bill, but past Hansen wilderness bills lead us to believe that the small amount of wilderness designated by the bill will be further undermined by unnecessary "cherry-stemmed" roads and other boundary gerrymanders. * The bill provides no protection for water rights in connection with the wilderness areas. * The bill would give the Air Force special and unprecedented rights to use wilderness areas, including allowing motorized access to install new equipment. * The bill shuts down BLM’s current efforts to extend Wilderness Study Area protection to additional deserving areas in the region. The National Parks and Public Lands Subcommittee (chaired by Congressman Jim Hansen) held a hearing recently on Hansen’s bad wilderness bill. Besides receiving testimony from numerous foes of wilderness protection, the subcommittee allowed Mike Matz (SUWA’s Executive Director), Debbie S (the Sier a Club’s Legislative Director) and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (sponsor of the good Utah wilderness bill, H.R. 1732) to testify. Hinchey, set the right tone for the day. In his formal comments he stated that: "My own position on wilderness designation, which I discussed often when I served on this subcommittee, is simple: save whatever wilderness we have left; there is little enough remaining... My bill would protect 2.6 million acres in the areas in question here, more than twice what H.R.3035 would protect... I am specifically concerned that some of the surveys of these lands preparatory to the drafting of this bill, including those conducted by the Department of Interior, were cursory and ignored some of the critical values that wilderness is intended to protect... I was told that some areas were excluded because they did not photograph well... Still others were excluded because of proximity to inactive mining claims -- without any assessment of whether the future mineral value of those claims may outweigh the value of keeping these unique landscapes wild.” County Commissioners also flatly rejected the bill in their own, less eloquent, way. LaVar Cox of Millard County stated that "Iron County residents are becoming inflamed with the Federal Government pushing their way around Iron County. The Iron County Commission is greatly concerned that the feelings against the Federal Government are reaching an explosive state and that bloodshed could result in Iron County over these issues." Although Secretary Babbitt made it clear that the Department of the Interior opposed H.R. 3035 due to bad management language on both the BLM and National Parks portions of the bill (as well as poor boundaries on the National Parks portion of the bill), he reneged on commitments given by the Department of the Interior to the environmental community and House Democrats during earlier phases of negotiations . . . that the West Desert bill would not move forward unless Babbitt could negotiate a proposal that produced general consensus from all interested parties. Instead, Interior sought to co-opt both environmentalist and our Hill champions into a "take it or leave it" proposal that ignored key essential areas in Utah’s Mojave Desert and Basin and Range Country (Governor Leavitt made the curious statement that H.R. 3035 contains "all of the ‘Outstanding’ areas of the West Desert Region of Utah..." Photographs will easily prove him wrong and demonstrate the inadequacy of the bill). In the end, Babbitt demonstrated more loyalty to Governor Leavitt by declaring that he "strongly supported" the acreage and boundaries in the Hansen proposal. DUMA IS DOOMED: In the last issue of Zephyr, SUWA included an article discussing BLM's plan to allow oil wells to be drilled in the Duma Point unit of America's Redrock Wilderness Act. Located about 20 miles northwest of Moab, the unit's 10,000 acres enhance the vast 166,000 acre Labyrinth Canyon roadless area, comprised of rolling benchlands and spectacular sidecanyons arrayed along a 50 mile stretch of the Green River. The area is habitat for pronghorn and mule deer, and provides outstanding opportunities for solitude and a primitive recreation experience. The proposal to drill two wells and construct access routes, along with the accompanying site development, increased traffic, and off-road vehicle access would all impair the area's wilderness character. Years ago, the BLM set a 10 well limit on drilling activity within the Paradox Basin Fold and Fault Belt (which includes this area). Twelve wells already have been drilled in the Basin (including one last year by the same company just outside the Duma Point unit that was not economically feasible), yet the BLM wants to expand this limit to avoid a more detailed environmental analysis, and to subsidize Riata Energy's economic risk at the expense of wilderness. Help send a strong message to the BLM and the oil and gas industry to “STAY OUT!” of wilderness lands by writing to: Sally Wisely, Utah State Director, BLM, 324 S. State St., Suite 301, P.O. Box 45155, SLC, UT 84145-0155; and Maggie Wyatt, 82 E. Dogwood, Suite M, Moab, UT 84532. STORM OVER FACTORY BUTTE: You thought Hurricane Andrew was bad... Lightstorm Entertainment Films recently submitted an application, UTU-77177, to construct sets and staging areas, drive a “moon rover” type vehicle across the landscape, and buzz helicopters for fifty days over the Factory Butte unit of the citizens' wilderness proposal in order to film “Destination: Mars/IMAX 3D.” The company would blow-in with motor homes, grip trucks, catering vehicles and tents, camera trucks, sound trucks, haul trucks, vans, picture vehicles, cameras, tracks, and up to 150 people — leaving devastated soil and vegetation, and ripped-up wilderness in its wake. The BLM seems to be excusing the damage that would result because the area is currently “open” to off-road vehicle travel. It looks like the agency needs to change that irresponsible and illegal designation quickly (see lawsuit article above), and divert this filming project to mars. The BLM has not prepared any environmental analysis of the proposal, since the company has not yet deposited any funds. A lightening flash flood of comment letters now may wash this film away. Tell the BLM and the company to find another planet to wreck . . . or you'll rain on their parade: Kay Erickson, Bureau of Land What's next? The best guess is that if Hansen decides he has a shot at moving H.R. 3035, it will go to committee markup in February and on to the House floor in early Spring. With your help, H.R. 3035 will die on the House floor — it is a lowball effort that doesn’t go far enough to protect Utah’s special wilderness heritage. It sells America short. What you can do: Call the White House and let them know that Americans deserve better than this clunker of a wilderness bill. The phone number is (202) 456-1111 and operators are available 9AM-5PM eastern time, Monday-Friday. Tell the operator to ask President Clinton Management, Richfield Field Office, 150 East 900 North, Richfield, UT 84701(cc: Sally Wisely, Utah State Director, BLM, 324 S. State St., Suite 301, P.O. Box 45155, SLC, UT 84145- to stop Hansen’s bad Utah wilderness bill, H.R. 3035. Explain that a wilderness bill for RDG's BLOATED GAS PROPOSAL IN THE BOOKCLIFFS: As you may recall from western Utah should designate all 2.6 million acres of remaining wilderness. Ask that Secretary Babbitt deliver a clear message that the administration is opposed to this bill. 0155); Stephanie Austin, Producer, Lightstorm Entertainment, 919 Santa Monic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401. earlier Zephyrs, SUWA and the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies won a Request for Stay (i.e. put “on hold”) of Resource Development Group's (RDG) proposal to drill nearly |