Environmental groups throughout the country are stepping up their campaign to protect such wilderness areas as Utah's redrock canyons from oil and gas development.
Activists will be focusing on the Bush administration's "anti-environmental" policies as the biggest threat to America's public lands during a time when Bush hopes to be re-elected to the White House.
On Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national conservation group made up of more than 1 million members, unveiled its annual list of the dozen most endangered wildlands in the Americas. Not surprisingly, Utah's redrock canyon lands continues to rank near the top.
"Time and time again the Bush administration has shown no shame in giving the green light to the destruction of Utah's stunning redrock country," said Stephen Bloch, attorney for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which is working with the NRDC on its so-called "BioGems" campaign. "The American public deserves better. Once these wild places are gone, they're gone forever."
In 2002, a federal judge nixed an oil exploration project near Arches National Park after environmentalists sued the Bush administration for cutting corners on environmental analyses trying to rush the project forward.
But environmentalists say the threat is not over, as the administration continues to sell huge tracts of redrock country to energy companies. Of primary concern is the impact oil exploration trucks have on the delicate desert soils. They say permanent energy development would deface the desert with a network of roads and pipelines, towering wells and pumps and massive waste pits.
"The oil and gas industry wants to industrialize every last acre of our remaining pristine wilderness areas," said Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land program. "The public is rising up and saying 'No more.' "
Activists plan to mobilize citizen groups over the coming year through the Internet.
"Our slingshot is the Internet," said Jacob Scherr, director of NRDC's international program, adding that it's been successful since the group launched its campaign in 2001.
"With the help of hundreds of thousands of activists we have won major battles over the last three years, protecting thousands of square miles of pristine wilderness," Scherr said. "NRDC's BioGems campaign is a modern David, taking on the Goliaths of industry and their political allies."
Utah's wilderness lands are often included in environmental groups' annual list of the most endangered wildlands, chosen based on the severity of threats facing them.
Other areas of focus include the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Western Arctic Reserve and Tongass National Forest in Alaska, Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Rocky Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau in the southwestern U.S. and the Everglades in Florida.
The groups also are reaching beyond the U.S. boundaries to include the Heart of the Boreal Forest in Manitoba, Canada, the Castle wilderness and Bighorn wildland in Alberta, Canada, the Macal River valley in Belize, the Tahuamanu Rainforest in Peru and the Olivillo Coastal Rainforest in Chile.
For more information, go to www.savebiogems.org.