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<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><b
style=""><span style="font-size:16.0pt;">NEWS RELEASE</span></b></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">For
Release:<span style=""> </span>March 29, 2016<span style="">
</span></span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">Contacts:
<span style=""> </span>George Nickas, Wilderness Watch,
406-542-2048, </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"><a
href="mailto:gnickas@wildernesswatch.org"><span style=""><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gnickas@wildernesswatch.org">gnickas@wildernesswatch.org</a></span></a></span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"><span
style=""> </span>Kevin Proescholdt,
Wilderness Watch, 612-201-9266, </span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;"><a
href="mailto:kevinp@wildernesswatch.org"><span style=""><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kevinp@wildernesswatch.org">kevinp@wildernesswatch.org</a></span></a></span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;"><span style=""> </span></span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><b
style=""><span style="font-size:16.0pt;"><br>
Analysis Shows Utah Public Lands Initiative Guts Wilderness
Protections, Creates WINOs<br>
</span></b><i style=""><span style="font-size:14.0pt;">Proposal
by Bishop, Chaffetz contains numerous unprecedented measures
to weaken wilderness protection</span></i><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">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.<span style=""> </span>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.<a name="_GoBack" target="_blank"></a><br>
<br>
“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.<span style=""> </span>“The PLI would create nothing
but WINOs,” Nickas added. “Wildernesses In Name Only.”</span><span
style=""> </span> </p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">Wilderness Watch’s
analysis focuses solely on the wilderness protection and
wilderness stewardship provisions of the PLI.<span style=""> </span>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.</span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">The full nine-page
analysis is here: </span><a class="ecxmoz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wildernesswatch.org/images/wild-issues/pdfs/03-2016-Utah-PLI-Act-Wilderness-provisions.pdf"
target="_blank">http://wildernesswatch.org/images/wild-issues/pdfs/03-2016-Utah-PLI-Act-Wilderness-provisions.pdf</a><span
style=""></span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">“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.<span
style=""> </span>“Some of those provisions have appeared
previously in other wilderness bills.<span style=""> </span>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.”</span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">“This unprecedented
language has never before appeared in any other wilderness bill
that has passed Congress,” added Nickas.<span style=""> </span>“It
makes a mockery of the idea that the PLI would actually protect
any Wilderness.”</span><span style=""> </span> </p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style=""><span style=""></span>“We
should protect real, wild, authentic Wilderness in Utah,”
concluded Proescholdt.<span style=""> </span>“We shouldn’t be
designating fake Wildernesses that rob the citizens of the State
and nation of the real thing.”</span><span style=""> </span> </p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><span
style=""># # #</span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">_________________________</span></p>
<p class="ecxMsoNormal" style=""><span style="">Wilderness Watch is
a national wilderness conservation organization with offices in
Missoula (MT), Moscow (ID), and Minneapolis (MN).<span style="">
</span>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 <a class="ecxmoz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.wildernesswatch.org" target="_blank">www.wildernesswatch.org</a>.</span></p>
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