Four years ago, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance plucked Brigham Young University professor Larry Young, a descendant of Mormon leader Brigham Young, to head Utah's largest and most influential wilderness advocacy group.

Now that Young has moved on, SUWA has looked to its own bloodlines for a replacement: Scott Groene, who has worked off and on in SUWA's trenches for 17 years and who cut his teeth as a staffer to the late Rep. Wayne Owens, the godfather of Utah's wilderness movement.

It would seem that Young and Groene are cut from radically different cloths. Young, 49, is a native Utahn, married and Mormon. Groene, 46, is single, his religion is Utah's stunning redrock wilderness and he hails from Kansas, of all places.

"I grew up backpacking down cornfields," says Groene, who took the SUWA helm last month.

Young's appointment in 2000 was seen as a shift by SUWA to appeal to the Utah mainstream, and Groene's appointment could signal a shift back to what some may view as radical environmentalism.

It could, but it shouldn't, he says.

"Larry and my backgrounds are different, but our views on the issues are the same," said Groene, making the argument that passion for wilderness is something that brings people together of all backgrounds, politics and religious beliefs. "Larry and I are an example of that," he said.

Young, who recently moved to Washington state where his wife got a teaching job, agrees with that assessment, and says Groene was a big part of SUWA's success over the past four years and its efforts to reach out.

"We have demonstrated a willingness to sit down with those we don't see eye to eye with to pursue possible solutions to the impasse over the future of Utah's wild lands," he said. "I am confident that (Groene's) leadership will help SUWA not only maintain its effectiveness on behalf of Utah wilderness, but improve upon it."

Earlier this week, Groene stood shoulder to shoulder with Utah Gov. Olene Walker to pledge SUWA's support for a process to resolve wilderness disputes in Washington County. That came despite SUWA's long-held opposition to any wilderness proposal that did not resolve wilderness designations statewide.

Groene brings a wealth of on-the-ground experience to the job. Upon graduating from law school at the University of Colorado, he worked in San Juan County representing poor people, mostly Navajos. While there, he got involved in a local protest against a local strip mine, something that whetted his appetite for environmental law.

He later went to Washington, D.C., where he was chief of staff in Owens' office for a short time before leaving to join the Utah wilderness wars as a Moab field representative for SUWA.

Groene says he was just not cut out for life in Washington, D.C. "I struggled with living in a basement apartment and wearing a tie everyday," he said.

Moab in the late 1980s was a battleground over wilderness, road construction and oil and gas development. And more often than not, Groene was the hero or the villain of those skirmishes, depending on your point of view.

When local commissioners referred to "damned environmentalists," chances are they were referring to Groene.

But it's nothing personal, says San Juan County Commissioner Ty Lewis. It's simply SUWA's stubbornness on issues that drive them apart, he added.

"I wish it wasn't that way," Lewis said. "But I don't think it matters who's in charge. It's their philosophy (that) it's either their way or no way."

Mark Walsh of Utah Association of Counties isn't sure what to make of Groene.

"Scott Groene has been around awhile. I would hope new leadership brings a new attitude, one that's more refreshing, along the lines of working together on solutions to benefit the common good and not get into the same old fights," Walsh said. "But I don't know where he's coming from."

Over the years, Groene worked as SUWA's staff attorney, conservation director and most recently as a staffer researching rural counties' claims over dirt roads across public lands. He also took time out to work in the National BLM Wilderness Campaign to inventory lands across the West for wilderness designation, he measured beaches to gather data for a Glen Canyon environmental study, and he worked a spell for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Groene comes highly recommended by Utah's environmental community.

"Scott embodies the essence of America's redrock wilderness," said author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams. "He is charismatic, he is passionate and he is incredibly smart and agile in his defense of these vulnerable public lands."

Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake mayor and SUWA board member, said Groene was selected to lead SUWA for his experience, dedication and friendly nature.

"He's a man who has been around," Wilson said. "He's a reasonable guy . . . he's got a good demeanor about him. He doesn't say bombastic things."

Heidi McIntosh, Groene's partner in the wilderness battles and current SUWA conservation director, says she cannot think of a better person to lead SUWA into the next generation.

"We've started to grow old together," she said. "He's got institutional history and he's developed great instincts."

Groene's job won't be an easy one. Utah's wilderness wars rage unabated, with many county commissioners vowing no new wilderness and SUWA advocating more than 9 million acres statewide.

The gulf between the two sides would seem impassable. But Groene said he is optimistic that something can be accomplished.

"We feel what's happening now is a product of 15 years of work," he said, pointing out that Utah has gone from a congressional delegation saying "wilderness over my dead body" to county commissioners now reaching out to resolve the three-decades-old dispute.

"The conservation community has legitimacy with Congress. The governor wants to be part of the process to protect wilderness and she will have to stand up for it. And she's shown a willingness to show that leadership," he said.

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He said SUWA's goal remains as it always has: to protect Utah's wild lands from development, fight damage caused by off-road vehicles and dispute counties' claims of ownership over dirt roads crossing public lands.

But he wouldn't mind if he was unemployed.

"The dream is to put ourselves out of business," he said. "There would be nothing more satisfying than to shut down SUWA and say we're done, that we have finally reached our goal."


E-mail: donna@desnews.com

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