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Article published Nov 3, 2006
Opposition voiced to county land act
Congress members write letter blasting plan for public lands
By SCOTT DAVID JOHNSON sjohnson@thespectrum.com

ST. GEORGE — A letter from 47 members of Congress blasts the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act and supports a competing vision for the region’s public lands.
The letter’s signers urge the House Committee on Resources to consider a different bill, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, contending that the Washington County land bill “fails
to strike a reasonable balance between growth and conser-
vation.”
In its current form, the land bill “would harm many public lands adjacent to Zion National Park and in the Mojave Desert that would be protected under America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act,” the letter reads.
The 47 signers are among 160 listed co-sponsors of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, which would designate as wilderness a larger portion of public land in Washington County.
“These public lands are an irreplaceable national asset — wild and unspoiled, renowned among hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, rich in archeology and paleontology, and home to many threatened and endangered species,” the letter continues.
Sponsored by Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, the Washington County land bill will come before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 16.
Alyson Heyrend, spokeswoman for Matheson, described the Red Rock bill as “a group of stakeholders’ notion of what should be declared wilderness.”
Rather than a rival bill, it lacks the broad scope of the legislation Matheson has introduced, which “deals with a variety of issues beyond wilderness designation,” she said.
She called the letter’s claim that the land bill would invite new development on public lands without full public review and input “just flat wrong.”
Chaitna Sinha, field attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, criticized what she called a lack of public input in drafting the land bill.
“We all are enormously wealthy because we all own public lands,” she said. “It would be a shame to lose those places and that history in the rush to pass legislation that the public hasn’t necessarily had an opportunity to look at and where a significant portion of the information is missing.”
An incarnation of the Red Rock bill was introduced in 1989 by Rep. Wayne Owens, of Utah, and in 1993 by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, of New York.
Ray Bloxham, a field inventory specialist for SUWA, said the Red Rock bill is an attempt to correct decades of inadequate inventories of wilderness lands by the federal Bureau of Land Management.