America’s Redrock
Wilderness
“I’m here to
disprove the lie that local people don’t want wilderness; the truth
is that most southern Utahns are frightened by runaway growth and
want to see as much land protected from development as possible.”
* Linda Wood, Cedar City,
Utah,
testifying at Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt’s 1995
hearings on wilderness
proposed for BLM lands in
the state
This spring, a
56-page defense of Utah’s wild places hit congressional offices in
Washington, D.C., as 100 volunteers made sure every elected
official got a copy. What they hand-delivered was a paperbound book
called America’s Redrock Wilderness: Protecting a National
Treasure, a follow-up to a similar effort by the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance in 1990.
In essays and
stunning photos, it illuminates the richness of the 2.6 million
acres added last summer to a wilderness proposal for Bureau of Land
Management wilderness (HCN, 8/3/98). Volunteers in the Utah
Wilderness Coalition had reinventoried Utah’s BLM lands, and added
the additional acres to a proposed bill protecting 9.1 million
acres.
The new book features work by 16
photographers, including Jack Dykinga, Ray Wheeler, Tom Till and
Jeff Garton, as well as text and maps by Frederick Swanson. In her
afterword, Terry Tempest Williams says: “The eyes of the future are
looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our
own time.” A separate, 48-page appendix included with the book
summarizes the contentious history of wilderness issues in
Utah.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management
invites all Americans to comment through 1999 on how to protect and
manage its wilderness study areas in Utah. Some 1,500 people have
commented on a draft environmental impact statement so far, says
acting BLM director Linda Colville. All suggestions will be
considered when the agency prepares its final environmental impact
statement, she adds. You can comment by mail to BLM Utah State
Office WSA Planning Project, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, UT
84145, or through their Web site :
www.ut.blm.gov/wilderness.
A copy of America’s
Redrock Wilderness is available for $18. Write to SUWA at 1471
South 1100 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84105, or call
801/486-3161.
“Fifty years
ago, we had 16 to 18 million acres of wilderness. In my lifetime
I’ve seen two-thirds of that wiped out. Gone. We’ve only got just
under 6 million acres left. We need to be protecting it.”
* Gail Hoskisson, Salt Lake City, Utah
testimony at Gov. Mike Leavitt’s 1995 Wilderness
hearings
* Keri
Watson
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline America’s Redrock Wilderness.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
