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Show A7 Castle Valley Review, March 2009 ISSUES SWELL Storm Clouds Over the Areas that have been in place for years and manage large areas of the San Rafael Swell as if it were in fact wilderness. cially in Emery County. While legislation regarding wilderness was The impetus that led Washington County stifled in Emery County, elsewhere in Utah it leaders and public land stakeholders to come was just getting started, according to Johnson. together, make concessions and hammer out When Governor Leavitt was appointed to an agreement can be traced back to the success, head the Environmental Protection Agency and and failures, of Emery County in trying to hamLt. Governor Olene Walker took over as govermer out an agreement of its own years ago in nor for the remainder of his term, she decided regards to the San Rafael Swell. it was time to try and do something about the County leadership and the Public Lands constant controversy surrounding public lands Council had tried in the late 1990s and early issues in the state. 2000s to develop its own legislation that would According to Johnson, who went to work finally lay to rest issues of wilderness designafor Governor Leavitt after losing his bid for retion on the Swell. Unlike Washington County, election to the Emery County Commission and Emery County had little success in bringing stayed on with Governor Walker, they met with environmental groups, specifically the Southall of the county commissioners throughout the ern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to the table to state and asked them what they wanted to do discuss the issue. SUWA has historically been about public lands issues. unwilling to compromise on its “We went to the county own Red Rock Wilderness Bill, commissioners as a group and I’ve been trying to get wilderwhich would designate roughly said ‘here’s your choices: Don’t 51 percent of Emery County as ness done in the state for 15 years do anything and see what wilderness. happens; try another statewide and my biggest opponent has been But even without SUWA at wilderness bill or do it county the table, the county put forth national wilderness groups. Figure by county or region by region,’” a valiant effort to hammer out Johnson said. “The county comthat one out. There’s so much irosome legislation that would missioners decided they wanted make it through the Senate. It ny there. to try and do something county never did and in the end its efby county. Washington County forts only led to a whirlwind of - Randy Johnson stood right up and said ‘we angry debate and the feelings by want to go first.’” many stakeholders that a wilderAnd in late 2004 they did ness designation was going to be citizens, voters voted against the idea. and most of the rest of the counties in the state forced on the county. Since that time the discussion over manage- have been closely watching what has transIn early 2002 the county, after years of ment legislation regarding the San Rafael Swell pired in Washington County since then, Emery often frustrating struggle to get legislation has been muted, at best, although management County among them. into the hands of the president, Emery County issues on the San Rafael Swell have continued “Washington County did the same thing leadership and the Public Lands Council tried to develop and be put into place, most recently that was done in Emery County. They worked to tackle the issues over the San Rafael Swell as the Bureau of Land Management completed on the same kind of planning that was done with not one bill, but two. One bill would have an eight year process and finally approved a here,” Johnson said. managed the public land and the other would resource management plan regarding the Swell When the Republican Party lost control of have managed the people who visit the Swell. in December of last year. the Senate in 2006, Washington County legislaBefore that legislation could gain much in the Already in place are Wilderness Study tion was attached to a large omnibus package Continued from Page 1. “ way of momentum, then Governor Mike Leavitt made a surprise announcement during his Jan. 28, 2002 state of the state address, where, after acting on an idea poised by the Emery County Public Lands Council, he proposed that he ask President George Bush to declare the San Rafael Swell a national monument. With nerves still raw over Bill Clinton’s designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, public outcry was loud. While county leaders desperately tried to convince those upset by the announcement that it was only an idea that might bring success where past legislative actions had failed and nothing would be done if county residents were against it, opposition groups were successful in having the idea put on the November ballot whether the monument issue would be pursued or not. While Governor Leavitt was excited by the idea of a monument designed by local ” |
