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Show Editorial Turnaround In Environmental Power Is Good For Southern Utah After years of tactics to keep southern Utah areas locked up in wilderness, envi-! envi-! ronmentalist groups are finally losing ground, and the courts and government agencies are responding to a more fair and equitable method of dealing with these areas. A recent ruling that environmentalists will have to pay for their own court costs, and the advertising and awarding of bids for mineral leasing for oil, gas and carbon dioxide in Garfield County, is a step in the right direction, to allow lands to be used for the benefit of the public. i We recognize the value of wilderness j and proper management of lands to make i sure there will be recreational areas avail able and that certain unusual formations of the land be kept intact. But we strongly disagree that millions of acres of land which can be productive and used for the benefit of everyone, should be locked up as wilderness. I It has always been a pattern that those ' most interested in keeping southern Utah , lands in wilderness and otherwise un available for use in development are generally gen-erally not residents of southern Utah, nor do they live close to these areas of which they seem so concerned. Many of them don't even live in Utah, but are part of national wilderness and conservation groups whose main purpose j seems to want millions of acres of land j unavailable except for those who want to hike, camp or take pictures. ' , We find that most of the organizations which advocate wilderness lands are people peo-ple who live in large cities, and who have little or no regard for those who have chosen to live in or near the areas they would have as wilderness. Many appear to have lost touch with ; reality, forgetting that natural resources such as gas, oil, coal and timber are necessary nec-essary for a vast majority of the country's population, and vital to the economy of the areas in which they are found. It is sad that those who are so interested in keeping others from using natural resources re-sources want to call the shots from their homes far away, many times from smoky, smoggy, crowded cities where they can make their big bucks while dictating to those who have chosen to live in "wilderness" areas. These environmentalists don't seem to be too concerned about the quality of life in the cities, where they live, and are willing to accept the environment there. But they want to control the areas where others live, for their own playgrounds, and keep the rest of us from the right to a way of life which requires using natural resources located in the lands they would lock up for their own selfish interests. We wonder if it is real concern these people feel for southern Utah, or if they have gotton on a bandwagon which is unreal un-real in terms of allowing everyone the right to a livelihood, even if it is in the wide-open spaces of southern Utah. We are pro-environment. We are pro-conservation. pro-conservation. But all the land in the state, especially in southern Utah shouldn't be locked up and unavailable for the development devel-opment of natural resources. And even more, we are tired of having the shots called from people who don't make their living here, don't reside here and don't have any real concern for the welfare of those who do, but want to control the areas of those who do live here. We can only hope that the turning tide will continue in the direction of a practical formula of land use, instead of in the favor fa-vor of those who, for too long a time, have had most of the say in what happens in our area. |