Agency Would Open 98 percent of Spectacular Area to Oil, Gas
Few places in the American West are as symbolic of wildness and grandeur as the San Rafael Swell in east-central Utah. But the Swell, Sids Mountain, Desolation Canyon, and other majestic wild areas face a potential onslaught of oil and gas drilling and off-road vehicle use.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a revised management plan for the area. The agency has abandoned any pretext of balance. Instead, it proposes to open 98 percent of wilderness-quality lands outside of existing wilderness study areas to oil and gas drilling. And it again refuses to adequately protect the land against destructive off-road vehicle use.

Please take a moment to urge the BLM to back away from this wrong-headed and destructive proposal. Help us save some of what is best in wild Utah! The deadline for comments is Monday, November 29, 2004. You can take immediate action from
http://ga1.org/campaign/price/wd8ks5xrpk886t

The Place: And What a Place It Is
The heart of Utah, where the eastern flank of the Wasatch Plateau falls steeply to the desert below, is home to a rich variety of colorful rock formations and serpentine canyons. It is the landscape where, Wallace Stegner wrote, the earth is "broken and worn until her bones are exposed." Here are the serrated knife-edge of the San Rafael Reef and the geologic uplift known as the San Rafael Swell.

The Swell's eastern edge soars straight out of the ground, the jagged teeth-like edges riven by narrow slot canyons in the sandstone. This is where the Green River cuts the wild Desolation, Gray, and Labyrinth Canyons, where rafters can enjoy both fierce whitewater and a quiet float. Nearby Nine Mile Canyon offers a world-class gallery of Fremont-era Native American rock art and other archaeological sites.

For The BLM, Just Another Place Where the Gears and Drilling Rigs Roam
In BLM parlance, the area is known as the Price Resource Area. The agency has released for public comment a draft revision of the Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the 2.5 millions acres of land it administers there. This revision will determine management practices in the area for the next two decades.

Unfortunately, instead of striking a balance between protecting wilderness and providing for energy development and motorized recreation, the agency is heavily favoring a few special interests at the expense of wild places.

Oil and Gas Activity
BLM's own internal surveys have confirmed that over a million acres within the Price area qualify for wilderness designation, but the proposed plan does little to protect these natural wonders from oil and gas drilling. The draft revision leaves 98 percent of these lands open to drilling, threatening places like Desolation Canyon and the Book Cliffs. Beyond that, the proposed plan increases the amount of land open to leasing without restrictions by almost 20 percent. Thus, more than three-fourths of the Price Resource Area will be open to oil and gas activity.

This is outrageous. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that oil and gas deposits under America's redrock wilderness would amount to less than a week's worth of oil and less than four weeks' worth of natural gas. Yet, the cost of this literal drop in the energy bucket would be the deadly detritus of polluted drill pads, toxic sludge pits, and haphazard road systems that oil and gas development always leaves behind.

Off-Road Vehicles
During the 1990s, use of dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) exploded. Careless, uninformed or uncaring riders created hundreds of miles of illegal routes. Now, nearly 80 percent of the public lands managed in the resource area are within a mile of a motorized route. Such extensive ORV use precludes enjoyment of quiet activities like hiking, horseback riding, boating, and other non-motorized recreation. Off-road vehicles also wreak severe and permanent damage to soils and crusts. They damage rare and biologically valuable desert streams, springs, and other wildlife habitats.

In the draft plan revision, the BLM has taken one welcome step forward by proposing to bar unlimited cross-country ATV and dirt bike travel. Instead, the agency will designate specific trails for such use. But here, too, BLM's preferred alternative falls short. It retains far too many existing trails. Trails on more than 2 million acres would remain open; only 16 percent of lands would be closed.

Another, Better Way
There is another way and a better one. It's possible to meet the needs of preservation, recreation, and energy development simultaneously. For example, a Wilderness Society partner group, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is now preparing an alternative to the BLM's preferred course. Known as the Castle Country Heritage Proposal, the plan protects all the lands proposed for wilderness under America's Redrock Wilderness Act from oil and gas leasing and development and from off-road vehicle use.

But it still allows for energy development on other lands in the resource area, and it leaves 2,862 miles of trails open to motorized vehicles. For more information about the Castle County Heritage Proposal, visit SUWA's Price RMP web page at
http://www.suwa.org/page.php?page_id=139

How You Can Help: Contact the BLM Today
We must tell BLM to go back to the drawing board. Please take a few moments to raise your voice in support of Utah's wild canyon country. You can take immediate action from
http://ga1.org/campaign/price/wd8ks5xrpk886t

As always, we urge you to write your own letter if you have time. Your thoughts in your words are always most influential. And if you've had an experience in Utah's wild country, please say so! There's a sample letter below that you can draw from as well as contact information. Remember, the deadline for comments is Monday, Nov. 29, 2004!

Contact Information

Floyd Johnson
Assistant Price Field Office
Bureau of Land Management
125 S 600 West
Price, UT 84501
Fax: 435-636-3657
Email: comments@pricermp.com

Residents of Utah: please send copies of your letter to key members of Utah's Congressional delegation:

Sen. Robert Bennett
Web form: http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/emailmain.html
Fax: 801-524-5730

Sen. Orrin Hatch
Web form: http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Offices.Contact
Fax: 801-524-4379

Rep. Jim Matheson
Web form: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Fax: 801-486-1417

You can find full contact information here:
http://www.wilderness.org/TakeAction/contactdir.cfm

Sample Letter

Dear Mr. Johnson,

The public lands of the Price Resource Area are a special part of this country's national heritage and should be protected for the use and enjoyment of all Americans. Unfortunately, the recent draft revision to the Price Resource Management Plan (RMP) fails to ensure such protection.

Your draft fails to strike a balance between preservation, recreation, and energy development. Instead, it favors a few special interests at the expense of the American public. It leaves 98 percent of wilderness-quality lands open to drilling and actually increases by nearly 20 percent the amount of land open to leasing without restrictions.

The decision to designate specific trails for off-road vehicle (ORV) use is laudable. But the draft revision leaves open far too many and closes far too few. Motorized trails would remain on more than 2 million acres. Such intensive vehicular use interferes with primitive and quiet recreational activities (such as hiking and horseback riding). And motorized use damages riparian areas and other wildlife habitat.

Please protect from oil and gas development and excessive ORV use places like Sids Mountain, Mexican Mountain, San Rafael Reef, Wild Horse Mesa, and Desolation Canyon.

In addition, I write to ask you to support the balanced alternative, the Castle Country Heritage Proposal, that the Southern Utah Wilderness Coalition has submitted to you. It protects wilderness-quality lands and other sensitive areas from oil and gas leasing and development and from excessive off-road vehicle use. It offers a reasonable transportation plan that lessens the impact of ORVs on the land while providing opportunities for primitive and non-motorized recreation. It reconciles competing interests without precluding any.

Please do not let slip away the opportunity to protect the beautiful lands of the Price Resource Area. Please give these special places and the Castle Country Heritage Proposal your full support. It's the right choice for our public lands.

Sincerely,
(Your name and address)

Top photo: The BLM's resource management planning process will determine whether wild places like Desolation Canyon and the wild Book Cliffs region of central Utah are off-limits to industrialized oil and gas development or "open for business." Photo courtesy of Ray Bloxham/SUWA.
Second photo: The Price resource management plan will also determine the fate of areas like the Sids Mountain Wilderness Study Area, where off-road vehicles use is currently allowed and impacts to the land's wilderness character, riparian habitat, and delicate soils are great and growing. Photo courtesy of Ray Bloxham/SUWA.