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Show Led To A Different Conclusion A few weeks ago (Mar. 13 and 20) there was an article in the Garfield County News, authored by Toni Thayer, dealing deal-ing with Highway 12 being designated des-ignated as an All-American Highway. You put me in touch with Ms. Thayer and she was good enough to provide me with directions to a United Nations sponsored website. Thank you both for your assistance. Although I have not been heavily heavi-ly involved in the process of designating Highway 12 as an All-American Highway and I have not had the opportunity to read the CMP referred to by Ms. Thayer, I believe I do recall that the effort to receive the designation designa-tion was a local effort not a federal fed-eral effort. I must say I was in favor of the designation and still (See LETTERS on page 3A) Letters To The Editor From Page 2A feel, as Commissioner Clare Ramsay, it will be good for the economy of tourism related ; businesses. I have known . Commissioner Ramsay most of my adult life and I have never , found him in any way to be . naive and I have always found . him to be very cautious in deal-, deal-, ing with both federal and state , governments. I was very interested in Ms. , Thayer's article mentioning that some of our state parks were on . a list of United Nations protect-i protect-i ; ed sites. She was good enough . to help me access that list on a United Nations website and sure enough there was listed all of .' . Utah's State Parks. Ms Thayer went on to state "Because these natural wonders y are on the world's protected list, , they must be managed according accord-ing to the U.N.'s mandates, Tourism in Protected Areas, Environmental Codes of J Conduct for Tourism, and j Ecotourism. These include a j transportation directive to local ! governments and the tourism i sector to design strategies and . projects that reduce mobility of I tourists, increase required serv-; serv-; : ices and provide incentives for ; walking and cycling." '. I have worked for the Utah ; j Division of Parks and ." Recreation for 30 years. I was ; the first ranger assigned to live ; at Escalante Petrified Forest and ; I have also worked at ; Kodachrome Basin, as well as many other parks in Southern ! Utah. I am now the region man-! man-! ager for the division over the I Southwest area of the state. ' During my career I have been involved in writing the Resource ; Management Plans for several parks and the planning team we . ! have appointed has always been a group of local residents. The park resource plans have always ; reflected the interests and desires of those local people. 1 have never in any way, had any pressure or influence from any United Nations organization. Maybe we should have invited someone from the UN to serve '. on these planning teams. Again, I am surprised that the state parks are on the list of pro-i pro-i tected sites as I felt no influence ' from the UN or any world organization. - We do however manage our parks to protect the scenic beauty and unique resources found at these special . areas. At Coral Pink Sand Dunes for example, the dunes are open to Off Highway Vehicles even though those dunes are shared with two endangered .species. We manage man-age in a way that allows recreational recre-ational vehicle use, yet protects these special species. It was interesting to note that on the same- day Ms. Thayer helped me find that many of the areas I have worked and loved were on a UN protected list I also found from a Deseret News article that . an organization called Reserve America had created cre-ated a list of, America's 100 top family campgrounds and guess what? Escalante Petrified Forest, Kodachrome Basin, Otter Creek, and Fremont Indian State Parks were all on the list. We had no input or control over that list, but we are proud to be on the list. When I was working at Dead Horse Point State Park that park was on a list of one of the best places to take nude photos, pho-tos, but in my seven year assignment assign-ment there I never encountered anyone pursuing that form of recreation at the Park, although . we were on the list. There are many types of lists and I am sure there are positive and negative consequences of being on any list I guess my experience leads me to a somewhat different conclusion con-clusion than the conclusion reached by Ms. Thayer. I have never felt the UN or any worldwide world-wide organization in anyway trying to control or influence how we manage our resources. I do appreciate Ms Thayer's interest in these issues and her obvious love of'the land. The places along Highway 12 are some of my favorite places and I am proud that it has been recognized recog-nized as such a special place. Gordon Topham Southwest Region Manager Utah Division of Parks & Recreation Cedar City Editor's Note: The following should help our readers understand under-stand why we are concerned about local participation. It is taken directly from the UN's IUCN "The World Conservation Union " wehpage . . . what they do: "Founded in 1948, The World Conservation Union brings together states, government govern-ment agencies and a diverse range of non-governmental ( See LETTERS on page 5 A ) Letters To The Editor , From Page 3A organizations NGO's in a unique world partnership: over 980 members in all, spread across some 140 countries. A central secretariat coordinates the IUCN Programme and ' serves the Union membership, ' representing their views on the world stage and providing them ; with the strategies, services, sci- entific knowledge and technical j support they need to achieve J their goals. The World Conservation Union builds on I. the strengths of its members, networks and partners to enhance their capacity and to support global alliances to safe- guard natural resources at local, regional and global lev- els. Their emphasis, not ours. From their webpage, the US members are listed thus: National NGOs, including The Nature Conservancy, The Wildlife Society, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Audubon Society International NGOs, including Sierra Club US government agencies, including Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency Anyone who has ever worked with any of these agencies or groups on any planning teams, have already had the UN representatives repre-sentatives sitting on their committees. com-mittees. They simply haven't known about it. It is necessary to follow the path from local to UN and back again. This is exactly why the Garfield County News has been publishing Toni Thayer 's series of articles to make our readers aware. Check it out for yourself. The IUCN webpage may be found at http:www.iucn.orgaboutindex .htm |