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Show SCORECARD @ Double Bogey > Crosscountry Wasatch skiing Mountains in should be the limited by the National Forest Service, according to the owner of a helicopter ski ser- vice. Greg Smith made those comments apparently in response to criticism of his Powderbird Guides company, which must renew its license through the Forest Service this year. Most Utahns can’t afford Smith’s services - running about $500 a day - but can afford to ski tour in their local mountains. Smith appar- bey Sey Ya 9 atte ; ce HuAy while the ently believes that Utahns owe him a liy- sun Suarts! ing by allowing helicopter skiing without restriction Smith in the suggesis Wasatch. that Utahns But when stay out of their own mountains, he goes way too far. If Powderbird Guides wants to pick a fight, this is exactly how to do it. “| O Birdie In this age of contention, its nice when compromise can be reached outside a courtroom. That is the case with and the Citizens Committee to Save Our Canyons. The two have reached an agreement that will allow Alta Ski Lifts to make improvements on National Forest lands in Albion Basin. Save Our Canyons had objected to the US Forest Service Alta when Ski it learned of a proposal to blast granite rock faces polished by glaciers over the ages. Save Our Canyons also objected to the cutting of trees. The ski company wants to make a realignment of some lifts and make intermediate skiing area better 1 ne surrounding compromise ments with Albion environment D its Sugarloaf allows improve- impacts to the Bogey Ze Just when you thought all the stink from the Envirocare scandal had been aired out, more bubbles to the surface. This time, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said state officials did not fine Envirocare enough for violations of hazardous-waste law. What a surprise. Not only did dump overator Khosrow Semnani have an under-thetable financial Radiation relationship Control Director with then- Larry F. Anderson, but Semnani sits on the state Board of Radiation Control. In many ol & & w= = ae a <q nN 8 a instances, EDITORIAL Lifts Semnani’s license was changed after the fact, so that Envirocare could comply with state and federal regulations. Of course, state offi- cers say the paltry $30,000 they fined Semnani was plenty. But then, again, what should we expect from an agency that operates on good-’ol-boy rules? War on Wilderness M2: it’s fitting in this season of re-birth that olive branches are being put forth publicly by Utah’s political leaders in the war over wilderness. But a closer look reveals that these gestures may be more akin to the Trojan Horse than to real doves of peace. Although it may seem there is a hiatus or an uneasy cease fire in Utah's raging battles over scenic treasures, the guerrilla warfare continues and appears to be having a dramatic impact. Utah’s Congressional delegation, who, along with Gov. Mike Leavitt, set the stage for the unrest by leaving out everyone but the Southern Utah power brokers in establishing their own run against wilderness, now say it’s time to let things cool down a bit - hinting that the concrete position they have taken for minimal wilderness may be flexible. At the same time, however, wilderness is shrinking. The stealth fighter for those who would like smaller wilderness: Roads, and lots of ‘em. For it’s part, the federal government has extended an armload of olive branches, since the firestorm over Bill Clinton’s designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Among them: The Justice Department is negotiating with Garfield County on its lawsuit against local road crews widening the Burr Trail within Capitol Reef National Park. The Justice Department is allowing Garfield road crews to do spring maintenance work on the Burr while negotiations continue. Whether it’s a national park or other federal land, in the end it is the Justice Continues pretense they were historic rights-ofway, rural counties guarantee less wilderness. In all, some 5,000 rights-ofway are claimed by local governments in Southern Utah. Christopher Utah The result = the Southern Smart Wilderness Alliance says that our wilderness is shrinking and there will not be 5.7 million acres left in Utah when the grading is over. In reaction, SUWA and others are mailing brochures to every Department that must fight legal battles member of Congress raising alarm over land use. But while they lobby Congress, Sen. The Burr Trail skirmish, of course, is Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate symbolic of something much _ bigger. Judiciary Committee, is putting pressure Rural Utah counties see roads as their on Attorney General Janet Reno, who historic rights-of-way that feds better heads the Justice Department not mess with. Beyond that, however, is A memesrom Hatch to Reno appears the fact that roads can cancel out only to ask pertinent questions. But the wilderness. Grading a new road underlying subtext is clear: Hatch is letthrough wild lands on the guise that it . ting Reno know he doesn’t want Justice was a right-of-way can nix federal interfering in Utah turf battles. wilderness designation by definition In an instance like this one, Hatch wilderness is roadless. can throw a lot of weight. Janet Reno And that is exactly what has been may not want to pick a fight with the happening. Not because new roads are powerful head of the Judiciary needed, but as a mechanism to thwart Committee over something like dirt what Southern Utahns see as their roads through sagebrush, enemy - the feds and the environmenSo as the road-grading continues, talists who want to keep them from wild lands that could be designated as using the land as they see fit for eco- protected wilderness continue to nomic development. shrink. And as wilderness continues to Although Congress did away with an shrink, the Utah Congressional delega1866 provision allowing new roads tion glibly announces to the Utah news across federal land, any road estab- lished led to rural none new before 1976 was allowed. That some pretty sharp memories by Utahns recalling roads where seemed to exist. By bulldozing roads through wild lands, on the media and public should take a two-year that perhaps time-out we from the wilderness debate to let matters cool off. Perhaps only Shakespeare could have written a better line. @ |