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Southern Utah
is an area that is currently embroiled in a bitter, very vocal
and public land battle. It didn't start with President
Clintons' creation of the Grand
Staircase - Escalante National Monument, but that action
brought much of the battle into the news lately. But prior
to that, the Southern
Utah Wilderness Alliance had been working dilligently to
close millions of acres of Southern Utah to all forms of
mechanized travel. This fight started in the mid-80's when
a Bureau
of Land Management inventory of public lands in Utah came up
with a total of about 2.7 million acres of land in Utah that
they felt should be classified as Wilderness. Many felt
that his inventory was done poorly, that the results were wrong
and that the BLM was basically totally clueless. An
organization was formed, the Utah Wilderness Coalition, and
their contention was that 5.1 million acres of Utah should be
classified as wilderness. Not much later, they revised
their number to 5.7 million acres. 5.7 million acres is
said to be the absolute correct number, non-negotiable by the
Wilderness advocates.
In 1989, Utah
congressman Wayne Owens presented America's Redrock Wilderness
Bill, formalizing the fight to make 5.7 million acres the final
number for this wilderness classification.
In 1993, New York
Congressman Maurice Hinchey assumed sponsorship of this this
resolution, known officially as H.R. 1500.
In 1995, Governor
Leavitt announced plans to work with Utah congressional
representatives to present H.R. 1745 which called for 1.8
millions acres to recieve wilderness classification.
In 1996, Clinton's
creation of the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument
included 1.3 million acres of the land that SUWA wants protected
but the battle continued.
In the summer of
1998, SUWA announces that the original "final" number
of 5.7 million acres has now grown to 9.1 million acres, based
on their own inventory. They take their case on the road,
presenting public meetings in Utah as well as Boston, San
Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Atlanta. Their claim is
that public support for wilderness designation of their new 9.1
million acre number is overwhelming. We wonder if any of
the folks from Boston or Atlanta have ever visited Utah.
Probably not.
In 1999 the BLM
released their revised inventory, and restated their wilderness
designation number at 5.8 million acres. Hmm, pretty close
the original "final" SUWA number of 5.7 million acres,
don't you think? Interesting how SUWA raised their
"final" number to 9.1 when it began to look as if the
BLM was going to meet their initial request.
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