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Show THE CANYON By Liz Zlpowmas G&G Herb COUNTRY McHarg of the THE CEDAR CITY UPDATE, VIA WASHINGTON DC Just when springtime started blowing into sunny Cedar City, the dreaded call came from the SUWA-Washington DC office that warm bodies were needed in our nation’s capital to educate Congressional representatives on the seamier side of the San Rafael not-so-Swell bill. Although it was hard to leave the lilac-laced air (with just the right touch of pungent sheep manure), I packed up and headed east. After meeting up with Herb in DC and staking out our respective floor-sleeping claims in the pathetic SUWA flophouse, we hit the Hill. First order of business was to disabuse House members of the notion that this latest Cannon/Hansen bill is anything other than their typical anti-wilderness bill. After long days filled with office visits with congressional staff, furious document drafting, and decompression time at the SUWA office, we to retire to our hotter-than-hell luxury accommodations, the flophouse. It is probably important to note that it is 90 degrees with at least 90% humidity hanging in the hazy, heavy air. The flophouse is a sauna. There is a moldy, musty and smoky mix of smells permeating the place. This is in addition to the sweaty smells we bring with us. It is delightful. The street lights shine right through the windows making it light inside even at midnight. The sirens scream down the street at all hours. There are several SUWA folks crammed into two small rooms. Everyone contributes to the assortment of breathing and sleeping noises. And it’s still hot. : Southern WATCHDOG Utah Wilderness Alliance A most notable improvement over past management plans is that the GSENM Plan closes many miles of unnecessary vehicle routes. When the monument was designated in 1996, BLM determined that there were over 2000 miles of open routes within the monument. The Plan has reduced this excessive number, authorizing public_motorized travel on approximately 900 miles of routes within the monument. Even with the route closures, there are still plenty of roads open for public motorized travel which allow for ample opportunities for exploring the GSENM. Even though the Plan leaves open a few routes that are within the boundaries of proposed wilderness, the Plan closed many other marginal routes. Although SUWA will continue to advocate for the closure of the "open routes" located within proposed wilderness, the Plan begins the process of allowing for on-the-ground conditions to improve. The Plan prohibits all cross-country travel. No other land use plan in Utah has taken such a proactive step to curb the known impairments from ORVs. authorizes ORV travel on 553 miles SUWA will continue to keep watch on BLM to abide by existing federal routes if ORVs are causing adverse Unfortunately, the Plan of the 900 miles of "open" routes in the monument. on ORV use in the monument and will keep the heat regulations and Executive Orders that require closure effects to public resources. Recently a group of Nobodys crisscrossed through wilderness lands on Cedar Mesa, spinning donuts around Wilderness Study Area signs. This gutless behavior is like kicking a puppy. At morning times, there’s a flurry of activity--everyone is scrambling to find something cool to wear for yet another day of visiting congressional offices. It’s essentially hopeless, Herb McHarg but we all feel better knowing that once we finally get to the Hill, we can get to just about any House or Senate office building using the infamous network of air-conditioned tunnels that Scott Groene expertly mastered during his stint in DC fighting one of Rep. Hansen’s earlier attempts to circumvent comprehensive wilderness protection for Utah. Things never seem to change. , And it’s still hot. WILDERNESS BETWEEN A ROCK AND HARD PLACE St. George BLM recently issued a decision to allow a new road, rock quarry, and crushing operations inside the South Beaver Dam Mountains proposed wilderness. The “quarry operation will scrape, dig and then smash 500-million-year-old Prospect Mountain quartzite boulders that belong to the Cambrian Tapeats Formation. What, you ask, could be so important as to persuade BLM to allow such destruction? Ground-breaking medical advances? Critical high-tech discoveries? Or even rare and precious gem-stones? No, not even. Just for common. landscaping rock for use around the explosion of new-homes being built in St. George. It’s even more absurd given that there are numerous existing rock quarries for landscaping rock in the area, making the need to gouge out unmarred hillsides in a proposed wilderness area purely fictional. The quarry applicant does not have a mining claim or a mineral lease for this rock; the BLM is selling this stone through a non-competitive sale as "common mineral material.” The decision will allow the quarry operator to remove tons of boulders from pristine public lands, pay the BLM a pittance and then sell the rocks and gravel for a many-fold profit. In an act of unmitigated defiance, BLM based its decision allowing the quarry on the agency’s outdated 1979 wilderness inventory. This borders on unconscionable as BLM has recently admitted that its initial wilderness inventory was seriously defective. This assessment is confirmed by BLM’s recent partial re-inventory of the state in which the agency found nearly twice as much potential wilderness as it did in the first inventory. SUW4A’s request to Utah BLM State Director Sally Wisely to withdraw the St. George Another plus is that the Plan does not promote or encourage recreation. The Plan strives to retain the remote and undeveloped character of the monument, This is reinforced by locating facilities and