Bush serves helping of Desolation Canyon, other Utah lands to oil and gas
Some of Utah’s most beloved wild lands will be offered up to the oil and gas industry in December, courtesy of an administration that appears bent on ignoring the wishes of the public.
On Election Day, the Utah office of the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM — a division of the Bush administration’s Department of Interior — announced that a Dec. 19 lease sale of state lands would include oil and gas leases near the beloved Arches and Canyonlands national parks, along with eastern Utah's Dinosaur National Monument.
Despite National Park Service protests that the lands near the parks should be withdrawn from the sale, the BLM announced Nov. 25 that it would defer only a small portion of the parcels that are close to the parks,
Also on the auction block for the upcoming lease sale are parcels in iconic Utah areas, such as Desolation Canyon and Green River.
That’s disaster enough, but unfortunately, the Dec. 19 lease sale is only a symptom of a much more serious disease defined by six huge resource management plans that were finalized by the Utah BLM in October and November 2008. These fast-tracked plans roll back protections for wildlife, sensitive species, rivers and streams, cultural resources, and "areas of critical environmental concern” in 11 million acres in southern and eastern Utah.
Through the plans, millions of acres will be opened to off-road vehicle use and oil and gas development. The administration’s plans also place unsurveyed archaeological artifacts, wildlife habitat, and rivers and streams in harm's way.
The Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center has been tracking these plans and working to ensure that they don’t extend the Bush administration’s devastating environmental policies for another two decades. Find more information about the upcoming Utah lease sale and the six Utah land-use plans here.
Legacy Comments
Utah Give-Away
I would like to commend Carl with his spot-on analysis of the situation in Utah. I did my undergrad in Arizona, and now am up in Idaho doing my grad work, and I still yearn for the canyonlands of southern Utah. If there was ever a country-side filled with silent freedoms and spectacular silhouettes, this would be it. If you look at a map of the National Wilderness Preservation System, find Colorado. Then look West to Utah and see the difference. Then I want you to drive through the Colorado Mountains and proceed southwest to Utah's Canyons. When you are done I want you to decide is either inferior in majestic-jaw-dropping scenery. The answer is no. Yes you may have a preference but both landscapes deserve protection under the Wilderness Act of 1964. Both backcountry landscapes are untrammeled by man and satisfy beyond words the criteria for designation as outlined in the Act. Why do Utah politicians continue to deny protection? What are they holding out for? Maybe we are seeing the answers right in front of our eyes. We all need to take Carl's lead and keep pounding the agencies and bureaucracies with letters. We need to let them know that this land is off-limits! Take a hike buddy! Keep Utah Wild!
Drilling in Utah's wilderness areas
I have been a member of The Wilderness Society for years, and I am thrilled that you are taking a lead in fighting what can only be called the rape of America's natural beauty by the Bush administration's last minute chicanery involving the pristine wilderness areas of Utah.
It is appalling to witness such a thing. It is morally outrageous. There has to be a time when we as a nation, as human beings, finally say, Enough, no more destruction of a world that is vanishing before our eyes, day to day, and threatens to make Man the next thing that will vanish.
And for what? It will not solve America's energy crisis. More to the point, it is a quick profit giveaway, at taxpayer expense, to Bush's friends in the oil industry. Its transparency is laughable, while at the same time offensive to anyone with even half a conscience.
And so I write. I write Congressmen, Senators, newspapers, and now you. I cannot sit by and passively watch. It is too harmful to the spirit of what decency there is in the world.
This must be stopped. I applaud and thank you for your efforts, and encourage you to do yet more.
Carl Balis