With Bennett's ouster, wilderness plan in limbo

Brandon Loomis

Sen. Bob Bennett's defeat at last weekend's Republican State Convention threw into doubt a plan he is leading to designate wilderness areas in southeastern Utah.

Building on a Washington County lands bill that Bennett shepherded to passage last year, the senator's staff has conducted meetings in Monticello to gather ideas for a San Juan County bill. Area officials and environmentalists alike say they were eager to finally settle on a future for some of Utah's most-disputed red rock. Now they are unsure if they can reach a deal by year's end or what will happen if they don't.

Environmentalists have fought to preserve the vast roadless areas south and east of Canyonlands National Park for years. The county's commissioners want a bill that designates some wilderness but keeps other lands open for development and motorized recreation. They want to end the threat of a Red Rocks Wilderness Bill, a perennial proposal to designate more wilderness than local officials would like.

"We're certainly ready and willing to see if we can do something this year," said Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Having said that, he noted that negotiations on the Washington County bill took five years. "We're willing to try."

County Commissioner Lynn Stevens likewise said he will keep working the process and that Bennett's staffers will be in Monticello for two more meetings with constituents next week. It may not be realistic to expect wilderness legislation to pass this year, he said, but Bennett could get it ready to hand off to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who currently is working on a similar process for Piute County.

"Knowing Senator Bennett," Stevens said, "he'll work right up to the very last day."

"I'm quite confident the bill itself will be written and finalized," Stevens said. "I don't know whether it will get a hearing this year, but I'm confident it will be constructed."

For his part, Bennett, who sees the Washington County bill as one of his greatest legislative triumphs, aims to push hard for a San Juan County measure before he leaves office.

"I'm very proud of the Washington County land-use bill," Bennett said Thursday. "That's been praised everywhere. ... This is the template for solving wilderness problems in the West, not just Utah. If it turns out that it does have that type of momentum, then it would be an important part of my legacy."

The question is whether such a bill can reach anything like consensus on short notice. County Commission Chairman Bruce Adams said he would like to limit wilderness designations to those areas that federal land managers already have designated wilderness study areas. The Bureau of Land Management's resource plan for the county lists about 386,000 acres in 13 wilderness study areas.

"I don't want any wilderness," Adams said by cell phone while tending cattle. "But, as a county commissioner, I know there are areas of the county that probably meet the definition of wilderness as defined by Congress."

SUWA, by contrast, would not be satisfied with safeguarding only wilderness study areas. Much more of the county, the group argues, has wilderness qualities. Groene singled out, as especially worthy, Dark Canyon and Cedar Mesa along with areas near Canyonlands, Glen Canyon and Hovenweep National Monument.

Cedar Mesa, in the county's southwest sector, was on an Interior Department list of places worthy of national-monument status. That revelation by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, sparked a furor that further motivated locals to seek a homegrown solution.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who helped in the Washington County wilderness process, said that success set a precedent for county-by-county bills that will survive.

"There's a movement going on right now," he said, "and I think that movement continues" whoever is in office.

Matheson himself faces a Democratic primary next month in his bid for a sixth term.

Before the Republican convention, Ted Wilson of the Governor's Balanced Resource Council said members of that consensus-building group were eager to reach a wilderness agreement but feared it could bog down without Bennett. Gov. Gary Herbert, though, said he had confidence the Washington County bill laid a foundation for San Juan and other counties to end their wilderness wrangling peacefully.

"Change always brings a little bit of apprehension," Herbert said. "I believe the process will go forward -- whoever the senator is from Utah." 

--

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/D=g/ci_15082208

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites