Steve Swan is on the Iowa ExCom and he asked me to forward this message.
Jane C.
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America's Redrock Wilderness

I recently had the opportunity to go to Washington, DC to participate in
Wilderness Week.
Wilderness supporters from all over the United States participated in a
massive lobbying effort
on behalf of two of the major wilderness projects of the American
environmental movement, the
coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and
America's Redrock Wilderness
in Utah.  During this week nearly every member of the House and Senate were
visited and
educated about the issues relating to these two critical wilderness areas.

Utah is in the unique position of still having millions of acres of land
that has managed to escape
development.  In fact a recent citizen's inventory involving thousands of
volunteer hours
cataloging the public lands of Utah has determined that there are over 9
million acres of public
lands that would qualify as wilderness under our current wilderness act.
This land ranges from
alpine tundra to pine forested mountains to juniper covered hills to stark
desert to the awesome
redrock formations and slot canyons that draw people from all over the
world.  There is probably
not a more colorful landscape anywhere on the planet.

One and a half million acres of this landscape has been granted a degree of
protection by
President Clinton's 1996 designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument.
Close to 85 percent of the monument consists of BLM wildlands.  Wilderness
designation is
crucial to protect the monument's natural qualities.  The monument
proclamation merely sets in
motion a process which may or may not protect wildlands.  Development
boosters already want
paved tourist roads throughout the monument.  Oil, gas, and coal leases
remain within the
monument, and Conoco Oil Co. is actively drilling its leasehold.

Outside of the monument, oil and gas drilling, off-road vehicle use, and
continued road building
threaten the character of America's Redrock Wilderness.  Will the new
citizens' inventory of
Utah BLM lands merely be a snapshot of an ever-dwindling wilderness
resource?  Or will it mark
a turning point in our treatment of this wild region?

Please write your representative and Senators in Washington and ask them to
protect America's
Redrock Wilderness.

Thanks,

Steve Swan, 3182 310 AV, Dickens, IA 51333, [log in to unmask]

Rep. Leonard Boswell, 1029 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC
20515
Rep. Greg Ganske, 1108 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC
20515
Rep. Tom Latham, 324 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Rep. James Leach, 2186 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Jim Nussel, 303 Canon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, 135 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC
20510
 Sen. Tom Harkin, 731 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC20510

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