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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Interior Department's sudden about-face on wild lands designation is a welcome sign that, when it chooses to, Washington can indeed pay attention to the concerns of local interests.
Secretary Ken Salazar reversed his sweeping executive order, only months old, which gave his agency a free hand in identifying large tracts of federal acreage as "wild lands," which critics said was really a sleight-of-hand effort to enact wilderness protection without local input.
It is the American people who hold title to the millions of acres of federal lands in Utah, and it is the federal government's obligation to represent the whole nation's best interests in managing the West's unique landscape.
Some environmental groups are greatly dismayed by the reversal, which they see as a victory for anti-wilderness interests. It is a valid concern, because history has shown that pro-development forces tend to hold sway on the local level.
Resource development on federal lands is economically important, but so is preserving the pristine and spectacularly scenic acreage that much of the world associates with Utah. As such, having ample land set aside as wilderness is vital to the state's economy, and critical to its reputation as a high-value recreation destination.
Secretary Salazar has now promised to focus efforts on "locally-supported initiatives," referring most likely to the "single-county" process that arose from the 2003 compromise between former Gov. Michael Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton. It allows counties to negotiate a wilderness plan and submit it for Congressional approval, which has occurred in Washington County with several other counties considering the same.
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Critics celebrate death of Salazar's wildlands policy
Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee said Wednesday's reversal on the controversial wildlands policy by the Department of Interior is more than welcome.Some environmentalists believe the Washington County process resulted in too few acres being protected as wilderness, and were therefore more comfortable with Washington alone drawing future maps. Now, the federal government has promised to act more as partner than potentate, which in theory bodes well for the process going forward with a requisite balancing of interests.
It is the American people who hold title to the millions of acres of federal lands in Utah, and it is the federal government's obligation to represent the whole nation's best interests in managing the West's unique landscape.
There will never be full agreement on how best that process is done, but there can be no more argument on whether or not it should be done. Decades of political posturing and squabbling between competing interests have created a legacy of uncertainty.
Washington's course correction, as bold and rare as it is, offers new hope for an era of compromise, and progress toward resolution.
Email: cpsarras@ksl.com
