Dear HCN,
In the Grand Canyon
Trust, HCN has finally found an environmental group on the Colorado
Plateau that champions the idea that we need to win over local
communities if we hope to win over the land (HCN,
4/4/94).
Contrary to writer Jim Bishop’s
assertions, the Grand Canyon Trust’s approach to resolving
environmental conflict is far from new in southern Utah. Prior to
1983, that was standard operating procedure and it led to the
disastrous Forest Service wilderness bill that haunts us to this
day. The most effective protection for southern Utah’s federal
lands came when activists elevated the conflicts occurring there
from local to national issues. By raising national awareness and
concern for our nationally owned lands and by relentlessly
overseeing the Bureau of Land Management’s policies, they have
helped protect almost 6 million acres of defacto
wilderness.
It took many years to convince the
national groups to not treat southern Utah environmental conflict
as a local issue, to stand up and say, “The role of environmental
groups is to save the Colorado Plateau from the people who live
there.” I’m sure Ed Abbey is smiling knowing that Ed Norton and
Bruce Babbitt find this attitude “arrogant, politically foolish and
morally bankrupt.”
Robert
Weed
Escalante,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Years of consensus failed in Utah.
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