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Show SUWA Defines Wilderness Criteria The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) says that while much of the intense debate about Utah Wilderness revolves around the question of whether an area possesses "wilderness characteristics" characteris-tics" as defined by the Wilderness Act of 1964 and other laws and regulations, wilderness opponents appear to be ignorant of what these laws and regulations actually say. Acknowledging that wilderness designation centers on human impacts, im-pacts, both significant and insignificant, insigni-ficant, SUWA says that such impacts im-pacts occupy only a tiny area sur- (See SUWA on Page 5-A) SUWA From Front Page rounded by large tracts of completely complete-ly pristine land. Wilderness opponents, oppo-nents, SUWA says, seek to exaggerate exag-gerate the significance of these relatively rela-tively small disturbances in order to disqualify a vast amount of pristine land. SUWA says that although the Wilderness Act does not state that wilderness areas must be roadless, it is "generally accepted." Determining Determin-ing what is "substantially" unno-ticeable unno-ticeable according to the Wilderness Act becomes the ambiguous and critical challenge. Many vehicle routes in Utah have been "improved" by mechanical mechani-cal means in the sense that a bulldozer traveled there long ago, but very few of these routes have been maintained, says SUWA. Most are seismic lines or mineral exploration trails which were constructed to support a brief period of use, and then abandoned. SUWA claims that when the BLM wrote its "BLM Inventory Handbook" the agency consulted subsidiary laws, regulations, and handbooks. SUWA's website says that the agency's definition for ' roads that meet the definition of "relatively regular and continuous use" would include "access roads for ; equipment to maintain a stock water tank or other established water sources; access roads to maintained recreation sites or facilities; or access roads to mining claims." SUWA claims that "access roads to seldom-used hunting camps" and "4-wheel-drive recreation routes which don't really go anywhere" do not qualify. SUWA says that most of the vehicle routes found in the Utah backcountry clearly meet neither the letter ("maintained") nor the spirit of what wilderness means by "road." |
