WASHINGTON -- Despite efforts by environmentalists to kill it, the House Resources Committee easily approved a bill Tuesday to create a national conservation area in Utah's San Rafael Swell.
It passed on a voice vote after Democrats lost a lopsided 21-10 vote seeking to amend it to create 1 million acres of "wilderness study area." The study area would have been treated as if it were formal wilderness until Congress changed its designation.Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., pushed the amendment after environmentalists complained loudly that the San Rafael bill does not initially create any formal wilderness areas.
The bill by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, instead proposes a four-year planning process where the federal, state and local governments would develop a management plan, including how much land should be protected as wilderness.
Cannon said earlier proposals to protect the San Rafael disintegrated over disagreements on wilderness so the current bill is designed to be "wilderness neutral."
But Udall argued that it is not wilderness neutral unless all acreage in the San Rafael that is proposed for wilderness by environmental groups is protected so that it could be declared wilderness in the future. He said creating the wilderness study areas is the only way to ensure that.
"This would truly ensure it is wilderness neutral because Congress would retain all its options on these lands," Udall said.
But Cannon said Udall's proposal would "gut the process" of allowing federal, state, local and private interests to work out what it best for the land over time by locking them in to looking mostly at wilderness.
"Everyone in this process has said we need more flexibility than that," Cannon said.
Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, also complained that too many Democrats feel that "only the word 'wilderness' can protect ground. That's just not true." He said other laws and protection in place will adequately protect the swell until management plans are finished.
The San Rafael Swell is the remnants of a geological uplift in southern Utah, mostly Emery County. It is an estimated 600,000 acres of rugged desert canyons, mesas, rolling hills and river gorges. Spectacular overlooks, ancient Indian pictographs and lovely sandstone cliffs lure visitors to the region.
Despite opposition by environmental groups, the bill is supported by the Clinton administration. It now goes to the full House.
The bill would immediately withdraw nearly 1 million acres from new mining, off-road-vehicle use and similar development and declare it as a national conservation area. Details of wilderness and other levels of protection would be worked out later.
The conservation area, in turn, would be included within a new 2.9 million acre "Western legacy district" designed to coordinate tourism between dinosaur, rock art, ranching, outlaw, recreational and other locations on public and private lands.
Emery County Commissioner Randy Johnson -- a main architect of the proposal -- has said, "We establish a four-year planning process in which we develop the permanent management plan. The result is protection within protection."
Deseret News staff writer Joe Bauman contributed to this story. E-mail: lee@desnews.com