House Democrats move to halt land plans

WASHINGTON — Ninety-nine members of the U.S. House have petitioned President Bush to put a halt to new management plans being developed for public lands in Utah and elsewhere in the West, saying draft plans do not adequately protect potential wilderness.

But don't look for Bush to kowtow to their demands: All are Democrats.

"Even as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, our task of preserving America's wilderness legacy remains incomplete, and untrammeled wild lands are denied the protections they deserve," wrote Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., the author of the letter. "Unfortunately," he added, "administrative decisions proposed through the Bureau of Land Management's land use plans threaten to undermine the future of wild lands that should become part of the National Wilderness Preservation system."

None of Utah's three congressmen signed the letter.

The letter specifically mentions Utah's red rock canyon country as threatened with development. It also takes issue with the draft plan for the Price management region, which includes the San Rafael Swell and Book Cliffs.

"The biggest concern with the Price plan is that the agency acknowledges there are 1 million acres of wilderness quality lands, but the vast majority are not proposed to be protected," said Nada Culver, an analyst with the Wilderness Society.

That draft plan, now available for public comment, is the first to be released since a landmark 2003 settlement between Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt that stripped interim wilderness protection from those lands identified during a 1996 re-inventory by the BLM and by a coalition of conservation groups.

The Price plan, the letter states, "fails to protect 98 percent of wilderness quality lands outside of already preserved wilderness study areas from oil and gas leasing, seismic exploration and drilling."

The letter asks Bush to "instruct the Interior Department and other agencies of your administration to revise their policies so as to more fully protect those values on lands that Congress can and should add" as officially designated wilderness areas.

The Book Cliffs, in particular the West Tavaputs Plateau that is home to Desolation Canyon and Nine Mile Canyon, has been a target of increased interest for oil and gas development.