House resolution opposes additional wilderness designations

A resolution intended to influence Congress and the Bureau of Land Management against further wilderness designations became a blazing wrangle Thursday, with a southern Utah representative calling for Utahns to control federal land in the state.

The House approved HJR10 58-11 Thursday, a bill that urges Congress not to enact further wilderness designations in Utah "without the unanimous support of Utah's congressional delegation" and urges the BLM not to restrict access to its Utah land by saying "wilderness characteristics" exist there.

"I remember the joke many years ago, of how much money this (wilderness designation) was going to bring to our counties and our rural area, one of the poorest areas in the state of Utah," Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, said. "And the joke was the backpackers come in with a pair of dirty shorts and 20 bucks, they stay there a week and they don't change either one of them.

"I think that's true."

Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, sponsor of the bill said the resolution will convey a message concerning federal land in Utah.

"We have the ability to make a determination as to Utahns as to what we want to do with those lands," he said.

He denounced a congressional bill to designate as wilderness more than 9 million acres, which would be "essentially off-limits to anything but a person walking there."

Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, said the proposed wilderness areas "actually would block our ability to create a transportation corridor" to remove energy resources from Uintah and Duchesne counties.

"It's prudent that we not shackle our ability to produce energy from the natural resources on our public lands located within the state by creating more wilderness," he said.

Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake, said energy production in Utah is compatible with protecting wilderness land. In Kane, Garfield and Wayne counties, the BLM has said that designating wilderness would not make any difference in the oil and gas production in 15 to 20 years, she said. Even in the Uinta Basin, wilderness would only reduce the predicted oil and gas years by 3.5 percent in the next 15 years, she said.

Majority Leader Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, responded, "15 or 20 years, no energy development? No impact? I still plan on being around in 15 or 20 years." Wilderness would lock up land past his and his grandchildren's generations, he said. "There are ways to do this. There are middle grounds and there are opportunities to find balance in this program."