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Show THE CANYON By Liz Thomas & Herb COU NTRY McHarg of the SAN RAFAEL SWELL SAGA: As the April-May Zephyr reported, Congressman Cannon introduced a version of his T San Rafael Swell bill again (third time's a charm?). The bill has major problems - it doesn't address the exploding ORV problem that is plaguing the Swell (over 90% of the Swell is open to ORV use), it doesn't designate any wilderness (even though over 80% of the lands included in this bill have been proposed for wilderness designation), and it draws illogical boundaries by not including parts of the Swell that really needed protection from mining developments and impressive parts of the Swell that extend into counties other than Emery. Things got wild and crazy when the bill, H.R. 3605 went to the floor of the House of Representatives for a full House vote in early June. Debate that was scheduled to take two hours extended two more hours. Even more amazing was that Utah Representatives Cannon and Hansen could not strong-arm enough votes to control the outcome of the votes ~ on all of the strengthening amendments that we had lined up! Even though Secretary of the Interior Babbitt had cut a deal with Hansen and the Utah folks and was supporting the passage of this bad legislation, Democratic lawmakers saw through the smokescreen and with the help of over 20 Republican representatives, passed a great boundary amendment. The floor of the House was wild with excitement. The next vote up was the ORV amendment. After a Republican-sponsored weak ORV amendment failed, Hansen apparently realized that our ORV amendment could likely pass with the distinct possibility that the strengthening WSA amendment could also pass. The Swell bill was becoming something that he didn't want to see—a bill that would actually protect the resources of the Swell. He pulled the bill from the floor before that could happen! Even though there was a great wave of jubilation rolling through the environmental community in the days following that House vote, this isn't necessarily the end of the bad Southern Utah WATCHDOG Wilderness Alliance event. Near the end of the event, Congressman Cannon arrived by helicopter, addressed the crowd, and proceeded to drive a Uintah County vehicle past a BLM ranger into an area closed to vehicle travel. Unfortunately, even the BLM is complicit in this pillage, and has just approved Texacoma company's Rockhouse gas well and granted the company right-ofways to construct a road and install a pipeline. The agency also recently released an for Lone Mountain company's plans to penetrate the unit with a surface pipeline. The GOOD NEWS!! is that you can too can make a political stand by telling the State Director to halt construction of the Rockhouse well immediately until the Vernal Office prepares an envi l impact st t (EIS) to fully consider the impacts of these and other drilling proposals in the region. BLM should not set the precedent of allowing development proposals to occur in inventoried wilderness areas. Instead, it should suspend the company's lease and consider alternatives for land exchanges--not give-away areas the agency itself identified as wilderness! Write to: Sally Wisely, BLM, Utah State Director, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-0155. - MISSION ABORTED: GOOD NEWS!! (What? No bad? Impossible!) Mission Energy (now purchased by another company) will not be drilling in Nine Mile Canyon! Although SUWA was unsuccessful with its appeal of BLM's decision to suspend the oil and gas lease, Mission still could not get its act together to drill this speculative well before the extended time on the lease ran. The company set itself up for failure from the beginning with its malevolent intentions to develop wilderness quality lands rich in Native American cultural resources. Here, it seems that nature and spirits of the ancients worked in mysterious ways to guard against this intrusion. Whatever the case, Nine Mile Canyon stands intact! DUMA POINT WELLS APPEALED, TWO MORE PENDING (Bad news ... bear with me) The State Director affirmed the BLM Moab field office decision to approve two oil and gas wells within the Duma Point proposed wilderness unit, located northeast and adjacent to the Labyrinth Canyon proposed wilderness area. SUWA Swell bill. The Senate could pass an identical bill to the original bill and then the House version of the bill could resurface either as a rider or as a stand alone bill. We're not letting down our defenses, but it WAS a great feeling to see lawmakers supporting good amendments to protect the Swell and inspirational to hear them speak so eloquently on the House floor about the importance of protecting the ever dwindling amount of true ’ wilderness that still remains. LIZ'S CEDAR CITY HIGHLIGHTS Stiles has informed me that this is the “good news” issue of the Zephyr--has Stiles gone soft? Anyway, to appease the publisher, here's the “feel good” stuff happening in Cedar City. The Shakespeare Festival is back in town for the summer and the annual Renaissance Fair was held this weekend. The belly dancers had unfortunately just finished their