From: Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Subject: New Utah wilderness inventory Date: 02 Aug 1996 12:48:18 -0600 (MDT) Folks-- **** THIS IS A SUWA / UWC INFORMATIONAL ALERT. **** ****HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE: **** The Utah BLM wilderness inventory done under James Watt in the 1980s was hopelessly flawed, finding only 3.2 million acres of Utah lands to meet wilderness characteristics. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has ordered a new inventory of Utah wild lands to examine the lands "left out" of that inventory. *** HERE ARE THE DETAILS. *** 1) The BLM studied Utah wild lands during the 1980s under then Secretary of Interior James Watt. As you know, Mr. Watt was extremely conservative and had no love for wild lands. The BLM concluded that the MAXIMUM amount of lands in Utah that would fulfill wilderness designation was about 3.2 million acres. They went even further. After studying what they considered to be economic conflicts surrounding Utah's wild lands, the BLM recommended to Congress that a mere 1.8 million acres should be designated as wilderness. 2) At the same time, dedicated citizen volunteers were working tirelessly on our own inventories of Utah wilds. We concluded that nearly 6 million acres of Utah lands fulfilled the legal requirements under the Wilderness Act. Out of this work came the citizens' redrock protection bill to protect 5.7 million acres of Utah wilderness lands (HR 1500). This bill was first brought to the Congress by Rep Wayne Owens and was brought to this year's Congress by Rep Maurice Hinchey. 3) As you know, the Utah delegation (except Bill Orton [D-UT]) came up with their own bill this year to designate about 2 million acres of Utah as wilderness, meaning that the citizens' bill and the delegation's bill are more than 3.5 million acres apart. Simply put, this year's HARD WORK on your part kept the Utah delegation's terrible bill from passing. 4) Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has recognized the large discrepancy between the two bills and has ordered the wilderness inventory done in the 1980s to be reexamined. Babbitt wrote Rep James Hansen (R-UT) stating that the prospects for resolution on the debate "are not bright," partly because the sides are "so far apart on the threshold, fundamental issue of how much BLM land has wilderness characteristics in the state." 5) In order to bring some resolution to the issue of how much of Utah's wild lands actually are worthy of wilderness designation, Babbitt now proposes to assemble "a small team of career professionals . . . to take a careful look at the lands identified in the 5.7 million acre bill that have not been identified by the BLM as wilderness-study areas." In his letter to Hansen, Babbitt stated he has "no particular acreage target" but believes the large discrepancy in acreage is troublesome. 6)Predictably, members of the Utah delegation and some other Utah politicians are not happy with Babbitt's decision. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Bob Bennett (R-UT), and Rep Hansen stated their opposition to the new inventory in an August 1 letter to Babbitt which suggested the call for another inventory was merely a political move. These politicos stated such a study would "only serve to inflame" the divisive Utah wilderness debate. (See articles in the Salt Lake Tribune, August 1-2, 1996 by Jim Woolf for more details.) 7) Utah wilderness advocates are cautiously optimistic about Secretary Babbitt's proposal. It is certain that the original BLM inventory was seriously flawed--even many politicians admit that. But we will need to examine the process and outcome of the reassessment to make well-informed comments. We do, however, unequivocally welcome continued study of these issues and applaud Secretary Babbitt's work on Utah wilderness. Utah's wild lands deserve our thought, our work, our protection. Secretary Babbitt's proposal to reexamine the BLM results is an important continuing step toward protecting Utah's unique wilderness lands. ********************************************************************** This wilderness alert is produced by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and the Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC). We are dedicated to the preservation of Utah's redrock wilderness. You can learn more about SUWA from our web site at: http://www.xmission.com/~suwa/ Visit the Utah Wilderness web site at: http://acs1.byu.edu/~wildweb/welcome.html If you want to join our list, send e-mail to: utah_wilderness-request@xmission.com with the word "subscribe" (and only that word) in the body of your e-mail message. If you have any questions or problems regarding the mailing list, please send a message to suwa@xmission.com. ********************************************************************** For immediate information on Utah wilderness issues, phone: Cindy Shogan (202) 546-2215; or Lawson LeGate (801) 467-9294; e-mail lawson.legate@sierraclub.org@sfsi.sierraclub.org You can also phone the Salt Lake City SUWA office at (801) 486-3161; e-mail suwa@xmission.com. ********************************************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Subject: Wilderness Re-Inventory: Letters to the Editor Needed! Date: 05 Aug 1996 12:05:38 -0600 =========================================== ---------- SUWA/UWC ACTION ALERT ---------- =========================================== Folks -- *** Summary *** The Salt Lake Tribune recently (August 4) editorialized against Secretary Babbitt's plans to re-inventory Utah's wildlands. We need to send letters to the Trib in support of the re-inventory. The address is: Public Forum Salt Lake Tribune P.O. Box 867 Salt Lake City, UT 