Warring sides join 'bottom-up' Utah wilds effort

All of the warring factions in the long-standing debate on wilderness are saying the right things: They will work together to come up with a wilderness compromise in Washington County.

It remains to be seen, however, whether they can resolve all the contentious public land-use disputes.

"There will be differences of opinion," Gov. Olene Walker said Monday, announcing her plan to bring Congress a wilderness proposal one county at a time. "We'll look at the issues where there can be consensus."

Washington County, the home of Zion National Park and fast-growing St. George, is the starting ground where officials plan to meet in June to kick off the process.

The plan is to set up "wilderness work groups" in various parts of the state. Participants will include a cross-section of the county consisting of environmentalists, elected officials, ranchers, outdoor recreationists and industry officials. The makeup of the group will remain the same, but one of the seats will vary county by county.

"Our plan in each county or region is to set up a group of people committed to solve the problem," said Lt. Gov. Gayle McKeachnie. "We're confident that as we go county-by-county or region-by-region we can focus on things we can agree on and move onto other things later."

State leaders will simply facilitate the process and won't try to force a wilderness proposal nobody wants, McKeachnie said.

"We're taking a bottom-up approach," Walker added. "Always in the past a plan has been imposed on counties that they have to respond to. It hasn't worked."

This kind of piecemeal approach isn't new. Nevada used a similar process to successfully lobby Congress to designate as wilderness sensitive lands near Las Vegas.

In Utah, all parties appear willing to cooperate, from rural county commissioners often reluctant to set aside any wilderness to environmentalists who have lobbied Congress to set aside 9.1 million acres of wilderness in Utah. Federal land managers say they are eager to help out under Walker's plan.

"We're encouraged and supportive of the process," said Sally Wisely, Utah director of the Bureau of Land Management. "Clearly, this has been an issue that has dogged the state a long time. Our role is to provide data."

For Washington County it's a chance to put together a land-use management plan.

"We'll look at the whole county," Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner said. "If there's areas that qualify as wilderness, then we'll recommend they be designated as wilderness."