Article Last Updated: 04/16/2008 06:55:06 PM MDT
When it comes to public land management, anything hatched in Nevada is almost always guaranteed to be
bad.
That is, after all, the state that launched the Sagebrush Rebellion to privatize public lands in the 1970s.
It's where activists blazed an illegal road to protest closures on national forest property near Elko. Las
Vegas' ongoing attempt to steal water from Utah's west desert could have negative effects on Fish Springs
National Wildlife Refuge and the Great Salt Lake.
In the past few years, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calling the shots, some public lands
around burgeoning Las Vegas have been sold. Reid's sale of public lands no doubt got Sen. Bob Bennett,
R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, thinking. They are again proposing to sell off Bureau of Land
Management property in Washington County and the St. George area, a bad idea whether near Las Vegas
or in Utah.
The pair's Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2008 would designate 264,000 acres of
new wilderness, much of it in already protected Zion National Park, as well as designating 166 miles of
wild and scenic rivers.
In exchange, the BLM could sell 9,052 acres of public lands in Washington County with 5 percent of
the proceeds going to schools, 10 percent to the county and 85 percent for conservation.
While slightly improved from an earlier version and gaining support from some conservation
organizations, the bill is still akin to trying to make a pig look better by dressing it up. The proposal has
two major problems.
First, it continues the bad precedent of selling off public lands.
One of the great things about Utah, whether you are a backpacker, dirt bike rider, mountain biker or
camper, is the abundance of public lands open to such activities.
Once politicians, hungry to increase tax bases by aiding developers looking to build in these areas, start
selling off these lands, they are gone to public use forever. Since the land is often close to urban areas
losing open space, it's all the more valuable.
And, in times of huge budget deficits such as the one we're facing due to President Bush's and
Congress' disastrous policies, there will be continued temptation to sell these lands for a quick fix without
regard to the long-term consequences to public access and the environment.
The second concern is growth. Washington County and St. George are among the fastest-growing
places in the country. Utah taxpayers are being asked to pay for a massive and expensive pipeline project
to bring water from Lake Powell.
That's part of a bigger Western problem where places such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, St. George and
Southern California are relying on the increasingly stressed Colorado River and underground aquifers for
water. No one knows when there will no longer be enough water to sustain this desert development, but
why make it easier for these places to grow?
While these arguments will likely fall on deaf ears of Utah politicians, the only hope is that national
environmental groups will press Congress to reject this and other attempts to sell public lands so they can
remain open to myriad recreational activities.
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* TOM WHARTON can be contacted at wharton@sltrib.com. His phone number is 801-257-8909.
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