performance when we got to the fair, and the loud, electric, and screaming band had taken the stage. I missed the Renaissance connection there, but that's just details. The petting zoo appeared to be a favorite with the younger set. A fair maiden was milking a goat while other goats were busy nibbling on visitors’ clothes, pigtails, and fingers. The pot belly pig had just been captured after his breakaway attempt, causing security to be tightened up, but looking at the huge sleeping porker after the capture it was hard to imagine anything like a fastbreak escape happening. On the other end of town the new lighthouse was sending its beacon into the sunset. Who knows why Cedar needs a lighthouse, but we've got one now. It's named Providence. And we're feeling pretty darn good. appealed this arbitrary decision to the Interior Board of Land Appeals. Now, the Moab BLM field office has approved two more gas wells, the J.C. Thompson 13-19 and 42-24, within the Mexico Point and Hideout Canyon proposed wilderness units located in the Book Cliffs. Elk, mule deer, black bear, mountain lion, and a variety of small mammal and reptiles call this area home, while candidate endangered species, including ferruginous hawk, long-billed curlew, southern spotted owl, and the western yellow-billed cuckoo may inhabit the area. Douglas fir, sagebrush, junipers, pinyon pines, and mountain mahogany would be cut and bulldozed for the well pads and access road that would carve through sandstone ledges and along the benches and slopes of an intermittent drainage. The operator is also authorized to use dangerous pesticides and herbicides on the road and at HERB'S GOOD NEWS FROM MOAB In the spirit of the “good news” Zephyr edition, I'm committed to reporting everything good about what's happening on public lands in the area. Of course, there's a little bad news too, but I'll dispense with that expeditiously for each issue, and get on with the good! UTAH BLM DIRECTOR MAKES A FOOLISH CHOICE (The bad news, quickly) Wisdom, reason, logic, and common sense are not the BLM's highest truths. Over the past year, the new BLM Utah State Director, Sally Wisely, had been making “wise choices” to suspend the offering of contested oil and gas lease parcels located within proposed wilderness. Unfortunately, the agency's modus operandi of fatuity, that was buried under that thin veil of wisdom, recently surfaced with three separate decisions to deny SUWA's protests. SUWA will appeal these ill-considered decisions to the Interior Board of Land Appeals. GOOD NEWS! You can help enlighten the BLM by writing to the BLM Director and asking him to set a sensible “no leasing” policy in proposed wilderness lands, or at a minimum, that any offered lease parcels must be issued with a “no surface occupancy” stipulation. Address letters to: Tom Fry, BLM Director, 1620 L Street N.W., Washington D.C. 20240; fax (202)208-5242. WHITE RIVER WILDERNESS THREATENED (Horrible news that needs your immediate attention). In its reinventory of the 15,800 acre White River unit, the BLM found without exception that the “entire unit has natural character,” and that the area's scenic beauty, comprised of deep canyons and dominating the well locations. Despite the significant damage that would result to these resources and the area's wilderness quality, neither the proposed action, nor the environmental assessment were distributed for a formal public review and comment period. SUWA has requested that the State Director halt constructign of these wells pending her review this arbitrary decision. The GOOD NEWS!! is that you can help persuade her to make the right decision this time, and vacate the Moab field office's decision to approve the J.C. Thompson 13-19 and 42-24 wells. Write to: Sally Wisely, BLM, Utah State Director, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-0155. BUFFOONEROUS BLM BEHAVIOR: The bad news (very fast). You would think that the BLM would exercise the utmost caution when taking actions that abut wilderness study areas. However, due to “mismeasurement” (and other excuses too embarrassing to mention) the BLM carved into the Behind the Rocks WSA while constructing a parking lot and new trail head near the Moab Rim. The GOOD NEWS!! The agency has promised to reclaim the area immediately. A STAKE IN THE HEART OF DARK CANYON The Dark Canyon Wilderness is the only wilderness area in Southeastern Utah. At its inception, Cal Black, a San Juan County Commissioner, lobbied to get a road corridor ridges, is “exceptional.” However, development interests have decided to use the White created in the heart of the canyon. That road isan environmental hazard unparalleled in the district, as it travels extensively in the riparian zone, cuts through springs, washes out frequently, and is being utilized by growing numbers of unrestricted motorized vehicles. River unit in their political stand against wilderness. For instance, Uintah County illegally bulldozed 3-4 into the unit, and together with People for the U.S.A., held an anti-wilderness For example, during the last week of June, two separate groups of over 20 ORVers spent a total of six nights in the canyon. | |