Redrock Wilderness Act – The Absurd Defined

By Shannon Bushman

Recently my father passed away.  I think of things he said often.  One of his sayings was “There is a difference between scratching your ass and tearing it all to hell”.  It fits a lot of things we do in America.  Seldom do we know when enough is enough.  My father helped elect Wayne Owens to the House or Representatives (D-Utah) but they didn’t always agree.  They were childhood friends and my father felt at ease telling Wayne what he thought.  When Wayne initially pitched the Redrock Wilderness Act it was a 5.1 Million Acre proposal.  Wayne asked my father to support the Act and received the above response.

Wayne believed he needed to ask for more than he thought was reasonable so that in the end the compromise he was bound to make would still be significant.   Now both Wayne and Dad are gone.  But the ARRWA lives on and it is championed by Waynes former aide Scott Groene, now Executive director at SUWA, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.  The difference is that SUWA does not understand that the size of the ARRWA, absurd as it was when first proposed, was always going to be reduced in compromise.  In fact SUWA has taken the absurdity to a new horizon and the ARRWA now encompasses 9.5 Million acres.  And you can guess, there is no intent to compromise and until now that has kept the ARRWA from being seriously considered and in fact has never been heard in congress.  On October 1st the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands will hear the Bill now known as H.R. 1925 – Americas Red Rock Wilderness Act of 2009.

Please don’t get me wrong, I like Wilderness.  Its a good thing really.  We need some more.  But seriously the ARRWA is tearing your ass all to hell.  Take a look at this map  :  http://www.suwa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ARRWAclickablemap

The Green sections you see are the current wilderness in Utah.  I’ll agree there needs to be more.  But you have to be joking to seriously consider turning everything in dark red to Wilderness in one shot. (and note a lot of that red is around the famous Moab Trail system)  That represents 9.5 Million Acres.  By the way, the original ARRWA 5.1 Million acres included 1.9 Million acres that President Clinton signed into a National Monument on his way out of the white house so SUWA promptly replaced that with another 1.9 Million acres as well blowing the whole thing up into 9.5 Million total acres.   And…keep in mind that this 9.5 Million is on top of the numerous National Monuments, and National Parks already in Utah. Utah is home to Zions, Canyon Lands, Bryce, Capital Reef and Arches National Parks as well as Cedar Breaks, Rainbow Bridge, Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, Timpanogos Cave, Dinosaur, Pipe Springs and Grand Staircase National Monuments.

While the ARRWA may have started in Utah it has become a bloated ridiculous all encompassing, uncompromising attempt to lock up vast stretches of land forever.  In fact none of the Utah House or Senate delegation supports the ARRWA.  But that has not kept Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-New York, chief sponsor of the Bill from continually reintroducing new versions year after year.  Mr. Hinchey represents a state that is roughly 30 million Acres.  Can you imagine how he would fight anyone proposing to take one third of his state and turn it into wilderness?   Frankly I don’t think Mr. Hinchey has any concept of the vast amount of land he is proposing in the ARRWA.  I seriously don’t think he cares since it is not his constituency that will be effected.  The people that vote for him simply have no idea what he is doing and the people that care cannot vote him out of office.

In America we have a problem with large numbers.  We talk about national deficits in the trillions but its such a large number we don’t really register what it means, a trillion here or there and everything after the decimal is simply ignored in polite conversation.

The 9.5 Million acres in the ARRWA is larger than many US States.  In fact it is basically the same size as New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island COMBINED.  9.5 Million looks like 9,500,000.

The entire state if Utah is 54.3 Million Acres.  The ARRWA would lock up 17.6% of the entire state and Utah is #11 in size of US states.  Its a really large state.  Locking up that much land in one shot is absurd.  There is huge contention over whether much of it even qualifies under the Wilderness act for consideration.

Please take the time to check out the bills, House and Senate here.
H.R.1925 – America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act of 2009

S.799 – America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act of 2009

It is time we put a stop to the absurdity.  We need to take a stand somewhere.  This particular Wilderness proposal is like nothing we have seen before and it lays the ground work for similar huge efforts in the future.

Check this list for your congress person.
http://www.suwa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=work_arwaCosponsors

They don’t want to hear from me, I can’t vote them out.  You can.

I urge you to contact your congress person and tell them “There is a difference between scratching your ass and tearing it all to hell”.

You can contact your state and federal elected representatives easily online at this website.  http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

By Shannon Bushman XXXoffroad.com the wandering loon who currently resides in the state of Utah.

Tags: ARRWA, Maurice Hinchey, Moab, Redrock Wilderness Act, Scott Groene, SUWA, Wayne Owens

Category: Random Thoughts