Deal Tosses Land Preserve

[Herzog]

About 6 million acres of backcountry Utah lost its wilderness protection from the federal government Friday, thanks to a quiet legal settlement between the U.S. Interior Department and the state of Utah.
Formalized at the U.S. District Court for Utah, the deal tossed out policy safeguards the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had imposed during the Clinton administration. It also blocked BLM from adding further protection outside 22.8 million acres of roadless and undeveloped land across the nation without the specific approval of Congress.
Wilderness advocates attacked the settlement as an assault on conservation by an anti-wilderness Bush administration. But Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt promised to push forward soon to get Congress' blessing for permanent wilderness designation of about 3.2 million acres that were deemed "Wilderness Study Areas" more than a decade ago.
"From a practical standpoint this means we will have more wilderness in the state of Utah," said Leavitt. "But it will be Congress and the law that decides where and how much, not the Department of Interior and a set of regulations."
The settlement is the latest activity in a lawsuit the state, the Utah Association of Counties and the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration filed against the Interior Department in 1996. In it, the state argued that BLM had overstepped its authority by revisiting a 1991 wilderness inventory that designated 3.2 million acres as wilderness study areas.
Under Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the BLM determined that at least 2.6 million acres more fit the 1964 Wilderness Act's definition of wilderness because it was roadless and "untrammeled by man." In addition, he required the BLM to consider areas the public suggested as potential wilderness.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance organized volunteers, who conducted an exhaustive, footstep-by-footstep inventory that concluded still another 3.3 million acres deserved wilderness designation. And that, Leavitt said, prompted the Clinton administration to order its land managers to deal with more than 9 million acres in Utah as if Congress already had granted it wilderness protection.
The policy froze certain activities on the "wildernesslike" land, so mineral-leaseholders in eastern and southeastern Utah could not develop their mining claims, for instance.
The state won most points of its lawsuit, but that decision was thrown out by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. On March 31, the state revived its lawsuit, making many of the same arguments reflected in Friday's settlement.
Leavitt said, in signing the deal, the Interior Department agrees with the state that the Clinton-era BLM overstepped its bounds.
In a letter sent late Friday to members of Congress about the settlement, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said: "The Department stands firmly committed to the idea that we can and should manage our public lands to provide for multiple use, including protection of those areas that have wilderness character- istics."
But former BLM director Pat Shea, now practicing law in Salt Lake City, criticized the deal as shortsighted. He recalled the enduring value of Brigham Young's decision to preserve City Creek Canyon and Sen. Frank E. Moss' vote to pass the wilderness law. "Man can't create wilderness, only God can," said Shea.
He added that Babbitt never intended to usurp Congress' authority to protect wild lands but instead strove to ensure the land was not eroded away by development as Congress contemplated the issue.
"Better to protect the wilderness than to, by inadvertence and neglect, whittle it away," said Shea. "So, we are back to the whittlers, who will weasel their way through the wilderness."
Attorney Jim Angell filed a legal brief Thursday on behalf of SUWA, his group, Earthjustice, and other environmental organizations opposed to the state's latest effort to have the Clinton-era policies scrapped.
He called the deal "appalling" and said the environmental groups would consider their legal options.
"This administration's assault on America's wilderness continues," he said. 'What they're saying is these wilderness-quality lands throughout the West will continue to be degraded and continue to lose their eligibility for wilderness."
SUWA's Heidi McIntosh described the move as a "slap in the face to Americans who really cherish these landscapes."
"It leaves open some of the most spectacular lands in the West to oil and gas company drilling, mining and off-road vehicle use," McIntosh said.

-SLTRIB

 

[Herzog]

And from the SUWA site:

Washington, DC – A coalition of conservation groups say a new agreement between the Interior Department and the state of Utah over a controversial road rule opens the door for a wholesale giveaway of public lands in the state of Utah and across the west. After more than two years of secret, closed-door negotiations, a memorandum of understanding between Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Utah Governor Mike Leavitt was released today establishing a process by which road rights-of-ways will be recognized on federal lands using a loophole – known as RS 2477 – in an out-dated mining law.



“This agreement may look harmless on the surface, but there is a bulldozer behind the fine print,” said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, noting that it leaves unprotected nearly 6 million acres of sensitive, roadless Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands and about 4 million acres of Forest Service roadless lands – an area roughly the size of the states of Massachusetts and New Jersey combined.



“While being touted as a compromise, the process set forth in the agreement would actually roll back existing law and weaken the criteria the BLM has used to evaluate claims.” McIntosh said. “In reality, the Governor is aiming to use this agreement as a tool to prevent any proposed wilderness areas from receiving permanent protection. Ultimately, this is part of a sweeping attack on America’s last remaining wilderness lands and comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah attacking the BLM’s authority to identify and protect wilderness lands.”



