Run over by a political juggernaut in their state,
Utah’s environmental groups are trying to dust themselves off and
sound a nationwide alarm. The state’s congressional delegation has
united in pushing a bill that most environmentalists see as
disastrous. It would make 1.8 million acres of Bureau of Land
Management wilderness official, but release at least that many
acres – some of the largest blocks of wild land remaining in the
nation – to multiple uses, including dam-building, new roads,
mining and other development. “This issue is the equivalent of dams
in the Grand Canyon or strip-mining Yellowstone,” says Tom Price,
organizer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Suddenly
Utah’s environmentalists are scrambling for allies outside the
state to stall the bill. “We’re moving (the struggle) to
Washington,” Price says. It’s shaping up to be one of the first big
tests of how environmental issues will fare in the new Congress.
*Ray Ring
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Utah wilderness goes coast-to-coast.
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