At the end of March 2006, 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. The measure has not been formally introduced in Congress.
Conservation groups expressed concern 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. In addition, it would allow the proceeds from the public land sales to be used to finance activities like new pipelines and other water development projects that would lead to increased growth and sprawl in the area.
More specifically, the draft bill proposes designating new Wilderness in the county, although 70% fewer acres than proposed for the area in the America’s Redrock Wilderness Act. Of the 221,000 acres of Wilderness in the draft bill, 123,743 acres are within the boundaries of Zion National Park with the remainder found on BLM lands – primarily in existing Wilderness Study Areas. The proposal identifies 170 miles of the Virgin River and its tributaries as a Wild and Scenic River. If designated, this would be the first river in the state with such a designation. The draft bill would also create a national conservation area for the desert tortoise.
Further, the proposal would allow the sale of federal land with revenues channeled to Utah schools, county fire and flood protection, water projects, habitat conservation, trail repair and other projects. It proposes a process to identify routes to be part of the High Desert Off-Highway Vehicle Trail System, a network of trails that off-road vehicle users would like to see stretch from Beaver County to the Arizona border. And it allows for water, utility, and transportation corridors.
The Wilderness Society, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club are meeting with Senator Bennett and his staff to try to negotiate a better deal for the stunning wild country of southwestern Utah. These groups are especially concerned with the lack of a public planning process in shaping the bill, the failure of the proposed legislation to address responsible and sustainable land use and growth in the region, and the sacrifice of community open space and existing wild lands.
Background
Washington County in southwestern Utah contains the 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 region includes the low-elevation Mojave Desert with Joshua trees, prickly pear cactus, and endangered desert tortoise. North of this region is the Great Basin province with craggy slopes and pinyon-juniper forests. To the east lies the western edge of the Colorado Plateau and its sandstone cliff faces.
The BLM 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, which is included in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (S. 882; H.R. 1774).
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.
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