WILD BILL

Right Wilderness, Wrong Reason, Questionable Tactic

By Bill Schneider, 2-02-06

Over the past few months, I’ve posted several columns about new ways to win congressional approval for Wilderness. The New Way has been called many things, such as the collaborative way, the republican way or quid pro quo way, plus a few others I can’t print. This approach concedes the fact that the normal way of designating Wilderness—you know, because it’s the right thing to do—is no longer politically feasible. Now, Wilderness advocates must wheel and deal and compromise to add to the Wilderness Preservation System. That approach reached new heights recently down in the Cedar Mountains in Utah. You could call it the Battle of Skull Valley. You could also call it the Nuclear Option.

This little war has been going on for many years and is, actually, still not over. Skull Valley is part of Utah’s West Desert on the Goshute Indian Reservation. Years ago, the tiny Skull Valley Band invited private companies to dump high-level radioactive nuclear waste on the reservation. This was an exceptionally unpopular idea in Utah, even among the congressional delegation, which usually favors development over environmental protection. Several nonprofit groups fought a long court battle to stop the dumpsite, but eventually lost in court.

After losing in court, the Wilderness plan moved up to the front line. The most logical and safest way to get the radioactive waste to Skull Valley was on rail cars on a new rail line through the Cedar Mountains. To block the rail line, Wilderness groups came up with a plan to designate the Cedar Mountains Wilderness. Such a Wilderness, designated under the Wilderness Act of 1964, would prevent such development as new rail lines. The Utah congressional delegation, normally not fans of more Wilderness, jumped on the opportunity to stop Utah from becoming a nuclear waste dump and backed the Wilderness concept. This gave the legislation a fast and easy ride through Congress. President Bush signed the bill in late December 2005.

Ironically, the Utah delegation, with strong support from environmentalists, used the highly objectionable tactic of adding the Cedar Mountains bill to the defense appropriation bill at the last minute. Sometimes called “earmarking,� this is exactly the same strategy—on the same defense authorization legislation no less—republican senators were using to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to fossil fuel drilling, a move strongly opposed by environmentalists. This practice, which leaves no time for hearings or other public involvement, hit a new high (low?) in last year’s oft-trumpeted highway bill that had 6,376 projects attached to it—not only did this cost many billions but few if any of these projects would pass Congress as a stand-alone bill. In any regard, there must have been some fancy dancing among enviros to oppose the widely criticized tactic in one breath and support it with the next.

In the end, this innovative, opportunistic approach by Wilderness groups did more than stop the rail line and perhaps the dumpsite. It also gave us a wonderful Wilderness, not a small token to accomplish another agenda, but the real deal, 100,000 acres of outstanding landscape protected forever. The Utah Wilderness Coalition called it a “victory for all.� Utah, like most western states, has had a long Wilderness drought with the last designation way back in 1984. The Cedar Mountains is still a desert, but the Wilderness drought has ended in Utah.

And there was no talk of questionable tactics among the greens. “This legislation accomplishes something that’s never been done before in Utah—unanimous agreement on a Utah wilderness proposal that truly protects Utah’s deserving wilderness,� Scott Groene, Executive Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said in a press release. “This kind of wilderness agreement was made possible by the years of work that Utah wilderness activists have poured into protecting Utah’s red rock country and deserts.�

“With today’s success, Utah can proudly take a big step forward on Utah wilderness,� agreed Suzanne Jones of The Wilderness Society in the same press release. “We thank the Utah congressional delegation, especially Congressman (Bob) Bishop (R-Utah), for their leadership in advancing this win-win wilderness proposal that protects both the public and our public lands.�

“Utah is not the nation’s dumping ground for high-level nuclear waste,� added Lawson LeGate, Senior Southwest Representative of the Sierra Club. “With the passage of this legislation, not only will Utah get its first new wilderness area in two decades, but Congress will have taken the first significant step in protecting Utahns and other Americans from transportation and storage of this dangerous material.�

You can say what you want about the motives and strategy, but on the morning after, it’s still a “W.�

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