Hansen passes bill to reserve 23,000 acres of unspoiled federal land
Environmental organizations in Utah are vetoing the Pilot Range Bill (H.R.2488) set by Chairman James V. Hansen of the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, which was passed by the House Resources Committee on Oct. 2, reserves 23,000 acres of unspoiled federal land close to the Nevada border in Box Elder County under wilderness protection.
“When it comes to Utah wilderness, I think it’s time to stop playing the numbers game and do what’s best for the land,” Hansen said, referring to his bill. “For years, we’ve been arguing over how many total acres to put into wilderness, but nothing has been getting done.”
On the contrary, Sarah Lundstrom, president of the Student-ECOS, and environmental awareness organization at USU, feels Hansen’s bill has another agenda.
“Rep. Hansen’s bill is bad, mostly because of the language of the bill itself,” Lundstrom said. “It would allow for new construction in wilderness, it would deny water rights for the wilderness area, and it would release from consideration those Bureau Land Management (BLM) lands that were recently reinventoried and found to have wilderness characteristics.”
“He would leave the wilderness open to have the military leave their equipment there,” said Lawson LeGate, senior southwest regional representative of the Sierra Club.
Hansen wants to start a procedure that every bill related to wilderness will give free access to the military to leave their electronic equipments in protected lands, LeGate said. That is not protecting the wilderness, he said.
“Rep. Hansen is opposed to wilderness in Utah, and in an attempt to look like he is compromising, he will introduce into Congress a bill similar to this every year,” Lundstrom said. “All of them have a sort of horrible precedent in the language of the bill; this one happens to allow construction in wilderness areas.”
“All of these are in direct contradiction to the Wilderness Act of 1964,” Lundstrom said.
“We’ve found a win-win situation that preserves pristine land while allowing ranchers to continue grazing cattle on land they’ve been grazing on for decades,” Hansen said. “This solution also accommodates the national security mission of our Air Force.
“That’s particularly important at times like this,” he said.
Another aspect LeGate mentioned was the denial of water rights to the wilderness as stated in Hansen’s bill. LeGate said one of the most important things to do in order to protect the wild habitat and its ecosystem is to provide it with water, and Hansen’s bill