services in nearby communities, rather than within the monument. Out of the monument’s 1,870,000 acres, over 1.7 million acres are in the "primitive" and "outback" zones. Management in the primitive and outback zones (about 93% of the monument) is much like (but not exactly like) wilderness management. Approximately 85% of the monument is included within America’s Redrock Wilderness Act, and SUWA will continue to work to keep all of these lands free of various developments that could potentially jeopardize their designation as wilderness. On the downside, the Plan defers any real decision on grazing management until future dates, based on a nebulous set of priorities. The Plan also fails to adequately address the issues surrounding the oil, gas and other mineral leases, and the mining claims that currently exist on lands within the monument. Overall, the Monument Plan is way out in front of other land management plans for . BLM lands in Utah. However, there are other public lands in Utah that are just as remote, scenic, biologically diverse, and deserving of monument status as the lands included in the GSENM. BLM should not wait until other lands in Utah are designated as monuments before drafting land management plans to address ways to protect the valuable resources, but should begin addressing these issues now. COYOTE HOLLOW VS. CHAINSAWS The US Forest Service is proposing to chainsaw 4-6 million board feet of timber from the Coyote Hollow area of the Dixie National Forest. The Coyote Hollow area, northwest of Escalante has been found to have "outbreak levels of spruce beetle." So, in keeping with the Forest Service's tradition of responding to any threat to trees in the national forests, the agency is proposing its traditional solution--cut them down! filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. There is a current trend in BLM of using outdated information to approve developments. Although this is unacceptable statewide, it is especially egregious on wilderness quality lands (for example, the recently approved oil and gas wells in the Duma This action is being considered in the face of overwhelming evidence that cutting down trees does not "control" the spruce beetle. In 1993, the Forest Service issued a decision to build about 42 miles of road and cut down about 7 million board feet of spruce and aspen in Coyote Hollow. The 1993 decision was aimed at "controlling” the spruce bark beetle. The spruce bark beetle apparently didn’t want to be "controlled" since it is now Point proposed wilderness and guzzlers in the West Desert (see following article)). attacking the very area that was cut! Field Office’s decision until the area was reviewed for wilderness was unsuccessful, so we GUZZLER MANIA REIGNS IN WEST DESERT In response to a decision issued by Fillmore BLM that authorized nine more guzzlers in Utah’s West Desert, SUWA filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. These water developments are to be constructed in the Cricket Mountains, Little Sage Valley, and Orr Ridge proposed wilderness areas. There are well over 100 guzzlers that have been installed in the West Desert within the past couple of years, several of which have been constructed within proposed wilderness areas (which SUWA has appealed). It would seem impossible that BLM could decide that there are NO cumulative or indirect impacts associated with such an elemental modification of the ecosystem. But, big, surprise, Not willing to concede defeat, the Forest Service is proposing to cut another 4-6 million board feet to "control" the beetle. Go figure. In addition to being in denial, the Forest Service has refused to do any environmental analysis on this proposal. The agency is insisting that doubling the amount of timber removed from the area would not have any environmental impacts. This is unbelievable. Wildlife may not be able to count stumps, but they do notice if their nests are gone, their forage is covered with mountains of slash, there are loud whining noises, and machines are smashing their homes and playgrounds. SUWA has requested that the Forest Service reconsider this proposal, and base any decision on objective and scientific rationales and to undertake the required environmental analysis. the agency has done just that. As in the rock quarry decision above, BLM relied on outdated inaccurate information contained in its initial wilderness inventory. As is clear from BLM’s recent decision, there’s a pattern developing that is not good for Utah’s wild lands. MONUMENT PLAN BETTER THAN EXPECTED The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) Final Management Plan has been released. Although the Plan is not a substitute for wilderness designation and although we would have preferred to have off-road vehicles (ORVs) excluded entirely from ORV YAHOOs TARGET CEDAR MESA WILDERNESS: Regardless of the patronizing claims made by ORV advocates, motorheads want to rip their machines through ALL of our public lands. Reasonable access my a_! Wilderness, the monument, the Plan sets anew tone for BLM lan management for the 21st century. The Plan’s emphasis on, soience-driven ecosystem management and Tecreation/ visiipe : management is a much néeded departure from land management plans of the past in which =poblic-lands-andresources“were sacrificed hr jority of i] Priva CRen Cee See their cae The sick a at Bae er ee ee damaging, arch-site crushing behavior is not just reckless and sporadic. Instead, it’s a concerted effort to beat down wilderness.. The antics of these losers are unconscionable. Recently, a group of nobody’s pristine streams, endangered species, archeological sites, and other land users are : merely obstacles providin cngllenes ir.mi s, heartless, selfish quest to impress |
