The rallying cry “5.7 million acres’ has become well
known in Utah as the amount of wilderness pushed by a coalition of
environmental groups. But because the proposal for wilderness
preservation on Bureau of Land Management land was created 10 years
ago, says Kevin Walker, a staffer with the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance, a fresh look was needed. This summer he began
coordinating a survey by 100 volunteers of what’s still wild in the
state, what’s been developed, and even what might have been
originally missed. The good news is how “a few volunteers in a tiny
movement did a good job of defense a decade ago,” he says. Still,
some areas were overlooked, a few boundaries need readjusting and
some units need to be dropped. “There are lots of recreation
impacts in Moab,” he points out. Walker says a new citizens’
proposal with more thorough documentation of an area’s wilderness
characteristics should be ready by September. For more information,
call him at
801/486-3161.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline 5.7, 5.7, 5.7 ….
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