From: Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Subject: Wilderness information Date: 16 Dec 1996 14:21:14 -0600 (MDT) *************************************************** THIS IS A SUWA / UWC INFORMATION ALERT *************************************************** Folks-- We wanted to pass on a bit more information about what's been going on with Utah wilderness issues. In this issue: 1. Lawsuit to block the re-survey of Utah wilderness lands. 2. The Mine, the monument, and the money. 3. Activist Training Week. 4. Bennett and Crew Meet the press. 5. UWC volunteers look at the boundaries of the citizens wilderness proposal. 6. You and your new member of congress. 7. Got any friends? How about asking them to join our e-mail action list? Now to the details. 1. LAWSUIT TO BLOCK THE RE-SURVEY OF UTAH WILDERNESS LANDS. As most of you know, the State of Utah and the Utah Association of Counties filed suit in federal court to block the Department of Interior from completing their re-survey of Utah wilderness lands. Judge Dee Benson, a former staff person for Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), granted the states' request to block further work on the reinventory. He did so in spite of the fact that the state had not met the legal standard of showing that "irreparable harm" would be caused by the inventory process. How do we know the state did not meet the legal standard? The judge said so himself. More on this later as we learn the details and implications. 2. THE MINE, THE MONUMENT, AND THE MONEY. Many of you have written in with questions about how the monument designation will impact the Andalex coal mine, and vice versa. Here's some background information. To develop their mine proposal, Andalex requires as many as a dozen rights-of-way across public lands for roads, power lines, and other mine-related infrastructure. The DOI is currently in the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the mining proposal. This EIS, which is not completed yet, must consider the impacts of those rights-of-way on federal lands. To grant rights-of-way, the Secretary of Interior must consider the "public interest," pursuant to the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act. The EIS would have to conclude that the 12 rights-of-ways, power lines, paved roads, and possible 450 sixty-five ton trucks per day are consistent with the purpose of the area as a national monument. That isn't likely to happen. President Clinton clearly spoke to the Andalex issue in his address at the signing ceremony for the new monument. His intent is for the leases to be exchanged for other lands where mining is less damaging to the landscape. In other words, mining is incompatible with the national monument. In fact, President Clinton said directly when speaking to the Andalex issue, "we can't have mines everywhere." Although the EIS process will continue at the present time, it will stop as soon as negotiations between the Department of Interior and Andalex become serious. The writing is on the wall--the Kaiparowits will not be mined for its coal, but protected for its beauty and outstanding natural values. 3. ACTIVIST TRAINING WEEK. There's still time to join dozens of other activists for a week of training and hands on activism in Washington DC next February 22-26. This will be a great time--good people working hard to get our Utah wilderness proposal back on the radar screens of the members of the 105th Congress. For more information contact : Liz McCoy ( if you live in the four corners region: 801-486-8672 liz.mccoy@sierraclub.org) or Tom Price ( all other states 202-546-2215 cloud@capaccess.org). 4. BENNETT AND CREW MEET THE PRESS. Some of you may have seen Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) the other day on C-span, where he laid out his plans for fighting against wilderness in the year ahead. Citing president Clinton's comments at the declaration of the new national monument last September, Bennett pledged to introduce a bill to hold president Clinton to his promises about allowing grazing and other uses to continue in the monument. Bennett then introduced some southern Utah county commissioners, who talked about RS2477. That's the funny name for a not so funny issue. RS2477 allows counties to claim almost anything to be a road, and then allows them to blade and pave it even if it's in a proposed wilderness area. Of course, by definition wilderness areas have no roads, so if a "road" exists in a proposed wilderness area, the area will not qualify as wilderness. So, get a dozer onto a "trumped-up" road in a wilderness study area, scrape it and then argue that the area cannot be considered for wilderness protection since it has a road. Unfortunately, this has been happening in southern Utah this past fall. RS2477 will be a huge issue in the upcoming congress, and we'll be going toe to toe with the paving crews the whole way. One great weapon in our arsenal is the evidence collected ( and still being collected) by hundreds of volunteers this summer., showing these "roads" to be often nothing but topo lines or jeep tracks. One couple volunteered all the way from Holland! Make no mistake, this is a critically important issue that anti-wilderness forces will use to the hilt. RS2477 will be pivotal in determining whether some of our most beautiful and worthy lands are designated as wilderness. If you are interested, take a look at the Utah Association of Counties web site at: http:// www.rs2477roads.com 5. UWC VOLUNTEERS LOOK AT THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CITIZENS WILDERNESS PROPOSAL. Simultaneous with the BLM re-inventory effort, UWC volunteers have been out taking a 10th anniversary look at the boundaries of the citizens wilderness proposal, which is the basis for HR 1500, America's Redrock Wilderness Act. Not surprisingly, the last 10 years have been hard on some areas. Some units have been so hard-hit they will probably have to be dropped from our wilderness proposal. But we have been pleasantly surprised by the generally good condition of most of the areas in our proposal, and have even found a few things we overlooked before. Details sometime after the first of the year... 6. YOUR NEW MEMBER OF CONGRESS: If your district has a new representative, they probably won't know much about Utah's canyon country. Give Tom or Liz a call or drop us some e-mail and we'll give you a slick packet of info to drop off to them, to help get them and their staff up to speed. Cost to you: about 5 minutes of time. 7. GOT ANY FRIENDS? HOW ABOUT ASKING THEM TO JOIN OUR E-MAIL ACTION LIST? We would like you to invite your friends and associates to join the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's (SUWA) automatic e-mail information/action alert list. Copy the message below and send it along. *********************************************** We invite you to join the SUWA e-mail activists list. It costs you absolutely nothing and the alerts provide you with important up to the minute information about the wilderness battle in southern Utah automatically via e-mail. Sometimes these information/action alerts will ask you to make a phone call to a specific congressperson or senator whose influence could sway an important decision. The power of democracy lies within our reach. Please subscribe and help save one of the greatest places on earth--southern Utah's redrock wilderness. 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. You can learn more about SUWA from our web site at: http://www.xmission.com/~suwa/ Visit the Utah Wilderness web site at: http://www.byu.edu/~srushfor/wildweb/ *********************************************** That's all for now. Hope y'all have great holidays... ********************************************************************** 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.suwa.org/ Visit the Utah Wilderness web site at: http://www.byu.edu/~srushfor/wildweb/ 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, contact: Tom Price, (202) 546-2215, tom@suwa.org or Liz McCoy, (801) 486-2872, liz.mccoy@sierraclub.org You can also phone the Salt Lake City SUWA office at (801) 486-3161, suwa@xmission.com . **********************************************************************