***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Hearings
on Utah, USA Wilderness Bill
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
June
25, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Hearings
on the impending battle over Utah wilderness legislation,
House
bill HR 1745, will take place next week.
This legislative
battle
may be the biggest wilderness related debate since the
1970's
efforts to protect Alaska's wilderness.
Southern Utah "has
more
acreage with wilderness potential than almost any other state
in the
Lower 48" American states. Yet, HR
1745 protects only 1.8
million
acres instead of the potential 5.7 million acres and has
other
weaknesses. People are encouraged to
call or write the
House
Resources Committee where written comments will be taken
until
July 7. The following update/alert was
posted by GAIN in
their
econet confernece gain.ecosytem. For
further information on
EcoNet
membership, a nonprofit online system, send any message to
<econet-info@igc.apc.org>.
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/*
Written 7:24 PM Jun 24, 1995 by gain in igc:gain.ecosystem
*/
/*
---------- "Update: Utah Wilderness Bill" ---------- */
==== GAIN UPDATE/ALERT: Hearings on Utah Wilderness Bill ====
Written Statements
Needed
* * *
GLOBAL ACTION AND INFORMATION NETWORK
* * *
740 Front Street, Suite 355 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
phone: 408-457-0130 email: gain@gain.org
* * * June 23, 1995 * * *
"The
stakes are immense. There's no place
like it in the world."
What
was The Wilderness Society president G. Jon Roush referring
to? The impending battle over Utah wilderness
legislation. A
_Washington
Post_ article (6/17/95) declared that "not since the
fight
in the late 1970s over Alaska wilderness has there been a
debate
with higher stakes for both sides than the upcoming
legislative
battle over southern Utah, which has more acreage with
wilderness
potential than almost any other state in the Lower 48."
Hearings
on the House bill, HR 1745, will take place next week.
People
are encouraged to call or write the House Resources
Committee. Written comments will be taken until July
7.
HR 1745
leaves important wilderness areas completely out of the
bill
and protects only 1.8 million acres instead of the potential
5.7
million acres requested by many environmental groups. Aside
from
this grave omission of areas that deserve wilderness
protection,
the bill would also "go farther than any previous
wilderness
legislation in releasing for development land not
designated
as wilderness," according to a June 17 _Washington
Post_
article by Tom Kenworthy. HR 1745
contains "hard release"
language
which directs the BLM not to manage lands left out of
wilderness
in ways that would keep them suitable for wilderness
designation
at a later date.
Senator
Hatch (R-UT) was quoted in the same _Washington Post
article_,
"We've really selected the crown jewels...[and] we have
not
included any BLM lands that have high resource development
potential."
GAIN
received the following action alert from the Utah Wilderness
Association
(UWA). A _Salt Lake Tribune_ oped
called the UWA one
of the
few visionaries in the public process leading up to the
bill
being written. These few groups
"recognized that the
wilderness
debate could have been a wonderful exercise in
innovative
planning." Instead, the oped
points out it was a
"cynical
exercise in power politics". The
governor and Utah
delegation
got their bad wilderness bill -- and won out over the
uncompromising
major environmental organizations. ("Wilderness
Bill
Shows Dismal Lack of Leadership", Tom Wharton, _Salt Lake
Tribune_,
6/13/95)
WRITTEN STATEMENTS NEEDED FOR HEARING
RECORD
H.R.
1745, the "Utah Public Lands Management Act of 1995," was
introduced
in Congress on June 6 by Reps. Hansen and Waldholtz.
This
bill has tremendous shortcomings; boundaries were drawn
without
any wilderness advocates at the table, many important BLM
wilderness
study areas have been left out altogether, and anti-
wilderness
management provisions have been inserted.
UWA has
made it clear to the Utah delegation that we oppose H.R.
1745 as
written. Without dramatic changes to the bill, it will
actually
do more to harm the wild character of BLM lands than
protect
them. While some have promised that such a bad bill will
be
defeated in the U.S. Senate or by a presidential veto, there is
no way
to make such a guarantee. It is possible that the bill will
become
law after undergoing major changes. Thus we must continue
to urge
the Utah delegation to amend the bill in order to offer
genuine
protection to BLM wildlands.
Because
opportunities to speak at the House hearings were limited
to just
a few witnesses, written comments are being accepted until
July
7.
Your
comments should focus on the worst aspects of this
legislation,
the areas, boundaries and special management
language.
Use the information in this alert. Request that your
comments
be included in the hearing record.
Please
use this opportunity to write! This is one of the few
chances
we have to change this egregious bill and build a
legislative
record supporting BLM wilderness.
Send
your written statement to:
Rep.
James V. Hansen
Chairman,
National Parks, Forests and Lands Subcommittee U.S.
House
of Representatives
Washington,
D.C. 20510
THE
AREAS
Significant
wilderness lands ignored in H.R. 1745 include Fish and
Owl
Creek Canyons and Road Canyon on the east side of the Grand
Gulch
Plateau. This is 115,000 acres and more of the wildest and
most
beautiful canyon country on the Colorado Plateau. Numerous
Anasazi
ruins are tucked away on ledges hundreds of feet above the
canyon
streams; towering rock formations inspire awe.
Grand
Gulch has been severely fragmented by the canyons-only
boundary
proposed by the bill. Omitting the mesa top separating
Johns
Canyon and Slickhorn Canyon from Grand Gulch leaves
archaeological
sites open to vandalism. Grand Flat and Steer Gulch
to the
west should also be added.
