A "grass-roots" movement to gather solutions to federal land conflicts quickly turned into an anti-government, anti-environmentalist rally Wednesday.
Called the "National Policy Forum," the Republican Party-sanctioned organization attracted about 100 people to Utah's Capitol Hill. Most of them were traditional users of public lands - such as ranchers, miners and water brokers - who decried Washington's rule over Western states."It's colonialism verging on tyranny," said panelist Bill Howell, executive director of the Southeastern Association of Governments.
Howell's comments, which centered on what he called the loss of the "equal footing" doctrine between states and the feds, were met with hearty applause by the audience as well as the rest of the panel, which included Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Hansen; Wyoming Sen. Malcolm Wallop; and Garfield County Commissioner Louise Liston.
Panelists and attendees alike swapped horror stories about their run-ins with federal agencies such as the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. They shared their disdain for environmentalists, wilderness designation, endangered species and proposals to reform mining and grazing policies on public land.
Hatch said the Clinton administration gets a "D" for "disaster" grade in its federal land management policy. Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt "have initiated an all-out war on the West," Hatch said.
And Westerners may return fire. "In the late 1970s, we started the Sagebrush Rebellion. I think we're almost there again," Hatch said.
Wallop said the majority of American politicians do not care what happens in the Western states. "We need to inform our urban (legislative) brethren what the hell is going on in the West."
Several in the audience were members of the so-called "Wise Use" movement that opposes wilderness and espouses the multiple-use concept for public lands. Others were rural legislators and county commissioners.
Wendy Gramm, National Policy Forum chairwoman and wife of Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, urged them all to sign a sheet to organize their opposition to federal policy and bureaucracy.
The meeting, Gramm said, was the second in a series around the West to gather ideas and local viewpoints. The meetings will shape a report called "Listening to America," expected to be released next summer by the Forum.
Though the Forum says it invites all to participate, the environmental voice was conspicuously absent from Wednesday's panels.
Ken Rait, issues coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, was in attendance but said it was only because he heard about the meeting through the grapevine.
Rait, who was named as a villain in some of the anti-environmentalist rhetoric, said after the meeting that he was not impressed with the Forum.
"A lot of it was the same mythology we've heard over and over again. A lot of the dialogue was riddled with misinformation."
Rait said the panelists and Wise Use people are "looking forward through the rearview mirror. These people are grasping for the policies of the mid-1800s. They are against land reforms that are designed to enhance environmental conditions on federal lands."
The economic realities are that mining, livestock agriculture and timber-harvesting are dead or dying industries in Utah, Rait said.