Utah May have Four Wilderness Bills Sponsored in 1998
12/7/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Utah May have Four Wilderness Bills Sponsored in 1998
Source: The Associated Press
Date: 12/7/97
The 1998 Congress could see as many as four Utah
wilderness bills, and Rep. Jim Hansen says he may sponsor at
least two of them.
The Utah Republican said the one he most likely will
support is a proposal to protect 2.8 million acres of Bureau
of Land Management lands in southern and eastern Utah's red
rock canyon country.
The same measure also would give wilderness status to
1.3 million acres now inside Utah's national park boundaries,
Hansen told delegates attending the Utah Cattlemen's
Association 79th annual convention.
Although Hansen called it "an innocuous bill," he also
said the wilderness plan represented "a major, major
compromise" for him.
"We have compromised all the way up from 1.4 million
acres," he said, referring to the state's original wilderness
proposal, which was rejected by Congress following protests
nationwide from environmental and conservationist groups.
The latter groups favored a 5.7 million-acre proposal.
Hansen, chairman of the House National Parks and Public
Lands subcommittee, said he was willing to compromise in order
to get the Utah wilderness issue resolved before he eventually
retires. The 65-year-old Hansen is in his ninth term in
Congress.
The state currently has about 800,000 acres of
wilderness, almost all of it on National Forest lands.
However, the BLM first recommended 1.8 million acres of
wilderness on its holdings, a figure later increased to almost
2 million. Hansen backed both. He supported a 2.1 million-acre
proposal by former Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz.
All of those measures failed, but Hansen told ranchers
Thursday that he expected the 2.8 million-acre proposal would
gain support from at least some environmental groups.
Utah's all-Republican congressional delegation also may
push Gov. Mike Leavitt's incremental wilderness plan. Under
that proposal, all special-interest groups would negotiate
which areas they can agree should be wilderness, taking the
areas one at a time.
Hansen said such a plan could take many years to
complete, but he could support it.
"My grandson would probably finish it out, but that
lengthy approach might be the right approach," he said.
A third proposal Hansen likes would turn east central
Utah's sprawling San Rafael Swell area into a mix of
wilderness, conservation sites, campgrounds, trail systems
open to just bicycles and others to off-road vehicles, and
multiple-use lands available to possible resource development.
That concept, proposed by Emery and Wayne county
officials, could be sponsored by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.
Hansen also knows several wilderness groups will be
looking for a member of Congress to again sponsor legislation
calling for roadless protection for 5.7 million acres.
Democrat Maurice Hinchey of New York has carried that bill
before, but Hansen wouldn't allow it to come to a hearing.
He said he would continue to shelve any 5.7 million-acre
wilderness bills, as well as any legislation seeking to drain
Lake Powell in order to restore Glen Canyon to its pre-dam
state.
"It's not going to go anywhere because I'm not going to
let it out," Hansen vowed.