Letter: America's wilderness

In "Red Rock bill to get a hearing after 20 years," Tribune , Sept. 18), Matt Canham all but ignores 250 other organizations when he pitches America's Red Rock Wilderness Act as primarily being "SUWA's proposal." This legislation exists because of thousands of hours of careful work by volunteers across decades, guided by the Utah Wilderness Coalition, a community that spans from the Appalachian Mountain Club to the Sierra Club.

So far, 139 representatives and 21 senators cosponsor the legislation -- from states as far from Utah as Iowa, Virginia, Hawaii and Texas. These visionaries recognize the unique ecology and human history of these landscapes, owned by all Americans. They acknowledge values that miraculously endure here -- wildness that the 1964 Wilderness Act directs them to preserve. They know that the Colorado Plateau lies at the cross hairs of climate change. Every all-terrain vehicle that disturbs Utah's soil crust sends dust into the snowpack of the Colorado Rockies, contributing to quicker melt and diminished water in the entire Colorado River Basin. This wilderness bill is powerful protection from the proliferation of roads that accelerate the effects of global warming.

This is not "SUWA's proposal"; it is America's bill.

Stephen Trimble

Salt Lake City

--

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/Opinion/ci_13422264