Less than three weeks ago, Leavitt filed a complaint in federal court that seeks to make it impossible for the BLM to ever again recommend areas for wilderness protection, or even examine the agency’s lands for wilderness character. The BLM manages more federal public lands than any other agency.



The agreement also:

• provides for no public involvement until after BLM has made a decision to turn routes on public lands over to states;
• will permit Utah to turn jeep tracks into paved highways after simply notifying the BLM and getting the agency’s approval, again without public involvement;
• does not require any look at the environmental impacts of the wholesale give-away of routes;
• will use the Bush administration’s new, controversial, and illegal ‘disclaimer rule’ to ease the public land give-away;
• provides no real protection for National Parks, Wildlife Refuges or Wilderness areas, since the state of Utah, counties, and all-terrain vehicle groups are free to pursue these claims in federal court;
• apparently will use loosen standards that could permit states to allege that cow paths and foot trails are “constructed highways” and thus subject to give away; and
• invites other states and counties to apply for similar agreements.

“This agreement will make it easy for the state of Utah to wreck the wilderness future of the state, while leaving the door open for others to go after the National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and existing wilderness later. There’s no real protection here for anything,” said Ted Zukoski, an attorney with Earthjustice. “America’s public lands will be given away with no meaningful public involvement, and no environmental review. And Secretary Norton has put out the welcome mat for other states to cut the same bad deal.”



Governor Leavitt has a history of seeking rampant RS 2477 claims throughout the state. Just last month, Leavitt signed a bill into law that would give him the ultimate power to determine RS 2477 claims in the state. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) released today grew out of a lawsuit threatened by Governor Leavitt in June of 2000. At that time, Leavitt sought to attain recognition of more than 100,000 miles of road claims.



“If the Interior Department and the state had truly tried to work out a cooperative agreement that acknowledges only non-controversial, regularly maintained roads, the process and result would have been far different,” said Pam Eaton, the Wilderness Society’s Four Corners Regional Director. “Instead, they have emerged from three years of closed-door meetings with a flawed MOU that doesn’t stand up to a close reading and actually weakens protections for public lands.”

They take things way out of context, as you can see. They don't seem too happy with it. Sounds like a win for us.

I like the comment on how jeep tracks will be turned into highways... man, these people are ignorant. They are just another paranoid propoganda machine.

 

[Caleb]

gotta love it when SUWA is mad...

 

[Greg]

Hell ya!!

Who organized the volunteers?

"The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance organized volunteers......"

OOhhhhh.... they wouldn't have been the least bit BIASED in their little Voulenteered study, would they??

Can I organize my own "exhaustive" anti-wilderness study?

SUWA's Heidi McIntosh described the move as a "slap in the face to Americans who really cherish these landscapes." "It leaves open some of the most spectacular lands in the West to oil and gas company drilling, mining and off-road vehicle use," McIntosh said.



It's a good thing I'm not one of those Americans who enjoy my every chance to be out in the spectacular landscapes.......

Screw them and their idea that only the physically eliete should be able to enjoy the greatest parts of our state!

 

[Hickey]

Can't stand those spectacular scenery thingy's. they are hard to pave.

 

[Herzog]

The SLC Tribune article is way biased. There is no story for our side. The writer mentions several people involved in SUWA and how they think it is such a bad idea, without even considering the other sides of the story. Makes me want to send in a letter to SLC Trib... I just might do that.

 

[Hickey]

Originally posted by Herzog
The SLC Tribune article is way biased. There is no story for our side. The writer mentions several people involved in SUWA and how they think it is such a bad idea, without even considering the other sides of the story. Makes me want to send in a letter to SLC Trib... I just might do that.

Do it. trib is trouble.

 

[SpeedyVic]

I do consider myself as an "Enviromentalist". I enjoy the outdoors, sometimes from behind the wheel of my Jeep. I wheel responsibly and have no problems sharing the trails with others that do the same, whatever their chosen means of transport happens to be.

Stu Olsen hits the nail right on the head with this little commentary!

You all should take a minute and read it.

 

[SpeedyVic]

Oh, one other thought.

God forbid that someday Ms. McIntosh should injur herself while hiking in her beloved wilderness and find that she is now unable to get around on her own means. How would she be able to get out and enjoy what she has helped take away from everyone that loves to be in the woods, but for some reason (i.e. being elderly or disabled) cannot get out without aid.

 

[Wanker Delux]

I am glad to see this happen. Sure, man dosn't create the wilderness, but there shouldn't be an isolated burocracy willy nilly making circles on the map saying nobody can go there. It mentioned that more land may be set aside for wilderness areas, but thats fine, because at least now the people's representitives are deciding on it, not some entirly biased comitee.