On July 11 and 12, 2006, respectively, Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) introduced the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006 (S.3636, H.R. 5769). In a statement, the Utah Wilderness Coalition said, “We are disappointed that Senator Bennett and Rep. Matheson have introduced harmful public lands legislation that threatens Utah wilderness, undercuts taxpayers, and excludes the public. Instead of carefully developing a plan that will move the county into the future, this legislation would fuel sprawling development and dramatically decrease open space. The bill is a net loss for the land, for communities, and for quality of life in Washington County, and that’s why such a broad array of residents throughout the state have asked for a slower, more thoughtful approach to this important legislation.”
Further, the UWC stated that the newly introduced the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act would:
- Allow the sale of between 17,000 and 25,000 acres of public land.
- Use the revenue from the sale of federal public lands to pay out millions to local governmental entities for activities like road building and water developments.
- Deny protection for the most at-risk wild lands in the Zion-Mojave proposed wilderness. Over 200,000 acres of Zion-Mojave wilderness quality lands – proposed as wilderness in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (H.R. 1774/S. 882) – are left unprotected in the bill.
- Strip protection from over 15 square miles of congressionally protected wilderness study areas.
- Fragment public lands with a network of corridors and routes for pipelines, roads, and utilities.
- Authorize the creation of an off-road vehicle trail system across the county.
- Undermine important environmental laws that ensure public participation and environmental review.
The bill does not contain two controversial provisions that had been included in the draft proposal. Specifically, a proposed dam site in the environmentally sensitive Beaver Dam Wash area and the designation of a route through an existing protected desert tortoise reserve, pending more study. There were no other substantive changes.
In news reports, Sen. Bennett said discussions about possible additional wilderness in the county's Mojave region will continue and conservation groups are committed to continuing to negotiate to try to develop an acceptable bill. However, they acknowledge they have a very long way to go to reach agreement from what was introduced earlier this week and have stated their intention to oppose the bill as introduced.
Background
Washington County in southwestern Utah is home to Zion National Park as well as vast stretches of wild but unprotected public lands. The region - known as Zion-Mojave - contains a complex mix of the Mojave Desert, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau creating a distinct and diverse landscape. The Bureau of Land Management has identified 193,940 acres of lands with wilderness characteristic in the Zion-Mojave region while citizens’ have identified 323,300 acres of wilderness quality land in the region. Washington County is one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S. and as such, the Zion-Mojave wilderness lands are threatened by pressure from sprawl and development, as well as by increasing off-road vehicle (ORV) use.
At the end of March, Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) unveiled a draft of the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006. This draft legislation addresses a range of public lands issues including wilderness designation, development, and land sales. At the time, conservation groups expressed strong concerns that the draft bill would make only minimal conservation gains while also requiring a massive sell-off of federal public lands, as well as authorizing numerous new water development projects, and new roads and utility corridors among many other egregious provisions.
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