Post by greenjeep on Feb 24, 2005 18:59:48 GMT -5
Groups pitch wilderness for three S. Utah forests
By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
A coalition of local and national environmental groups has banded together to present a new wilderness proposal for southern Utah's three national forests.
Representatives from Red Rock Forests, Save Our Canyons, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club and others gathered Wednesday night at the Salt Lake City Main Library to publicly unveil the proposal, which takes in the Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-La Sal national forests.
Organizers call the proposal a forest companion to the Red Rock Wilderness Act, which identified potential wilderness on Bureau of Land Management lands in southern Utah and now sits before Congress where it has failed to win approval in past sessions.
"This isn't wilderness legislation. It's a wilderness proposal. But we hope it will evolve into that," said Suzanne Jones, Four Corners representative of the Wilderness Society.
Driving this new push for wilderness, Jones noted, were a pair of factors: what environmentalists call the Bush administration's development-friendly philosophy for management of national forests and the U.S. Forest Service's current resource management planning process. The proposal eventually will include all of the state's 8 million acres of forest land.
Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-La Sal forest officials are all in the early stages of formulating their new plans - which will guide land-use policies in the forests over the next 10-15 years. The new wilderness proposal has been submitted to each as part of the public comment process.
The environmental groups call their wilderness proposal "balanced," acknowledging the multiple use of forest resources. But the thrust of their proposal, they say, is to ensure that forest roadless areas are left intact.
"The vast majority of Utah's national forests are already open to OHVs [off-highway vehicles], logging and oil and gas drilling," said Kevin Walker, a board member of Moab-based Red Rock Forests.
By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
A coalition of local and national environmental groups has banded together to present a new wilderness proposal for southern Utah's three national forests.
Representatives from Red Rock Forests, Save Our Canyons, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club and others gathered Wednesday night at the Salt Lake City Main Library to publicly unveil the proposal, which takes in the Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-La Sal national forests.
Organizers call the proposal a forest companion to the Red Rock Wilderness Act, which identified potential wilderness on Bureau of Land Management lands in southern Utah and now sits before Congress where it has failed to win approval in past sessions.
"This isn't wilderness legislation. It's a wilderness proposal. But we hope it will evolve into that," said Suzanne Jones, Four Corners representative of the Wilderness Society.
Driving this new push for wilderness, Jones noted, were a pair of factors: what environmentalists call the Bush administration's development-friendly philosophy for management of national forests and the U.S. Forest Service's current resource management planning process. The proposal eventually will include all of the state's 8 million acres of forest land.
Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-La Sal forest officials are all in the early stages of formulating their new plans - which will guide land-use policies in the forests over the next 10-15 years. The new wilderness proposal has been submitted to each as part of the public comment process.
The environmental groups call their wilderness proposal "balanced," acknowledging the multiple use of forest resources. But the thrust of their proposal, they say, is to ensure that forest roadless areas are left intact.
"The vast majority of Utah's national forests are already open to OHVs [off-highway vehicles], logging and oil and gas drilling," said Kevin Walker, a board member of Moab-based Red Rock Forests.
