[MCN] Analysis Shows Utah Public Lands Initiative Guts Wilderness Protections, Creates WINOs

[Wilderness Watch]

*NEWS RELEASE*

For Release:March 29, 2016

Contacts: George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, 406-542-2048, 
gnickas at wildernesswatch.org <mailto:gnickas at wildernesswatch.org>

Kevin Proescholdt, Wilderness Watch, 612-201-9266, 
kevinp at wildernesswatch.org <mailto:kevinp at wildernesswatch.org>

*
Analysis Shows Utah Public Lands Initiative Guts Wilderness Protections, 
Creates WINOs
*/Proposal by Bishop, Chaffetz contains numerous unprecedented measures 
to weaken wilderness protection/

MISSOULA, MONTANA – This week Wilderness Watch released a detailed 
analysis of the wilderness provisions found in Congressmen Rob Bishop’s 
(R-UT) and Jason Chaffetz’s (R-UT) discussion draft of their Public 
Lands Initiative (PLI) for dealing with public lands in eastern and 
southern Utah.Though the PLI proposes to designate some new 
Wildernesses, the new analysis shows that the PLI guts protections the 
Wildernesses would receive under the 1964 Wilderness Act, and includes 
numerous unprecedented harmful provisions never before found in any 
wilderness designation law.

“The dramatic and unprecedented nature of these provisions would strip 
from the Wildernesses in the PLI many of the protections afforded by the 
Wilderness Act,” said George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness 
Watch and a long-time Utah wilderness advocate.“The PLI would create 
nothing but WINOs,” Nickas added. “Wildernesses In Name Only.”

Wilderness Watch’s analysis focuses solely on the wilderness protection 
and wilderness stewardship provisions of the PLI.There are many other 
problematic provisions in the PLI, including poorly-drawn wilderness 
boundaries, giveaways to the oil and gas industry, land transfers and 
land giveaways, etc., but this analysis hones in only on the wilderness 
protection and stewardship provisions.

The full nine-page analysis is here: 
http://wildernesswatch.org/images/wild-issues/pdfs/03-2016-Utah-PLI-Act-Wilderness-provisions.pdf

“The PLI discussion draft unfortunately includes bad provisions that 
would damage Wilderness with language on wildlife management, motorized 
access, buffer zones and military overflights,” said Kevin Proescholdt, 
Wilderness Watch’s conservation director.“Some of those provisions have 
appeared previously in other wilderness bills.But the PLI also contains 
unprecedented damaging language for Wilderness in the areas of fire, 
insects, and disease control; livestock grazing; hunting, fishing, and 
shooting; trail and fence maintenance; water rights and water 
developments; land acquisition; airshed protection; and bighorn sheep 
viability.”

“This unprecedented language has never before appeared in any other 
wilderness bill that has passed Congress,” added Nickas.“It makes a 
mockery of the idea that the PLI would actually protect any Wilderness.”

“We should protect real, wild, authentic Wilderness in Utah,” concluded 
Proescholdt.“We shouldn’t be designating fake Wildernesses that rob the 
citizens of the State and nation of the real thing.”

# # #

_________________________

Wilderness Watch is a national wilderness conservation organization with 
offices in Missoula (MT), Moscow (ID), and Minneapolis (MN).The 
organization focuses on the protection and proper stewardship of all 
Wildernesses in the National Wilderness Preservation System, and has 
developed extensive expertise with the implementation of and litigation 
over the 1964 Wilderness Act. See www.wildernesswatch.org 
<http://www.wildernesswatch.org>.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bigskynet.org/pipermail/missoula-community-news_bigskynet.org/attachments/20160330/0dc0c0c2/attachment-0002.html>