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The RARE II Proposols

Click to see original imageThe Forest Service’s RARE ll wilderness area recommendations are in – but it may be quite awhile before Congress acts on ethem. In Utah, Gov. Scott Matheson ;oesn’t favor accepting griculture Bob Bergland’s recommendation for some 492,008 acreas for wilderness just yet. He wants to wait until the state’s wilderness committee recommends a “comprehensive wilderness package.” This would include not only Forest Service areas but lands desired for wilderness that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Meantime, the Forest Service is holding its recommendations for 45 days to allow congressmen and governors to provide input before presenting them to President Carter in February. He in turn will make a proposal to Congress. Bergland recommended 15 areas in Utah be designated wilderness. Another ‘118 areas are proposed for non-wildemess and six areas for ackiitional stud . None of the recommended Utah wilderness areas is in the Uinta National Forest headquartered in Provo, but about 50,000 acreas are proposed for additional study in the Santaquin-Birdseye-Nephi ”’ of this forest. BLM is now inventorying roadless and undevelope = nrior to wildemess recommendations. This agency manages 22,886,004 acres or 43 percent of the state compared to Forest Service’s 8 million acres representing 15 percent, The National Park Service has 1.96 million acres for 3 percent of Utah, and already has recommended to Congress that some 731,000 acres in seven national parks be labeled wilderness. Reaction to Forest Service recommendations have been “cautiously optimistic” from timber and energy industry people and critica by some environmentalists. Gov. Matheson has generalized that proposals “are within the realm of reasonableness.” But he, among others, will be making a deeper study before making commitments. Certainly Utahns must give close scrutiny to proposals and not sacrifice the multiple use concept where resources are vital to present and future needs – especially with so much of the state’s land area tied up by the federal government. Meantime, people can still offer input. A total of 4,206 responses were received by the Forest Service in Utah. That period is now closed, but people can still express their opinions to members of the congressional delegation and the governor. If you have a viewpoint, now’s the time to let it be knovim.