84110. Please keep your letters short, typed, and double-spaced. *** The Details *** (1) The Trib's editorial can be found at . (2) Here's some more information on the re-inventory: On July 24, Secretary Babbitt wrote to Utah Congressman James Hansen to inform him that the U.S. Department of the Interior will soon embark on a wilderness re-inventory in Utah. For nearly two decades, the Bureau of Land Management's wilderness inventory has been the core contention which has prevented settlement of the Utah wilderness issue. Secretary Babbitt's re-inventory decision is integral to the ultimate resolution of the contentious debate over America's Redrock Wilderness. In the late 1970s, the BLM undertook an inventory to determine which of the 22 million acres of public lands in Utah have outstanding wilderness characteristics. Though Congress directed the agency to perform objective assessments of wilderness characteristics during the inventory phase, the Utah inventory was fraught with subjective decisions. As a result, millions of acres were dropped from the inventory not because the salmon-colored, serpentine canyons lacked outstanding wilderness characteristics, but because of their competing potential for energy development. Some of the more prolific examples of dropped regions include the Kaiparowits Plateau (coal), the middle part of the Dirty Devil (tar sands), and the Factory Butte area east of Capital Reef National Park (proposed power plant site). The list of knowledgeable individuals who have confirmed the shoddiness of the BLM inventory in Utah include past BLM directors, the former director of the BLM's wilderness program, former BLMers whose inventory recommendations were reversed by Utah BLM managers who had never seen the lands, and former Chairman of the House Public Lands Subcommittee John Seiberling who held oversight hearings on the inventory in the mid-1980s. Finally, in 1995 Secretary Babbitt rescinded the BLM's recommendation of about two million acres; implicit in that decision was a recognition that the inventory which formed the basis of the recommendation was without merit. Utah conservationists, wildlife enthusiasts, educators, and recreationists performed their own wilderness inventory in the mid-1980s. That inventory identified 5.7 million acres, or 2.5 million acres more than the 3.2 million acres of WSAs identified in BLM's inventory. Those 5.7 million acres, just ten percent of the total land base in Utah, are the core of HR 1500, the citizens' proposal to conserve America's Redrock Wilderness. The past eighteen months have demonstrated just how contentious and misunderstood the wilderness issue is in Utah. Against the wishes of the majority of their constituents, the Utah delegation devised a minimalistic wilderness bill which Congress deemed unpalatable to the nation's interest in the conservation of our wilderness heritage. The politicians' bill would have reduced the amount of currently protected public lands in Utah by almost half and would have turned the meaning of wilderness on its head by allowing off-road vehicles, dams, and communications towers inside lands it would nominally designate as wilderness. In contrast, the bill embodying the 5.7 million acre citizens' proposal would best conserve wildlife habitat, watersheds, wide open spaces and archeological treasures for future generations. Utah citizens spoke loudly in favor of big wilderness, but the Utah politicians were not listening because they were in the back room handing over the maps and magic markers to foreign-owned corporate mining interests. Clearly, the past eighteen months have had nothing to do with resolution, only division. Settlement of the wilderness question necessitates resolution of the many misunderstandings, the most profound of which is the issue of which lands have wilderness characteristics. Without objective facts on this core issue, there will continue to be no rational dialogue. Wilderness opponents recognize that the status quo minimalistic wilderness inventory favors their position, and are thus threatened by the re-inventory. Re-inventory opponents are essentially saying, "we don't think people should have good, objective information which can be used to ultimately resolve this issue." It is tragic that some oppose creation of the tools of resolution and are more interested in needlessly prolonging this contentious debate. Conversely, wilderness supporters are disappointed that Secretary Babbitt will not provide interim protection during the inventory and are cautious in their optimism because BLM has already blundered with their first inventory. ********************************************************************** This wilderness alert is produced by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and the Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC). We are dedicated to the preservation of Utah's redrock wilderness. You can learn more about SUWA from our web site at: http://www.xmission.com/~suwa/ Visit the Utah Wilderness web site at: http://acs1.byu.edu/~wildweb/welcome.html If you want to join our list, send e-mail to: utah_wilderness-request@xmission.com with the word "subscribe" (and only that word) in the body of your e-mail message. If you have any questions or problems regarding the mailing list, please send a message to suwa@xmission.com. ********************************************************************** For immediate information on Utah wilderness issues, phone: Cindy Shogan (202) 546-2215; or Lawson LeGate (801) 467-9294; e-mail lawson.legate@sierraclub.org@sfsi.sierraclub.org You can also phone the Salt Lake City SUWA office at (801) 486-3161; e-mail suwa@xmission.com. **********************************************************************