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Show Just Say No To Wilderness Governor Michael O Leavitt has decreed to all of the Southern Utah Commissioners that Zero Wilderness in not an option, so do not come back to him with a Zero Wilderness Proposal. He has carefully care-fully laid out the scenario that if we do not compromise then the members mem-bers of Congress will decide for us what will be designated as wilderness wilder-ness in our own state. We are told that the federal lands in Utah are not ours, but belong to the whole United States. We simply must compromise! Our Commissioners are following fol-lowing the advice of the Governor quite dutifully believing that in the best interest of their constituents and the local committees they must identify those areas that are at least close to the qualification for wilderness. wilder-ness. The governor may then approach ap-proach Congress with a proposal that shows good faith from the elected officials of Utah that, in fact, we are willing to designate more of our lands into what the Eastern delegation wants for Utah. Compromise is the dictate. But can you imagine Commissioners Commis-sioners who would look at the facts about wilderness and decide they would have the courage to create a different scenario? A careful examination of wilderness will divulge that it is not really a protector of the lands and perhaps if the Easterners were educated about the reality of wilder- ness, they would reconsider. Unless their interest lies in making money and not in protecting the lands. Wilderness protects recreation recre-ation first and last as recreationers "use up" the area already designated as wilderness, national parks, national na-tional monuments, and national recreation areas in the West they demand more "virgin" areas. Areas that are presently protected by the small businesses that support the small local communities nested within these public lands. Local ranching, timber, survival sur-vival schools, outfitters and guides haved worked with the management agencies to effectively care for the lands in Southern Utah and have a diversity of industries that have supported these communities. Wilderness protects the recreation industry only, and the hordes of backpackers and hikers change the land and local communities dramatically. Sawmills shut down and ranchers ranch-ers are excused from the public lands because the cow shit bothers the spirituality of the recreationist and pretty soon everyone in the local lo-cal communities throws up their hands and sells out to the East and West Coasters. The Utah Travel Council is required to keep advertising Southern Utah so tourism is promoted in the name of helping the local economy. Investors from California and New York build big motels, T-shirt shops, restaurants, etc., in the small rural communities of Southern Utah in the meantime, the locals who decide to stay are coseting to the tourists for minimum mini-mum wage. Now let's describe a different scenario. ..The Governor, the Commissioners, Mayors, town councils and the local citizens take a stand in this state and say we already al-ready have enough wilderness and designated recreation areas in this state. Instead of passing legislation for more wilderness let's push for legislation that provides protection of the rural communities in Southern Utah with wordage that specifically protects established agricultural and umber industries. Just imagine these elected officials offi-cials soliciting the help from all eleven western states for the June 1st Congressional delegation and taking a stand at last saying n o more compromise. Wc arc done allowing al-lowing the Easterners to shut down our traditional industries and push legislation that brings an unbalanced unbal-anced amount of tourism to our state. Imagine taking a stand, imagine that this stand would really make a difference, imagine that states like Texas did take a stand years ago and they do not have one acre of federal lands in their suite, imagine that more states would take a stand like the state of Idaho who had a Hawaiian judge sign an order to shut down all timber and ranching ranch-ing in the Idaho national forests but they did not compromise and the order was retracted putting their industries back in business, imagine imag-ine that we can protect our traditional tradi-tional industries, imagine that we can have a say over the Easterners for our Western Suites. The citizens of Wayne, Garfield and Kane Counties are signing a Zero Wilderness proposal in great numbers. Our Commissioners and Governor are demanding a compromising compro-mising position and feel that this is in the best interest of Southern Utah. But just imagine even one Commissioner taking a stand and that Commissioner making a big difference. Joel Greer Boulder |