Notably
missing are Turtle Canyon and the Bighorn Benches, part of
the
Desolation Canyon/Book Cliffs ecological complex which is
Utah's
most extensive BLM wilderness region. With elevations
ranging
from 5,000 to 9,000 feet, Turtle Canyon's rugged isolation
is
ecologically diverse. Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, elk and
black
bear inhabit the area.
East of
the Green River, the wilderness boundary needs to be
extended
south to include the Book Cliffs escarpment. The H.R.
1745
boundary leaves out most of the critical winter range for elk
and
deer as well as much of the range for black bear and cougar.
Land
recommended for wilderness by Grand County has been excluded
without
any attempt at justification.
In the
Kaiparowits ecoregion, massive and wild Wahweap is missing
from
the bill. It is one of the six largest undeveloped areas
found
on Utah's BLM lands. Numerous rare and unique plant
communities
have been recognized here, far outweighing the small
amount
of coal in this 134,000 acre area.
Paria-Hackberry's
boundary excludes the wild Paria River and Deer
Range
Canyon, Bull Valley Gorge and No Mans Mesa on the west side
of the
river.
In the
Henry Mountains, Mt. Pennell and Mount Ellen (cover photo)
need
considerable expansion to incorporate biological values. The
north
and east slopes of Mt. Pennell are left out of the bill,
along
with all the mid-elevation and lower elevation wildlife
habitat
and the most important bison range.
Sids
Mountain and most of the San Rafael Swell areas are missing
considerable
acreage. The southern half of Sids Mountain in
particular
is important as the home of Utah's largest bighorn
sheep
herd, but it is excluded. North and South Forks of Coal
Wash,
Bullocks Draw and Eagle Canyon are unjustifiably left out of
the
bill.
The
60,000 acre White Canyon Complex including Cheesebox and
Gravel-Long
Canyons is a crucial omission from the legislation.
The
White Canyon Complex is separated by a single dirt road from
the
Dark Canyon Wilderness and provides crucial yearlong desert
bighorn
sheep habitat.
Lacking
in this legislation are areas in the southwest corner of
Utah
such as Joshua Tree and Moquith Mountain. Conservation
biologists
have noted recently that these areas harbor a
concentration
of threatened, endangered and candidate species.
For a
listing of the areas and acreage or for more information:
CONTACT:
Utah
Wilderness Association
455
South 400 East #205
Salt
Lake City, Utah 84111
(801)
359-1337
utwildassn@aol.com
THE
FINE PRINT
H.R.
1745 includes an unusually large volume of "special language"
designed
to micro-manage wilderness. Here is a brief synopsis of
the
bill's language.
SECTION
3. ADMINISTRATION OF WILDERNESS AREAS
3(h)
Cherry-Stemmed Roads. Prohibits the BLM from closing any
cherry-stemmed
roads within or on the boundary of a wilderness
area,
except for public safety reasons. This takes away agency
discretion
to administer such roads through the regular planning
process.
3(i)
Access. Allows "motorized access where necessary and
customarily
or historically employed... to meet the reasonable
purposes
for development and use of in-held lands or valid
existing
rights" such as maintenance of stock ponds.
SECTION
4. WATER RIGHTS
4(a) No
Federal Reservation. Exempts the H.R. 1745 wilderness
areas
from the doctrine of federal reserved water rights.
4(b)
Acquisition and Exercise of Water Rights Under Utah Law.
Purports
to allow BLM to acquire wilderness water rights under
state
law. This is not presently possible because Utah water law
does
not recognize federal water rights for wilderness instream
flows.
4(e)
Water Resource Projects. "Nothing in this Act shall be
construed
to limit or be a consideration in Federal
approvals...for
development and operation of water resource
projects"
upstream from wilderness areas.
SECTION
5. CULTURAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES
Allows
management of such resources "through mechanical means
where
necessary notwithstanding section 4(c) of the Wilderness
Act."
The 1964 Wilderness Act already allows mechanical transport
to meet
minimum requirements for the administration of wilderness
areas.
SECTION
7. MILITARY OVERFLIGHTS
"Nothing
in this Act shall be construed to restrict or preclude
low-level
overflights over the areas designated as wilderness by
this
Act." Pre-empts the planning process.
SECTION
8. AIR QUALITY
Recapitulates
the Clean Air Act, stating that wilderness areas
shall
remain as PSD Class II unless reclassified by the State of
Utah.
SECTION
9. DISCLAIMERS
This is
the fine print section that allows "the establishment and
maintenance
of reservoirs...and other facilities needed in the
public
interest, including road construction and development" in
the
Cougar Canyon, Red Mountain, Parunuweap Canyon and Canaan
Mountain
Wildernesses.
It also
exempts "communication sites and facilities" in Swasey
Mountain,
Fifty Mile Mountain, Mt. Ellen and the Deep Creek
Mountains
and a pipeline in the Desolation Canyon Wilderness.
SECTION
10. RELEASE
Directs
that lands not designated wilderness "shall be managed for
the
full range of nonwilderness multiple uses.." This precludes
administrative
decisions which might preserve wilderness values
outside
of designated wilderness.
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TEXT ENDS###
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campaign
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timely
pieces;
though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
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